Pulled the trigger on a XFX 4890 :-)

[SSChevy2001]

Congratulations!

IMO though you should of sold your TwinTurbo also and just waited for the Sapphire toxic edition. I'm just wondering how hot this card's vrm get when overclocked to 1Ghz.

 

[Hauk]

Enjoy the card OP... :beer:

 

[PUN]

OP did not make any bad upgrade at all.
4890 is definitely a better card and he got rid of 4870 at a reasonable price while it is still holding its value. In the past, I've constantly upgraded a bits at a time to have the latest hardware and to keep the upgrading cost minimal (sometimes profiting).

I agree with some of you that he had overpaid for the card.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
That assumes you're not overclocking the GTX285 and with EVGA's voltage adjustment app which is 100% covered by warranty that opens up more possibilities.

I wasn't aware that EGVT worked on the GTX 285, as it does not have the Volterra.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

eh...

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Originally posted by: error8
Worthless upgrade you've done there. 120$ for around 8% performance is not worth it, no matter how you look at it. You will probably not see any difference in your games. I don't want to spoil your joy, but this is my take on your upgrade. Sorry.

Factoring in the game, ~$75 for the upgrade isn't terrible. And quite a few benches show greater than an 8% improvement:

http://www.computerbase.de/art...schnitt_call_of_duty_5

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539&p=15

I had all of the numbers calculated for the % improvement at 16x10, but then I lost them. I'm not going to go through each individual game, but I did happen to save the average percentage for all the games in the above two links at 16x10 and the HD4890 is roughly 12% faster than the 4870.

 

[zod96]

That's true if you factor in the game and the flash drive it really was about $75 now I feel better

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Mana
I upgraded to a 4890 from a 3870 and am quite happy with it. That said, with regards to the overclocking, the one I got from Powercolor can't even do 900 MHz. As such I just put it back to stock since fooling around with it for what is probably a 2-3% increase isn't worth it in my eyes.

Really? You upped the fanspeed and you still can't hit 900?

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
That assumes you're not overclocking the GTX285 and with EVGA's voltage adjustment app which is 100% covered by warranty that opens up more possibilities.

I wasn't aware that EGVT worked on the GTX 285, as it does not have the Volterra.

Yah, pretty sure it doesnt work on 285s, or 55nm 260s. Nvs cheaper pcb revisions eliminated the more expensive vrms with programmable registers

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Red Storm

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Red Storm
You guys are forgetting the overclocking to be done with the 4890. If you OC it you get GTX 285 performance at a lower cost.

It's a solid upgrade in my view. You get a better card, along with the other things you've wanted (game & flash). Enjoy it.

yeah but the gtx285 is really overpriced. Im just saying paying all that money to go from a 4870 to 4890 seems a little silly at least to my cheapskate ass.

As I said in my post, with overclocking it's more like going from a 4870 to a GTX 285. There is a noticeable difference there.

That's really the main selling point of the 4890 IMHO, high OC potential (and less power usage than the slower 4870).

That assumes you're not overclocking the GTX285 and with EVGA's voltage adjustment app which is 100% covered by warranty that opens up more possibilities.

I think people were just trying to give an idea of the performance of an overclocked 4890... no one is saying it's a better card than the GTX285.

 

[way2fast91]

Congrats and enjoy that puppy. Had I not upgraded to 4830 six months ago, I would be buying a 4890 as we speak.

On the topic of playing on your lcd, I got my 4830 and oc'ed it while I was still hooked up to my 61" dlp through HDMI, I was able to play Fallout3 on medium (old single core 2.0 Ghz athlon, 2 GB ddr ram at the time). Still looked really good on big screen and I got some pretty good frame rates even with the view distance up pretty high, however the texture detail had to be reduced to compensate. Still all in all it was great playing on the big screen, but I just got tired of using the wireless mouse/keyboard while siting on the couch, not having a solid surface in front of me to set them on. So I bought a nice lcd monitor and moved back into the study.

