Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB GDDR5 Graphic Card Review

Ahhh I was wondering when will I be able to review a Radeon HD4890 unit! The time is now!

The Appearance

Nothing out of the ordinary, the usual red colored PCB.

As you can see it’s using the reference cooling system, audible noise when RPM set to anything above 40% while at 100% it sounds almost like a hair-dryer.

The HD4890 requires 2 PCI-E power connector.

Just as the rest with the reference cooler, it occupies 2 slots.

Comes with dual-DVI and a video out.

The Bundle

– Driver CD
– Manual
– 2x 4-pin to PCI Express 6-pin power adapter
– DVI to VGA adapter
– DVI to HDMI adapter
– Component video adapter
– S-video adapter
– Crossfire cable (Yes! it comes with a crossfire cable!)

Card Details

Here’s a summarized detail of the card.

More details at the official product page

Test Setup

The computer setup used for this review.

Processor	Intel Coreâ„¢2 Duo E7200 @ 3.6ghz
RAM	Kingston HyperX 4GB Dual-channel Kit
Motherboard	Jetway X-Blue P45
Cooler	Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer Heatsink 92mm
Monitor	20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD
Power Supply	Gigabyte Odin GT 550w
Operating System	Windows Vista Home Basic 32bit
Driver Version	ATi Catalyst 9.4

The Performance

World In Conflict

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	35
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	28
ASUS EAH4870X2	36

Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	55.9
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	49.1
ASUS EAH4870X2	58.0

Lost Planet : Extreme Condition

Graphic Detail : Maximum at 1680 x 946

Card	Snow (Average)	Cave (Average)
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	64.6	60.6
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	49.6	59.6
ASUS EAH4870X2	102.5	55.4

Crysis

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	22.21
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	14.11
ASUS EAH4870X2	29.07

H.A.W.X.

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050, not using DX10.1 for mode.

Card	Average
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	52
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	42
ASUS EAH4870X2	N/A

Furmark

Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050

Card	Average
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	42
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	25
ASUS EAH4870X2	N/A

Operating Temperature

Furmark was used for graphic card stressing.

Card	Idle (°C)	Load (°C)	Stress (°C)
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	50	76	88

Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C.

– Load, Furmark was run for 1 minute at 1680×1050 with 4xAA.
– Stress, Furmark was run under the Stress Test mode for 5 minutes.

Power Consumption

Please note that the numbers below indicate the wattage for the entire system, not the graphic card alone.

System Power Consumption	Idle (w)	Load (w)
Gigabyte Radeon HD4890 1GB	90	266
ASUS EAH4850 TOP	73	239

Readings taken with Gigabyte’s P-Tuner software.

Conclusion

I don’t have any HD4870 with me so the HD4850 is the best I could compare it with now. Generally it’s a good card, it’s even comparable to the HD4870X2 in some cases.

What I like about this Gigabyte HD4890 is that it comes with 3 year warranty and a nice bundle of accessories. The 1GB unit retails at around RM 1,000 – that’s quite a fair bit to pay for the performance gained over the HD4850 which retails at around RM 600 while the HD4870’s retail price hovers in between the 2.

So if you intend something that’s more powerful yet unable to stretch your budget to the HD4870X2 and have no option to crossfire, do consider the HD4890.

*I’m sure many of you heard of the comparison between HD4770 in Crossfire and the HD4890 – I have the benchmarks and the article will be published within the week! 😀 Stay tuned!