As a rule, affiliate video cards can boast of something markedly different from the standard, which helps them stand out from the rest of the modifications. This can be a custom cooler, a recycled printed circuit board, more memory, factory overclocking, or any combination of these improvements.
In this regard, the ASUS Radeon HD 4890 seems a little out of place, since it, at least physically, is fully consistent with the standard model.
Characteristics
The video card is equipped with the same 850-MHz RV790 graphics processor with the same 1 GB of GDDR5 memory operating at 975 MHz, which corresponds to an effective frequency of 3.9 GHz, and a standard reference cooler HD 4890.
The original Radeon HD 4890 was beautiful but not perfect. Its basic clock frequency testified to a rather conservative overclocking potential. In many respects, it remained in the shadow of the competing GeForce GTX 275, and its cooler under load worked very loudly. Despite the fact that both of these problems could be fixed by powerful factory overclocking and replacement of the cooling system (as is the case with the excellent Sapphire HD 4890 Atomic), the reference design still left much to be desired.
Overclocking capabilities
Although the Asus graphics card was a copy of the reference ATI Radeon HD 4890, it had a powerful argument that greatly distinguished it from its competitors - the ability to change the main voltage using the Smart Doctor application.
Typically, during acceleration, the limitations are not associated with heating, but with increased power requirements for higher clock frequencies. Therefore, experienced users have long been engaged in the “volt-modding” of their graphics accelerators, which allows you to increase the core voltage and, consequently, the processor speed.
When the Radeon HD 4890 1GB first appeared, it was rumored that it could accelerate to 1 GHz, but this could not be confirmed due to the fact that the reference card did not allow changing the voltage. By adding this functionality to its software, Asus has unlocked the impressive potential of the HD 4890.
Overclocking software
Smart Doctor is not the most convenient application, but it does a good job of changing the voltage of a 1.312 V card in the range of 1.2–1.45 V, as well as increasing the processor clock speed to 1 GHz and RAM to a few ambitious 5 GHz, with overclocking settings that can be applied at startup.
The application also serves to monitor the temperature of the GPU and can even be combined with Asus GamerOSD software for dynamic acceleration in games. Although experts do not recommend this, the availability of this feature is a great addition. Unfortunately for those who hope to use Smart Doctor to overclock and change the voltage of other cards, the program checks the BIOS for compatibility with the Asus video card. Therefore, without reflashing it, you will not be able to take advantage of this useful utility.
Equipment
In addition to exclusive overclocking applications, the card boasts a pretty decent and very beautifully presented set of accessories. In addition to disks with software and drivers for the Radeon HD 4890, there are DVI / VGA and DVI / HDMI adapters, as well as a dual 6-pin PCI-E cable, component RGB, S-Video for a composite adapter and CrossFire bridge - almost everything necessary to satisfy any user needs.
The owners tested the performance of the card in games that require high computing power. The results are shown below.
Crysis
This game is widely regarded as an DirectX 10 ad because it will make any system cry. It is not surprising that the graphics in it are something special - it far surpasses everything that could be seen in computer games before that.
According to user reviews, the frame rate of 27–33 fps is enough to be able to play at an acceptable level. Crysis is slightly different from other games in that its low frame rate looks pretty even.
With a high level of detail set and 8x anisotropic filtering at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 using 4x smoothing, the average frame rate was 38.1 fps. The frame rate at 1680 x 1050 is 31 fps.
Since the Asus Radeon HD 4890 is a card with a base clock speed, the results of its testing coincide with the performance of any other reference card HD 4890. In the game Crysis leads a much faster GTX 275.
Fallout 3
Despite the use of the already obsolete Oblivion engine, the game looked absolutely amazing - especially notable were the large explosions, soft shadows and smoke effects.
At the highest levels of detail, smoothing and anisotropic filtering, along with HDR and special effects, a frame rate of 79.2 fps is achieved for resolutions of 1680 x 1050, 74.9 fps for 1920 x 1200 and 58.5 fps for 2560 x 1600.
Thus, in Fallout 3, the HD 4890 card with a convincing margin surpasses the competing GeForce GTX 275 in all settings.
Far cry 2
Ubisoft's shooter uses DirectX 10.1 to improve performance and smoothing quality. Improvements are achieved by reading the multisampling depth buffer in one pass.
To evaluate the video card, users used the built-in performance testing tool. With ultra-high quality in a resolution of 1680 x 105 and 4x anti-aliasing, the frame rate is 45.2 fps, 1920 x 1200 - 42.8 fps, 2560 x 1600 - 29 fps.
In Far Cry 2, the HD 4890 is slightly faster than the GTX 275 with full-screen anti-aliasing turned off, but slower when it is turned on.
Call of Duty: World at War
This WWII-themed shooter uses DX 9.0 rendering and, among other things, features dynamic lighting and HDR. At the maximum gaming settings, including texture detailing, full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, at a resolution of 1680 x 1050, the frame rate was 65.8 fps, 1920 x 1200 - 57.7 fps, 2560 x 1600 - 38.7 fps from.
