4890 vrm

[Burninator]

are the vrm's on all 4890's made by volterra?

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

all reference cards are volterra PWM, show me a link the card you are buying and I will tell you whether it is ref or not :)

[Burninator]

been planning on this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127427
but i may end up going with the xfx model: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359

[zanzabar]

those are both voltera

[nafets]

Snipe would say that they are both reference PCBs with Volterra VRM chips.

I just picked up that very MSI HD4890 and it works flawlessly. Great card and a fantastic price.

The only reason to get the XFX is if you need the warranty. I don't think it's worth the $30 price difference though. Maybe if you commonly have problems with video cards, it could be worth the look. It's up to you.

[Burninator]

sweet, thanks for the help.
ya, i dont think the $30 is worth it either. a 1 year warranty is plenty for me. should be ordering it this week :)

another quick question... how common is it for 4890's to hit 1ghz core?

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

with a little voltage tweaking it is guaranteed 1ghz, most will go 950mhz on stock volts

[Burninator]

nice, i cant wait till it gets here :)

[XRogerX]

i have those in CF and i come close to 950 but i start getting artifacts @ 940

right now im getting 935/1030 and these are the Sapphire ones

[Burninator]

^ on stock volts?

hmmm. i've been thinking about the warranty and 2 years sounds pretty good actually... lol... is HIS a good manufacturer? they offer a 2 year warranty on their card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161276

[XRogerX]

^ on stock volts?

hmmm. i've been thinking about the warranty and 2 years sounds pretty good actually... lol... is HIS a good manufacturer? they offer a 2 year warranty on their card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161276

yes Burninator this is on stock volts on the cards

this is the card i have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

HIS is a good card AIB :up: have always had great luck with them

[Burninator]

cool, thanks. just to make sure... that board is reference no?

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

yes it is ref fo sho :D

[Burninator]

yay. lol. can't wait till it gets here :D

[Burninator]

ordered it :) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359

[Burninator]

so i guess newegg hasnt updated their catalog and xfx has changed the PCB of that board... so the one i received was not reference... sent it to be returned today... lol. ill be getting the Sapphire one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830

[Machinus]

Snipe would say that they are both reference PCBs with Volterra VRM chips.

I just picked up that very MSI HD4890 and it works flawlessly. Great card and a fantastic price.

The only reason to get the XFX is if you need the warranty. I don't think it's worth the $30 price difference though. Maybe if you commonly have problems with video cards, it could be worth the look. It's up to you.

Is MSI the best build of this card you think?

[trakslacker]

Quick bit of info for those looking to order a card - I picked up the base XFX 4890 Standard from Newegg (lifetime warranty that covers ANYTHING but my physically damaging it FTW!) and fired it up last night. The memory was clocked as I expected but to my surprise the core booted up with a reference clock of 900Mhz. A quick bit of stability testing with Furmark showed core was totally stable and artifact free up to 960 Mhz, was stable but with small black artfacts at 990 Mhz, all at stock voltage. Mem was stable and artifact free up to 1180Mhz, unstable anything above that. With a volt bump using GPUTool from stock 1.3175 to 1.375 core ran rock solid and artifact free through 3DM06 and a little while of Furmark. Mem was at 1180 the whole time. I'm sure it can go higher stably with these volts, but Overdrive maxed out @ 1Ghz. Will use Rivatuner tonight to see how far it can actually go.

[nafets]

so i guess newegg hasnt updated their catalog and xfx has changed the PCB of that board... so the one i received was not reference... sent it to be returned today... lol. ill be getting the Sapphire one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830

How was it not a reference PCB? I have yet to see anything different from XFX, other than their "Black" HD4890 card with the 6+8Pin PCI-E connectors. You likely sent back a perfectly fine card...


Is MSI the best build of this card you think?

It's built no different than any other vanilla reference HD4890. It's just the price that is/was very good.

[Burninator]

how? it just wasnt... the cooler had a slightly diff design with no cooling on the vregs and the card had an extra row of caps. it worked perfectly fine, i just couldnt adjust the voltage b/c their vregs werent by volterra...