 

[MarcVenice]

1000MHz isn't gauranteed. I have two HD4890's from Asus to play with, and in crossfire the max they would do was 975MHz/4400mhz, but I did have to up the voltage for that. Afaik 925MHz/4400MHz was highest stable on stock voltage. I haven't extensively tested a single HD4890 with an overclock though, was going to do so later this week. What I do know is that I hit 950MHz/4400MHz on stock volts, but 1000MHz/4400MHz would lock up the hard blue way. Will be adding some voltage and see if I can hit 1000MHz, but not all HD4890's can have their voltage raised so easily. So bottom line, 1000MHz isn't gauranteed. Here's the screenshot of 975MHz btw: http://tweakers.net/ext/i/1239028555.jpeg

Also, the HD4890 is significantly faster then a HD4780 1GB, but for it to be worth $100 you really have to OC it. What I can tell from the games I've benched, is that the HD4890 doesnt suddenly give playable framerates where a HD4870 1GB does not. It could probably give smoother gameplay though.

 

[tarbelly]

I am pulling the trigger on an asus 4890 now that newegg has the rebate up. Ill be going from an old rig with a radeon 9800 pro (it has served well over the years) to a new core i7 build.

 

[MarcVenice]

Wow tarbelly, that'll be such a HUGE difference, you'll love it.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
1000MHz isn't gauranteed. I have two HD4890's from Asus to play with, and in crossfire the max they would do was 975MHz/4400mhz, but I did have to up the voltage for that. Afaik 925MHz/4400MHz was highest stable on stock voltage. I haven't extensively tested a single HD4890 with an overclock though, was going to do so later this week. What I do know is that I hit 950MHz/4400MHz on stock volts, but 1000MHz/4400MHz would lock up the hard blue way. Will be adding some voltage and see if I can hit 1000MHz, but not all HD4890's can have their voltage raised so easily. So bottom line, 1000MHz isn't gauranteed. Here's the screenshot of 975MHz btw: http://tweakers.net/ext/i/1239028555.jpeg

Also, the HD4890 is significantly faster then a HD4780 1GB, but for it to be worth $100 you really have to OC it. What I can tell from the games I've benched, is that the HD4890 doesnt suddenly give playable framerates where a HD4870 1GB does not. It could probably give smoother gameplay though.

This is very good to know. I have the feeling that a lot of people are heading towards 4890, just because of that great 1 ghz gpu clock, they've seen in reviews. This should be taken as a warning that overclocking is not granted on this specific card.

 

[zod96]

I agree with that. People should not expect to get 1 ghz out of every 4890. I'm sure only some will do that. I bet the average will be in the 920-950 range...

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
1000MHz isn't gauranteed. I have two HD4890's from Asus to play with, and in crossfire the max they would do was 975MHz/4400mhz, but I did have to up the voltage for that. Afaik 925MHz/4400MHz was highest stable on stock voltage. I haven't extensively tested a single HD4890 with an overclock though, was going to do so later this week. What I do know is that I hit 950MHz/4400MHz on stock volts, but 1000MHz/4400MHz would lock up the hard blue way. Will be adding some voltage and see if I can hit 1000MHz, but not all HD4890's can have their voltage raised so easily. So bottom line, 1000MHz isn't gauranteed. Here's the screenshot of 975MHz btw: http://tweakers.net/ext/i/1239028555.jpeg

Also, the HD4890 is significantly faster then a HD4780 1GB, but for it to be worth $100 you really have to OC it. What I can tell from the games I've benched, is that the HD4890 doesnt suddenly give playable framerates where a HD4870 1GB does not. It could probably give smoother gameplay though.

This is very good to know. I have the feeling that a lot of people are heading towards 4890, just because of that great 1 ghz gpu clock, they've seen in reviews. This should be taken as a warning that overclocking is not granted on this specific card.

Exactly the same reason I laugh when people sell their used parts in FS/FT for a "premium" because they were able to overclock it to a certain level. Just because it overclocked in your specific setup doesn't mean I'll get the same results at all!