ATI Radeon HD 4890 in Graphics cards
Verdict
ATI does it again with its latest GPU, combining superb performance with a reasonable price
Review Date: 1 Apr 2009
Price when reviewed: £199 (£229 inc VAT)
Buy it now for: £146.05
Overall Rating

Features & Design

Value for Money

Performance


Despite its recent successes, ATI hasn't been resting on its laurels. Instead, the AMD-owned firm has released the Radeon HD 4890, a card that promises to be even more powerful than our A List favourite, the HD 4870.
It's still built on a 55nm die, but the core clock speed now stands at 850MHz - 100MHz up on the HD 4870's 750MHz - with the memory clock rising from 900MHz to 975MHz. That memory is GDDR5 and a 1GB frame buffer alongside the GPU's 1.36 TFLOPs computational performance should stand the card in good stead.
In our medium- and high-quality Crysis tests, the HD 4890 averaged 74fps and 47fps respectively, compared to 63fps and 39fps from the older card. But Nvidia's cheaper GeForce GTX 260 core 216 scored a similar 74fps and 43fps.
It's at very high-quality settings, though, where the HD 4890 flexes its muscles. It managed 29fps; just a single frame slower than the dual-GPU Radeon HD 4850 X2, and quicker than almost every Nvidia product we've reviewed. The HD 4890 was just one frame slower than the expensive GeForce GTX 285, and was beaten comprehensively only by the GeForce GTX 295 - a card costing £150 more.
Other tests proved just as conclusive. The HD 4890 managed 46fps in our high-quality Call of Juarez benchmark, compared to 40fps from the HD 4870. Again, only the top-end GeForce GTX 295 bettered it, running 10fps quicker. In fact, Far Cry 2 was the only game that broke this trend. While the HD 4890 ran our high-quality test at 73fps, the GeForce GTX 260 core 216 managed 79fps, with the GTX 295 again proving quicker. A result of 55fps with very high settings is far from unacceptable, though.
Considering the value on offer - cards look set to start at just £199 exc VAT - things look good for the HD 4890. With the only Nvidia-based cards capable of besting it costing upwards of £270, it's clear that, unless you demand ludicrous frame rates, ATI has successfully balanced price and performance once again.
Author: Mike Jennings
Latest Prices for Radeon HD 4890
| Seller | Price | Buy Now | Seller Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
£146.05 | Shop |
46 reviews |
![]() |
£146.47 | Shop |
77 reviews |
![]() |
£159.99 | Shop |
3019 reviews |
advertisement
- Controversial Michelle Obama picture vanishes from Google
- Kindle update brings native PDF support
- Lenovo launches first ever ThinkCentre all-in-one PC
- Average mobile broadband speed only 0.87Mbits/sec
- iPhone hitting Tesco in time for Christmas
- Gmail adds offline attachments
- Mobile data surges up by 16% in October
- OFT: Google isn't harming consumers
- £90 million buys South Yorkshire 25Mbits/sec broadband
- Twitter ready to splash out... and run ads
- Need a bit of extra Christmas cash? Grass up your boss, says BSA
- Photoshop Mobile on Android review: first look
- ATI Radeon HD 5970: 42% more expensive in the UK
- Office 2010 Beta – 32-bit or 64-bit – The Choice is Clear
- Why Britain's watchdogs have fewer teeth than goldfish
- Tabbed documents: how to make Office 2010 great
- Outlook 2010 People Pane – does it spell death to Xobni
- Microsoft Outlook 2010 screenshots
- Co-Authoring in Word 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010
- Microsoft Outlook 2010 screenshots: Backstage view
- 50 ways to work faster
- The sci-fi legends who shaped today's tech
- Conficker's first birthday: how a year of havoc unfolded
- When will you get superfast broadband?
- The Crapware Con
- The 10 greatest tech U-turns
- Windows 7: everything you need to know
- PC 2010 and beyond
- The High Street Rip Off
- How to avoid the high-street rip-offs
- Getting to grips with Microsoft's IT Health Environment Scanner
- Virtualise your servers
- The changing face of travel gadgets
- Build your own distributed file system
- The bulletproof Dell that costs an arm and a leg
- Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview: Q&A
- Lawnmowers, the TyTN II and one odd insurance request
- There'll never be a bulletproof OS
- How far can we trust apps?
- Five nice touches in Outlook 2010
advertisement
Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk





