Radeon HD 4890 1GB Reviews

[Heinz68]

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB reviews are starting to come in maybe we should keep them in one thread.

From what i did read the HD 4890 is about 10-20% faster than the HD 4870 1GB at stock speeds with beta drivers plus it looks like the HD 4890 is going to be OC beast.

HardwareCanucks (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/16365-sapphire-radeon-hd-4890-1gb-review.html)
TheGuru of 3D (http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4890-review-test/)
HardOcp (http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYzNiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==)(Fir st posted by JH24)
OverclockersClub (http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_hd4890/)
Neoseeker (http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ATIHD4890launch/)
Tom'sHardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4890,2262.html)
PCgameshardware (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,680543/Review-Ati-Radeon-HD-4890-versus-Nvidia-Geforce-GTX-275/Reviews/)
X-bit labs (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/radeon-hd4890.html)
TrustedReviews (http://www.trustedreviews.com/graphics/review/2009/04/02/AMD-ATI-Radeon-HD-4890/p1)
TechRadar (http://www.techradar.com/reviews/computing/components/graphics-cards/ati-radeon-4890-589162/review)
ComputerShopper (http://computershopper.com/graphics-cards/reviews/asus-eah4890)
Phoronix (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_radeon_hd4890&num=1)
HardwareZone (http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=2849&cid=3&pg=9)
HotHardware (http://hothardware.com/articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-4890-RV790-Unveiled/)
BenchmarkReviews (http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=315&Itemid=72)
Bjorn3D (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=Asus+HD+4890+Voltage+Tweak+Edition&btnG=Search&meta=)
ClubOC (http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/video/sapphire/hd4890_1GB/p1.asp)
OC3D (http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/gpu_displays/asus_eah_4890_1gb_ddr5_pcie_graphics_card/1)
AMDZone (http://www.amdzone.com/index.php/reviews/video-cards/11372-ati-radeon-4890-1gb)

[Blacklash]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=684

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4890_nvidia_geforce_gtx_275/

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=745

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2344294,00.asp

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/944/1/

http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-4890-RV790-Unveiled/

[Heinz68]

The Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=4890&bop=And&Order=PRICE)is selling the cards at $249.99, not bad for introduction day prices.
If I was buying one I probably would pay the $10.00 extra for the ASUS card with the "Voltage Tweak Technology Extreme Engine"

Blacklash, thanks for the review links.

[JH24]

The HD4890 is an impressive new card, and the GTX 275 is very good too. I was surprised regarding the Anandtech review about Nvidia's somewhat agressive marketing tecniques.


AMD improved a lot lately, to see its card perform extremely well in Crysis for example is something I never expected in the past.


The HD4890 overclocking is impressive too, as it definitely gives real-world advantages.



They are both awesome cards, but personally I have a more positive feeling with the HD4890.

[hell_of_doom227]

Bring DX11 hardware.

[Bman212121]

Bring DX11 hardware.

QFT.

[HYBRID]

The Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=4890&bop=And&Order=PRICE)is selling the cards at $249.99, not bad for introduction day prices.
If I was buying one I probably would pay the $10.00 extra for the ASUS card with the "Voltage Tweak Technology Extreme Engine"

Blacklash, thanks for the review links.



What exactly does this Voltage Tweak Technology Extreme Engine do?

[Heinz68]

What exactly does this Voltage Tweak Technology Extreme Engine do?
It allows to increase the core voltage for higher OC. Usually a third party software or hardware modding is needed for that. With the Asus Voltage Tweak this can be done with simple mouse click.
Here are more details from Bjorn3D review (http://www.************/read_pf.php?cID=1537) of the ASUS HD 4890

EDIT
Sorry I just noticed this forum doesn't allow direct link to Bjorn3D must be something in the URL. The mods should check it out, I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the site.

