HD4890 review at Xbitlabs

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:43 am

Link to review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... d4890.html

Post by **CA_Steve** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:22 am

Nice. I wonder why it doesn't downclock the memory when idling/in 2D? Seems like they could drop the power another 10W.

maf718 · Post by **maf718** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:22 pm

The memory doesn't downclock because when the clockspeed of GDDR5 is changed it causes the screen to flicker momentarily, something that doesn't seem to affect GDDR3 etc. I guess they would get lots of people complaining about "faulty" cards.

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:30 pm

Hmm... that does look like a great card. Gives the GTX285 a good run for its money (and power efficiency).

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:42 am

Anandtech review the HD4890 against the "new" GTX275. Performance slightly favoured the ATI card. The ATI card was less power hungry at load but the Nvidia card was 20-30w better at idle. In my opinion that's fairly significant, although any cooling that can cope with the load output reasonably quietly is going to be quiet at idle in either case.
Seb

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:33 am

When it comes to stock cooling of 4890, it looks like AMD may adjust fan control mechanism, temp at load drops a great deal compared to stock cooling of 4870 based on 6 reviews that I've read, yet I doubt AMD may sacrifice acoustics for lower load temp like 69'c.

Though 4890's load noise may be louder than 4870's, I prefer lower load temps anyway. I don't mind possible louder noise at load while gaming, and 4890 seems to be still very quiet at idle â€” key point to most people.

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:29 am

[quote=XbitLabs]Well, this guide must be intended for deaf computer enthusiasts because if you follow the advice, the card sets the record of producing the highest noise weâ€™ve ever heard in our tests. Over 64dBA at a distance of 1 meter from the system case is too much to be near the computer for a long time unless you wear protective earpieces.

We donâ€™t think anyone will use the guideâ€™s recommendation and so we ignored it in our overclockability test. We tested the Radeon HD 4890 with its fan management system set to automatic mode. Despite this, we achieved an impressive result on our first attempt.[/quote]

Sounds like the fan is capable of producing ridiculous noise, but that it doesn't actually need to spin so fast to get decent temps.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:15 am

I doubt the stock 4890 is going to be SPCR quiet even in 2D.
My HIS 4850 had a much better cooler than the old stock of the 4850.
And still it wasn't SPCR-quiet, until I put the S1 and Turbo module on it.
Now with 700 rpm I am at 39C in 2D and with 1,000 rpm at 56C in Furmark torture test.
Silent in 2D, except some faint motor / bearing noise and quiet when gaming, much cooler than stock.

Ant6n · Post by **Ant6n** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:17 pm

120W in load seems kinda low. Maybe they should try a newer benchmark for that, i.e. furmark. Would be interesting to know the actual maximum power consumption.

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:45 pm

Ant6n wrote:120W in load seems kinda low. Maybe they should try a newer benchmark for that, i.e. furmark. Would be interesting to know the actual maximum power consumption.

Kind of - for me ATI Tool is the most relevant since it's roughly equal to what the games I play max out at as well as what the most intensive Folding WU's max out around. I've literally never found anything real-world that can come close to the load that Furmark generates. Like anything with computers, there's no single benchmark that is the only one that matters, it's good to have several so you can compare against what is the most likely usage in your own installation.

yensteel · Post by **yensteel** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:22 am

According to the reviews that I've read, most of them showed that the GTX 275 is faster than the 4890 on average.

The high power consumption, worries me. It shows that this card will generate a lot more heat than the 4890.

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:05 pm

yensteel wrote:According to the reviews that I've read, most of them showed that the GTX 275 is faster than the 4890 on average.

The high power consumption, worries me. It shows that this card will generate a lot more heat than the 4890.

From what I've been reading, that often comes down to if they overclocked the ATI card or not. For the first time in a while, ATI is shipping cards that appear to be able to O/C well over the stock clockrate. I've seen reviews averaging 970 - 1000mhz for their overclocks, which is 14-17% overclock from the stock 850mhz or so, and in two of the reviews I read, they said it really did make a difference in playability. Often, O/C'ing a video card might get you a little more framerate, but not enough to make a difference in playability. With this card, it does appear to make a difference. Since enthusiasts who buy $250 video cards are generally savvy enough to know how to overclock, that plays a role in the results to a certain degree. The GTX 275 already runs 1404mhz on the shaders, which seems to generally be closer to the O/C limit for this line of cards.

Any way you slice it, the two cards are very close in performance, and with ATI being cheaper, it doesn't matter if it's only faster in 30-40% of games, it's faster in some and from what I've seen, still within 5-10% on the games where it's slower anyway. This competition between the two companies is a good thing for consumers!

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:25 pm

As for GTX275, I found two interesting things across the reviews compared to nVIDIA past products. At first, the load temp, 90'c, of GTX275 is a lot higher than GTX260/GTX280/GTX285 in my experience. Second, the power consumption figures is weird to say the least - some reviews say GTX275 system draw more power than GTX285 system! while some note lower than GTX285. I wonder the reasons.

The performance of two cards is fine, and I predict 4890 or GTX275 would undercut GTX285 severely.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:37 am

Ati has an edge since Ati makes hard launch while nVidia makes paper launch. HD 4890 hasss gotten pretty good reviews and things I read from Muropaketti review did impress me by temperatures and especially on power usage.

GTS275 will be a tough challenger, but HD 4890 is not push over and couple of weeks caÂ´n make difference in sales, when peoples just keep looking positive things about HD 4890, its great performance etc nVidia will have tough thing with GTS 275 defeat Ati, unless GTS 275 is significantly faster, what it doesn't seem to be. So I do think Ati has slight edge, even nVidia is finally getting its act together since last years catastrophical underestimation of Ati.