Powercolor 4890PCS

[thilanliyan]

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...lor/HD_4890_PCS/1.html

Wins in some games at the highest settings for single GPUs and when it doesn't it's way above 100fps anyway (except for WiC).

Power draw and noise under load is high though.

 

[error8]

These are the clocks that the stock 4890 should have had from the beginning, to be a direct contender for GTX 285.

 

[CrystalBay]

Now that's a review, lol at the conclusion...

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: error8
These are the clocks that the stock 4890 should have had from the beginning, to be a direct contender for GTX 285.

If they did that they would likely have had a lot less cards for sale and a higher MSRP

I think they made a good choice as many people are buying 4890s on price

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: error8
These are the clocks that the stock 4890 should have had from the beginning, to be a direct contender for GTX 285.

That's the most idiotic thing I've heard in a while. It's like saying the i7 should have been released at 10GHz from the beginning.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: error8
These are the clocks that the stock 4890 should have had from the beginning, to be a direct contender for GTX 285.

That's the most idiotic thing I've heard in a while. It's like saying the i7 should have been released at 10GHz from the beginning.

I don't see any connection between your stupid example and my "idiotic thing".
i7 has no sense in running at 10 ghz because AMD doesn't even have an answer for it at its current clocks. I was saying that 4890 should have been released at 950 mhz to take ATI closer of the fastest single GPU out there. So WTF is that stupid? 950 mhz doesn't seem that hard to reach for 4890 and I guess they could have made the cards at that clock right from the start.

 

[Jacen]

They could have probably ran most of them at 900MHz, possibly even 950MHz (maybe go the 6+8 pin Sapphire Toxic route) but then it doesn't look as good in the "value" department. Right now, considering its potential it is priced like a steal.

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
Now that's a review, lol at the conclusion...

No kidding...

First of all, the sound level in the article was posted as, "The card was the single loudest graphics card I had ever heard in my life. The card approached noise levels of 50 dbA". Yet the chart underneath says the max sound level under load was only 39.1 dbA, with some comparison cards showing even higher. 39.1 dbA is approaching 50 dbA? Since when?

Secondly, I'm still trying to figure out how someone can give a video card one thumbs up for "Huge overclock out of the box" while simultaneously giving it one thumbs down for "Factory overclock comes at expense of normal overclocking headroom". Huh? Isn't that kind of... well... obvious? You can't increase factory clocks without decreasing the total amount of additional OC headroom. Duh. :roll:

So an 80% overall rating for a card that is $80 cheaper, is only 2.1 dbA louder and has overall comparable framerates compared to a GTX 285?

All in all, a very contradictory conclusion.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Creig
First of all, the sound level in the article was posted as, "The card was the single loudest graphics card I had ever heard in my life. The card approached noise levels of 50 dbA". Yet the chart underneath says the max sound level under load was only 39.1 dbA, with some comparison cards showing even higher. 39.1 dbA is approaching 50 dbA? Since when?

The 50dba was before a BIOS update from Powercolor.

 

[apoppin]

i have my Diamond HD4890-xOC at 960/1055 - it still doesn't even convincingly beat GTX280 - nevermind gtx285
- still it beats the helloutta stock and even overclocked 4870; and it scales nicely over the stock 4890 - all my 15 benchmark suite is done!

. . . and expect higher clocked 4980s to take on OC'd GTX275 and to narrow the gap between 285 .. decent bang for buck for a refresh

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: Creig
First of all, the sound level in the article was posted as, "The card was the single loudest graphics card I had ever heard in my life. The card approached noise levels of 50 dbA". Yet the chart underneath says the max sound level under load was only 39.1 dbA, with some comparison cards showing even higher. 39.1 dbA is approaching 50 dbA? Since when?

The 50dba was before a BIOS update from Powercolor.

Ah, I didn't catch that. It did seem pretty weird that they listed two very different audio max values.

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: apoppin
i have my Diamond HD4890-xOC at 960/1055 - it still doesn't even convincingly beat GTX280 - nevermind gtx285
- still it beats the helloutta stock and even overclocked 4870; and it scales nicely over the stock 4890 - all my 15 benchmark suite is done!

. . . and expect higher clocked 4980s to take on OC'd GTX275 and to narrow the gap between 285 .. decent bang for buck for a refresh

I was simply going by their own benchmarks. If you read through them, a lot of the time the 4890PCS is right there with the GTX285. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. The GTX 285 definitely wins more than it loses, but the 4890 PCS still comes out roughly equal or on top in more than a few of the benchmarks.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Creig

Originally posted by: apoppin
i have my Diamond HD4890-xOC at 960/1055 - it still doesn't even convincingly beat GTX280 - nevermind gtx285
- still it beats the helloutta stock and even overclocked 4870; and it scales nicely over the stock 4890 - all my 15 benchmark suite is done!

. . . and expect higher clocked 4980s to take on OC'd GTX275 and to narrow the gap between 285 .. decent bang for buck for a refresh

I was simply going by their own benchmarks. If you read through them, a lot of the time the 4890PCS is right there with the GTX285. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. The GTX 285 definitely wins more than it loses, but the 4890 PCS still comes out roughly equal or on top in more than a few of the benchmarks.

i tend to ignore everyone else's benchmarks
- yes, i got the same thing with GTX280

13 games

4890 OC {oc'd to 960/1055} beats the *stock* GTX280 in 6 games
it loses in 5 games to the GTX and TIES 2 games

very nice - compared to 4870 and if the 4890 is not OC'd, then the GTX wins the two tied games