Anyway here is a Google LINK. (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=Asus+HD+4890+Voltage+Tweak+Edition&btnG=Search&meta=)

[mtl]

While there are a few faults with the GTX 275, they don’t stop it from being one hell of a card. It simply smokes the HD 4890 in the majority of the high resolution tests we conducted which means that we could finally have a sub-$300 card on our hands that can give playable framerates on 30" monitors. That in itself is an achievement. Indeed,, if this card does fall into the $250USD price bracket it will simply be the best bang for your buck available.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/16400-nvidia-geforce-gtx-275-896mb-review-22.html

competition is great!

[Heinz68]

The trolls are coming.

I'm sorry to say but this is HD 4970 review thread. I'm sure there are going to be plenty off GTX 275 card reviews when it hits the market.

[LordJuanlo]

Another interesting review from TechPowerUp (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/HD_4890_CrossFire/1.html), they test two 4890s in CrossFireX and they provide very good numbers, a couple of 4890s not only outperform the 4870x2 (no surprise here), but also the GTX 295 in almost every game tested, specially with high levels of AA and AF.

[Mr_LoL]

Who make better drivers? That will influence my purchasing decision.

[JH24]

While there are a few faults with the GTX 275, they don’t stop it from being one hell of a card. It simply smokes the HD 4890 in the majority of the high resolution tests we conducted which means that we could finally have a sub-$300 card on our hands that can give playable framerates on 30" monitors. That in itself is an achievement. Indeed,, if this card does fall into the $250USD price bracket it will simply be the best bang for your buck available.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/16400-nvidia-geforce-gtx-275-896mb-review-22.html

competition is great!


Very interesting, the GTX 275 seems even stronger than I thought. Much will depend now on the pricing. If the GTX 275 is priced very well I can see AMD adjusting their prices accordingly if needed. Both Nvidia's and AMD's drivers might improve too over time.


Anyway, this is great news for the consumers. Nice to see Nvidia and AMD doing well with their products. It's a bit funny though how Nvidia now has to fall back on a paper launch. They have a lot to gain by convincing potential buyers that it's worth to wait a little longer instead of buying the HD4890.

[Sazar]

Who make better drivers? That will influence my purchasing decision.

Depends on your definition of better.

My AMD card works. It's drivers are supposed to be broken in some games, but I haven't experienced that yet.

My Nvidia card also works, and I haven't heard as many stories of broken drivers in games because I have not experienced any issues with that either.

What I have noticed and experienced is a BSOD every now and then with my Nvidia drivers under Vista. I have never experienced a video card related BSOD under Vista with my AMD drivers. Again, it may just be my system.

In summary, in my personal experience, both sets of drivers are just as good as the other. The only "issue" I have experienced is with unexplainable bsods, but it's not a show-stopper.

[Ninja Prime]

While there are a few faults with the GTX 275, they don’t stop it from being one hell of a card. It simply smokes the HD 4890 in the majority of the high resolution tests we conducted which means that we could finally have a sub-$300 card on our hands that can give playable framerates on 30" monitors. That in itself is an achievement. Indeed,, if this card does fall into the $250USD price bracket it will simply be the best bang for your buck available.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/16400-nvidia-geforce-gtx-275-896mb-review-22.html

competition is great!

I'm not sure what you're smoking but the majority of test the 4890 wins, unless you are just looking at peak frames?

[Ninja Prime]

Depends on your definition of better.

My AMD card works. It's drivers are supposed to be broken in some games, but I haven't experienced that yet.

My Nvidia card also works, and I haven't heard as many stories of broken drivers in games because I have not experienced any issues with that either.

What I have noticed and experienced is a BSOD every now and then with my Nvidia drivers under Vista. I have never experienced a video card related BSOD under Vista with my AMD drivers. Again, it may just be my system.

In summary, in my personal experience, both sets of drivers are just as good as the other. The only "issue" I have experienced is with unexplainable bsods, but it's not a show-stopper.

I had the same problem with both my 8800GTX and my 280 GTX, frustrated me to no end. Have yet to have even one BSOD with this 4870x2. I'd be leery of going back to a NV card until I hear of a real, 100% fix for it.

