Escrito por Kadinho & MAXLD Domingo, 19 Abril 2009 22:04

Note

NOTE: This review in English already includes the stand-alone Update released recently in Portuguese, which includes new infos and results using the recent ATi Catalyst 9.4 drivers.

Today we have the opportunity to show you the most recent AMD/ATi offer. The HD4890 arrived to us thanks to Sapphire, one of the major ATi manufacturers and also one of the most known worldwide.
In this review, we'll make a direct comparison with the HD4870, being the HD4890 the new best vga from ATi (sigle gpu). No doubt it'll be interesting to see the differences it brings. And for that, we'll make the usual tests and also a direct confront between the old and new chip: RV770 vs R790.

Major characteristics:

The access to new materials before they are launched in the market it's one of the advantages we have when new products are expected. And sometimes we receive review samples that are a little different from the final version... which is the case of this Sapphire we received. For that reason, we'll only show you pictures taken with the cooler dismounted, due the non final design of the stickers and box.

But, of course, Sapphire rapidly solved the problem and they sent us some official and final images.
As you can see, at a first glance, there aren't many differences in relation with the previous best seller HD4870. But, before we see the vga in detail, let's see what else we can find inside the box. Also, note the good accommodation used to protect the HD4890.

As usual, we can find one drivers CD, one Crossfire bridge (which we'll be useful more ahead), two PCI-E power cables, DVI and HDMI adaptors and also a TV-Out. Sapphire lately does not offer games, but they include a full version of 3DMark Vantage benchmark tool, which for some "marks" fans, it'll be even more useful. Joining 3DMark, there are two Cyberlink softwares: the widely popular PowerDVD and also PowerDirector.