Nvidia has always been the leader in this game, and that has not changed. The GTX 275 is 10% ahead of the HD 4890 regardless of resolution or level of smoothing.
Computing Performance Testing
At the time of the release of the card, the most successful general-purpose GPU application was folding @ home. It was used for distributed computing of the protein coagulation process. The performance of ATI video cards in this test has always been unsatisfactory, and this was confirmed once again. HD 4890 consumes significantly more power than competitors, while lagging behind them by 50%.
Overclocking
Despite the fact that the model’s performance matches any other reference HD 4890, the advantage of Asus graphics accelerator is its overclocking capabilities due to the inclusion of voltage adjustment options in Smart Doctor software. This is where the potential of the card is fully manifested, and the owners were extremely impressed with what they were able to get.
Using Asus software, which is covered by the warranty, makes it possible to improve performance without the threat of an explosion in the GPU. In this case, the card reaches a processor frequency of 1 GHz with a slight increase in voltage to 1.4 V.
A further increase to 1.437 V allows you to reach 1 GHz and a memory speed of 1111 MHz (corresponding to an effective frequency of 4.444 GHz), which is 175 MHz (17%) and 136 MHz (544 MHz) higher than the base values. However, experience with the Sapphire HD 4890 suggests that the core is capable of more. This was achieved using the RivaTuner application, which can work together with Smart Doctor. Thus, the maximum acceleration of the core was 1025 MHz and memory - 4444 MHz.
This, for example, allowed us to achieve a performance increase of 8% in the memory bandwidth-demanding Fallout 3 (79 fps at maximum settings and resolution of 1920 x 1200). And one of the most "heavy" games - Crysis - shows maximum improvement. The minimum frame rate increased by 18%, and the average - by 10%, amounting to 20 and 34.8 fps, respectively, with high quality settings in the resolution of 1920 x 1200, 2x anisotropic smoothing and 16x anisotropic filtering.
Power consumption
Users tested the power consumption of the card in the Crysis game, making sure the latest ATI Radeon HD 4890 drivers were loaded. In idle mode, it was 222 watts at the standard clock speed and 233 watts in the overclocked state.
The ATI HD 4890 was an extremely voracious graphics card, and this has not changed in the Asus modification. The peak power consumption after overclocking is very noticeable at boot time. The card consumes an impressive 363 watts, about the same as the GTX 275 and the overclocked Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Atomic.
Temperature
When testing the heating, the owners used the FurMark 1.6.0 test so that the video card could show its absolute thermal maximum. Since the Radeon HD 4890 1024 MB in idle mode is also heated, its aggressive overclocking leads to a temperature increase of only 5 degrees. In idle mode, the card heats up to 56 ° C. Since the HD 4890 is the base model, such an increase is not too surprising.
At the base clock frequency, the video card works the same as any other reference one, heating up to 82 ° C under load (this temperature is set in BIOS, after which the fan speed starts to increase). And after overclocking, even such increased cooling is not enough to remain at the same level. The result is a cooler cooler operation, and the processor heats up 4 ° C more - up to 86 ° C.
Finally
Despite the fact that the performance of the HD 4890 at the base clock speed is inferior to the competing GeForce GTX 275, the potential for increasing the speed of the card is so exciting that it can stand out from the many products of AMD partner companies even without factory overclocking.
Although the characteristics of the Radeon HD 4890 are quite high at the base frequencies, the Smart Doctor application (with the ability to change the core voltage) made it possible to significantly accelerate the card and outshine even the Sapphire HD 4890.
It was not difficult for users to accelerate the GPU to 1 GHz and RAM to 4.2 GHz, as well as to achieve even greater performance at a maximum processor frequency of 1.025 GHz and 4.444 GHz memory. This made the Asus card the fastest modification of the HD 4890.
But despite the fact that the software unlocks previously inaccessible potential, this is still the basic model, so it has noticeable shortcomings. The computing power of the card is significantly inferior to the GeForce GTX 275, and its very noisy dual-slot fan during acceleration becomes simply unbearable.
For example, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 comes with an excellent cooler that both cools better and is quieter because it removes hot air from the chassis, not into it. Of course, Atomic is more expensive, but for guaranteed overclocking and a quieter operation, this card seems more than reasonable.
It is also worth noting that the budget GeForce GTX 275 costs the same, has comparable performance and fewer problems.
As a result, the attractiveness of the Asus product depended on how much effort and money the user was ready to invest. If the frequency of 1 GHz was enough for him, then the Sapphire HD 4890 was the best choice, providing guaranteed 1 GHz and much better cooling under load.
But if you give preference to the ratio of price and performance, then Asus Radeon HD 4890 was the most optimal option. Although acceleration to 1 GHz was not guaranteed, this video card was the cheapest and easiest way to achieve it, if the user was ready to put up with a rather noisy cooler.