[Tho Jo Smale]

Yeah it looks like the 4890 is doing very well......there are some rumors about insane overclocking on these cards as well.

In some of the reviews......it's trading blows with the 285 instead of the 275....which is impressive. Honestly there is so little difference in the 275/285 levels of performance it appears nV has decided to market against themselves.


Good news for everyone all around.....fast card from Ati....fast card from Nv....

Whoever is the first to get one of those 4890 beasts......please keep us informed...

[Ninja Prime]

Yeah it looks like the 4890 is doing very well......there are some rumors about insane overclocking on these cards as well.

In some of the reviews......it's trading blows with the 285 instead of the 275....which is impressive. Honestly there is so little difference in the 275/285 levels of performance it appears nV has decided to market against themselves.


Good news for everyone all around.....fast card from Ati....fast card from Nv....

Whoever is the first to get one of those 4890 beasts......please keep us informed...

[H] got 1ghz out of it, not too shabby. If they come out with a x2 version I might be tempted to get it rather than wait for next round.

[Kain]

Sorry, but I've been out of the loop for awhile. Is this the best card from ATI? If so, then there is no competition for NVIDIA's best, which is the GeForce GTX 295? If you want the best performance regardless of the price, would you go with NVIDIA's best over ATI?

[Blacklash]

Who make better drivers? That will influence my purchasing decision.

In my personal experience with multi-gpu that would be nVidia. I've owned some form of Crossfire since X1900XTs first hit. I currently have HD 4850 1Gb Crossfire in my secondary rig. Using any driver newer than 8.10 I lose the option to enable Crossfire in the CCC and there's nothing I can do about it. I've tried Vista 32 bit, Vista 64 bit, and XP. I get the same results with all of them. I did contact AMD and Gigabyte. I've been ignored.

This means Crossfire will function fine in older games for me and will most likely not for newer games. I'll need to disable it, or try tricks like renaming the exe to get it to function. That's hit and miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

If you're talking single GPU buy the card that plays the games you play most often best.

I still say manually overclocked GTX 260 Core 216 SLi is one of the best options out for 1920x, and even often 2560x if you stick to 4x AA. Single GTX 260s Core 216s without rebate are just below 180usd right now. Example-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143155

The GTX 275 and HD 4890 do look like good cards though.

[nekrosoft13]

Who make better drivers? That will influence my purchasing decision.

in my opinion nvidia.

main reason would be profiles, and easy access to them

[mtl]

I'm not sure what you're smoking but the majority of test the 4890 wins, unless you are just looking at peak frames?

As usual, certain people can't debate without namecalling. Typically pathetic. Reminds me of some political races.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-4890-RV790-Unveiled/?page=10

More reviews
Performance Summary: Summarizing the performance of the ATI Radeon HD 4890, the Radeon HD 4890 is faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall, but it didn't quite keep pace with the just announced GeForce GTX 275.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=17863&page=21

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=745&pageid=18
It is clear from the performance figures achieved by the GTX 275 that it is a very desirable product. Throughout our testing the card was often leading the pack and regularly produced higher minimum framerates than the competition.


The verdict

Back on track, which would we choose if given £200-£225 right now? We'd give the nod, just, to the GeForce GTX 275, because it matches the Radeon HD 4890s on price and performance, is a little quieter, draws a touch less power when idling, and is backed up by more-robust GPGPU environment.

Obviously there is room for disagreement on which card, but the benefits of competition are clear.

[Tho Jo Smale]

Obviously there is room for disagreement on which card, but the benefits of competition are clear.


Best sentence in the entire other graphics cards forum.....in a long damn time....

[rflair]

Bought one, runs 950/1100 stable in ATItool, actually 960/1125 and 970/1150 in everything else I tested. I run it at 950/1100. Its nice.

[Rollo]

The trolls are coming.



The HD4890 looks like a nice card at a great price. :)