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Review: Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 OC Edition 1024MB: the fastest yet

by Tarinder Sandhu on 6 April 2009, 08:54 3.2

Tags: Radeon HD 4890 OC+ (Sapphire), Sapphire

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qarp3

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System setup and notes

    
Graphics cards BFG GeForce GTX 285 1,024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
896MB
BFG GeForce GTX 260 
896MB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 OC Edition 1,024MB XFX Radeon HD 4890 OC 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 XT 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2,048MB
Current pricing, including VAT £299
£199+ £160 £245 (estimated) £240+  £210+ 
£165 £260
Shader model 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1
Stream processors 240 240 216 800 800 800 800 1600
GPU clock speed (MHz) 648 633 576 901 900 850 750 625
Shader clock speed (MHz) 1,476 1,404 1,242 901 900 850 750 625
Memory clock speed (MHz) 2,484 2,268 1,998 4,000 3,900 3,900 3,600 1,986
Memory bus width (bits) 512 448 448 256 256 256 256 512
CPU Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1,366)
Motherboard Foxconn Bloodrage X58
Motherboard BIOS P04
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.0.1012
Memory 6GB Corsair DOMINATOR PC12,800
Memory timings and speed 9-9-9-24 1T @ DDR3-1,333
PSU Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1,000W
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px
Disk drive(s) Seagate 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (3Gb/s mode)
Graphics driver ForceWare 182.06 ForceWare beta 185.63 ForceWare 182.06  Catalyst 9.4 beta? Catalyst 9.4 beta? Catalyst 9.4 beta? Catalyst 9.3 Catalyst 9.3
Operating system Windows Vista Business SP1, 64-bit

Software

3D Benchmarks Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark: DX9 - very high quality
Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX10 - very high quality
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality
Far Cry 2 v1.01 - very high quality
Race Driver: GRID v1.2, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark - ultra quality

Notes

Three Radeon HD 4890 cards that are differentiated on clock-speeds alone. Three questions: how much more performance will the extra 100MHz memory of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 OC Edition bring over and above the standard Radeon HD 4890 OC? Does it make the card better than a GeForce GTX 275 896MB? How does the HD 4850 X2 play out?

On that note, we've also added a joker in the pack, in the form of the Radeon HD 4850 X2 2,048MB. It's a custom-designed, twin-GPU card by Sapphire, but such is the attractive price-to-performance ratio that it impinges upon pre-overclocked GeForce GTX 275s and HD 4890 OCs. Indeed, it would be rude not to include it.