[Altspacen]

with a little voltage tweaking it is guaranteed 1ghz, most will go 950mhz on stock volts

Except mine... :(

Damn these XFX cards, I really hope that the 6+8 pin revised cards help some.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Except mine... :(

Damn these XFX cards, I really hope that the 6+8 pin revised cards help some.

one thing I learned after buying 2 x 4870 512mb's is NEVER buy cards right at release because the nicer cards always trail ~1 month

[Altspacen]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=231710

Thats my current setting...
And on the plus side I found a setting for Furmark that doesn't destroy the VRM's!

[road-runner]

I got 4 HIS cards, 2 will do just a little over 1000, the other 2 one will do 980 and the other 990. I guess I need better cooling so I can push it...

[nafets]

how? it just wasnt... the cooler had a slightly diff design with no cooling on the vregs and the card had an extra row of caps. it worked perfectly fine, i just couldnt adjust the voltage b/c their vregs werent by volterra...

Yeah, I just recently read about others with the new XFX HD4890 (ZDFC) model that you unfortunately got. No digital Volterra VRMs and a cheaper heatsink/blower fan unit. Too bad XFX is cheapening out on the base models already. They should really have another model designation, so buyers know what they're getting. Now you have cross your fingers that you get what you want, or just avoid that specific XFX model altogether. :(

[Burninator]

what i probably should have done was just gotten a replacement of the same card and hoped i got the reference one... :( having an xfx card sure would have been nice. oh, and, my sapphire card squeals SO LOUD :( hope its just my psu (cheap 500W) and will go away when i upgade...

[Burninator]

it seems i just cannot get a good card.... i returned the sapphire card, it went out of stock by the time Newegg got it back, so i was refunded. I then ordered an XFX 4890 (xtreme edition). So it gets here today, i plug it in, start up crysis, and the card starts buzzing/squealing HORRENDOUSLY :(. im sure it's not the psu now though, just recently upgraded to a tx750. so im going to try and let the card 'break in' for a few days and if the noise continues im going to RMA yet again....

[Altspacen]

I just got another xfx4890 and low and behold, not ref design either. Time to find me another one from somewhere. Can't fit my waterblock on it.

[Burninator]

was it the ZDFC model? ive heard that those were the models that were being changed... could be wrong though

[Splave]

1xHis does 1000 easy=ref
1xPC PCS+ 1000 easy=non ref
2xPC cheapies 950 (max ccc)=non ref - same pcb as the pcs+ but weaker cooling

[largon]

what i probably should have done was just gotten a replacement of the same card and hoped i got the reference one... :( having an xfx card sure would have been nice. oh, and, my sapphire card squeals SO LOUD :( hope its just my psu (cheap 500W) and will go away when i upgade...
it seems i just cannot get a good card.... i returned the sapphire card, it went out of stock by the time Newegg got it back, so i was refunded. I then ordered an XFX 4890 (xtreme edition). So it gets here today, i plug it in, start up crysis, and the card starts buzzing/squealing HORRENDOUSLY :(. im sure it's not the psu now though, just recently upgraded to a tx750. so im going to try and let the card 'break in' for a few days and if the noise continues im going to RMA yet again....Where in the spec does it say the card should not squeal?
Squealing is a side-effect of high power multichannel buck voltage regulating circuits.

You need a low-end card to avoid it.

[wez]

Where in the spec does it say the card should not squeal?
Squealing is a side-effect of high power multichannel buck voltage regulating circuits.

You need a low-end card to avoid it.


Indeed, I've had squealing cards as long as I can remember. From both ati and nv.

[Burninator]

i know all cards squeal to some degree... but the volume of the squealing coming from my XFX card is ridiculous. its louder than the 8 fans i have, and I can still hear it while gaming. and its not really a squeal, more of a grinding sound, which is why im replacing it.

edit: and it just crashed while i was playing crysis... sending it back monday

[playground]

Is this ref card?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD-4890-OC-PCI-E-20(x16)-3900MHz-GDDR5-GPU-870MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP