XFX 4890 Black Edition v Zotac GTX285 Infinity review. 19th Jun 2009

[Final8ty]

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=797

[dan7777]

nice review man 4890 for performance and price clearly comes out on top

[MomijiTMO]

Yeah surprising that ATI could do that. I'm more impressed by the performance of the BE clocks over the stock clocks. Gee I never thought I would want to oc my gpus but the gains are sizable.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

I've been trying to tell people for ages that ATI rv7xx Mhz > Nv gt2xx Mhz as far as performance goes but everyone always said to me that I am just a fanboy

[Smartidiot89]

Well honestly I knew the performance of HD4890 @ 1GHz was great, but this is just insane...

Considering a game like Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is included this is a very cheap card in evey possible way.

[zanzabar]

Yeah surprising that ATI could do that. I'm more impressed by the performance of the BE clocks over the stock clocks. Gee I never thought I would want to oc my gpus but the gains are sizable.

so u get 20% more clock speed and more than enough ram bandwidth what did u think would happen. if u oc anything by 20% and remove its choke point it will get sizable gains

[randomizer]

Not sure the performance is worth the noise though. AMD needs to put a nice quiet cooler on their cards for once.

[MomijiTMO]

I just didn't expect to see 13fps increase in Crysis Warhead [at their settings and res]. We've seen oced cards before and usually the gains were what? 5fps?

[Leeghoofd]

I only see some games that favour ATI and some that favour Nvidia, like it always has been. Price/performance ratio the ATI is a magnificent piece of hardware !

To be honest this Zotac Infinity is a turn down (prolly not enough GPU core) as the BFG cards clock far better with their watercooling block (750GPU, 1450 rams and 1700 shaders are a no brainer with them cards) Also the differenes between the Atomic and the BE seem a big steep to me... for the same GPU clocks... and lesser ram clocks...

[randomizer]

I just didn't expect to see 13fps increase in Crysis Warhead [at their settings and res]. We've seen oced cards before and usually the gains were what? 5fps?

That's max FPS, for all we know it could have spiked to that for a second or two. The min moves up by 3FPS and the average by 4FPS. A shame that the game is FLOPtomised so much for NVIDIA hardware that the 275 still beats it.

[Smartidiot89]

Not sure the performance is worth the noise though. AMD needs to put a nice quiet cooler on their cards for once.

There are tons of HD4890 1GB with a 1GHz clock that doesn't follow referens design so what are you on about?

[zanzabar]

Not sure the performance is worth the noise though. AMD needs to put a nice quiet cooler on their cards for once.

the BE has a 4 heat pipe cooler with the normal fan so its not any louder than the 280 or 4870 were and u can get some 3rd party cooler and card for less than the 285.

[randomizer]

There are tons of HD4890 1GB with a 1GHz clock that doesn't follow referens design so what are you on about?

AMD doesn't make those. AMD needs to design a quiet reference cooler so that the cheaper cards are also quiet. I don't want to pay more for an aftermarket cooler just to protect my ears.

[zanzabar]

AMD doesn't make those. AMD needs to design a quiet reference cooler so that the cheaper cards are also quiet. I don't want to pay more for an aftermarket cooler just to protect my ears.

at least the caps dont whine, u can fix the ati cards. and most of it IMO is the variable speed so it gets way to hot since the minimum is to low so then it toggles back and forth from fan settings that it shouldent be using since its running way to high the to low and oscillating, if they changed is so if over 40 change speed then if under 37 change so its not in the .1 degree that it wont stay at and so that it will run at a high rpm so it can almost shut off like u can do with manual settings. or set it to keep higher fan speeds for 30 sec or something

[Smartidiot89]

AMD doesn't make those. AMD needs to design a quiet reference cooler so that the cheaper cards are also quiet. I don't want to pay more for an aftermarket cooler just to protect my ears.

The reference designs aren't noisy I have no idea where you got that from. Just use the fancontroller to decrease it.

The GPU might become abit hotter but it's designed for 90-100C under fulload 24/7 so that's not an issue considering all the hot air is being shoved out in the back.

[randomizer]

Well "noisy" is subjective. Plus I'm used to no noise coming from my card, which is nice since the previous card I owned could be heard across the house (I certainly don't want that again and I know the 4890 isn't that loud).

[MomijiTMO]

60% fan speed it's comparable to a Scythe 3000 UK.

[grimREEFER]

the video section of the review doesnt make too much sense.
sure, there is cuda for coreavc, but even better is just plain dxva with media player classic home cinema.
and he says mkv when he means h264. to play an mkv, you only need haali media splitter, you dont need coreavc.
to decode h264, you can use alot of things.

[Lu(ky]

Anyone know where you can pickup a XFX 4890 Black Edition in the US yet?

[K404]

Top-end Vs top-end is technically fair but a watercooled card Vs a stock air cooler is a bit random all the same.

The noise and value for money conclusions get skewed.

[kgk]

Not sure the performance is worth the noise though. AMD needs to put a nice quiet cooler on their cards for once.

Then don't buy the OC'd cards with the stock coolers. The ones with the same clocks and aftermarket coolers are like $10 more, and run cooler/quieter, allowing you to squeeze even more out it.

AMD doesn't make those. AMD needs to design a quiet reference cooler so that the cheaper cards are also quiet. I don't want to pay more for an aftermarket cooler just to protect my ears.

What? The price difference to get the cards with aftermarket coolers out of the box is pocket change.

Even with the stock coolers you can set the fan speed to a set figure so that it's the same volume as any other card. The ATI chips are designed to run at higher temps anyways. ATI themselves said it.

[kgk]

Top-end Vs top-end is technically fair but a watercooled card Vs a stock air cooler is a bit random all the same.

The noise and value for money conclusions get skewed.

It's showing how much you have to spend on a single GPU Nvidia setup to equal the performance of the OC'd 4890. Plus the watercooled 285 is clocked higher from the factory than the overclocked air versions (including the ones with aftermarket heatpipes), so if the comparison had been against the air cooled Nvidia offering it would have fared even worse.

I can see where noise might be a pointless comparison since one is silent on water though.

[WaterFlex]

Where I can buy XFX 4890 BE in Russia ?

[Chickenfeed]

Well "noisy" is subjective. Plus I'm used to no noise coming from my card, which is nice since the previous card I owned could be heard across the house (I certainly don't want that again and I know the 4890 isn't that loud).

Well for what it's worth, the 4890 is the loudest card over the last 2 years. ( I've tested / ran the majority of ATI/Nvidia stock solutions ) I already find the 295 to be too loud personally ( although they are a tad quieter than the 4870x2 ) so anything (considerably) beyond that is just a tad fail in my eyes. Again its totally subjective but to say it isn't loud comparatively would be a lie. Now all my comments on noise are based on default fan profiles so yes although its possible to force your card to not exceed a certain speed threshold, its usually not wise ( and if you are able to, you probaley have alot of airflow to compensate which in itself will already be fairly loud )

Noise aside, I'm quite impressed with the 4890s. I'm seeing a few for close to $200 cnd on sale without a rebate so thats pretty sweet performance wise. ( 285s still push $350-400 ) I've been content enough with my 8800gt however over the last while ( even if I'm running most things at 1280x800 )

[generics_user]

the 4890 BE is a great card but the sapphire 1ghz card is a better choice IMO

it makes use of the reference pcb just like the XFX one so alot of aftermarket watercoolers are available and a much better stock cooler (those vapor-x coolers are great!)