Quite possibly my most disliked graphics card of 2009 was the Radeon HD 4890. Although the naming does suggest that the 4890 is not a great deal faster than the 4870 that was not what bothered us. Rather it was the fact that this newer slightly improved version cost anywhere from 20 – 30% more while providing just a few extra frames per second in most games.

With the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 selling for just $180 US in April when the Radeon HD 4890 was released, we found it hard to accept this new graphics card at $250 US. After all Radeon HD 4890 is in essence just an overclocked Radeon HD 4870 with far greater overclocking abilities. ATI fine-tuned the RV790 XT core allowing for incredible core frequencies.

Although the default core speed of 850MHz is a moderate bump over the 4870, many users are reporting overclocks in the order of 1GHz and beyond. Still despite the great overclocking abilities of the new Radeon HD 4890 we were not sold as the price premium was just too difficult to justify.

Furthermore Nvidia was able to swiftly counter the Radeon HD 4890 with what I considered at the time to be a better product, the GeForce GTX 275. As luck would have it, the GeForce GTX 275 was not just a quick and easy counter for the Radeon HD 4890, it was the perfect counter. Prior to the launch of these two cards the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 were already doing battle. The Radeon HD 4890 was meant to outclass both products and conquer the $250 price range but evidently that didn't go as planned.

Today however things are a little different as the Radeon HD 4890 is now a $200 US graphics card while remaining 4870 stock is priced at just $150. Therefore while the Radeon HD 4870 still remains the best value part in our opinion the Radeon HD 4890 is no longer the outcast we made it out to be. The Radeon HD 4890 actually offers gamers an impressive level of performance at $200, particularly if you plan to do a little overclocking.

In fact the particular Radeon HD 4890 graphics card that we are looking at today has been engineered with overclocking in mind. The new Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 (1GB) graphics card from HIS has been designed to allow users to achieve maximum overclocking potential from their RV790 XT GPU and as a result we received some pretty impressive results without much effort.

Like the AMD reference Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards, this HIS version features a dual slot cooler, though the design has been improved. The heatsink found on the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 is bigger, while also featuring not two but rather four copper heatpipes, which help improve cooling by moving heat away from the heatsink base more efficiently.

The fan used measures 70mm in diameter and is of the traditional 2-ball bearing design, where as the reference cards use a blower type fan, which generates significantly more noise. Like the reference card the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 does feature an exhaust system that pushes the hot air out of the case, though not all the hot air escapes out through the rear of the case.

The heatsink measures 18.5cm long, 7cm wide, and at its thickest 2cm, so it is really quite a large heatsink. HIS has also designed a fan shroud that is designed to direct more air-flow over the heatsink. Improving efficiency are four heatpipes that extract heat from the base plate directing it through the row of fins, and as you will find later on in the review, this setup works rather well.

Like the Radeon HD 4870, the newer HD 4890 uses a 55nm design. However in the 10 months that have passed since the release of the Radeon HD 4870, ATI has had time to perfect the process. The more capable RV790 XT core runs at 850MHz, while the older RV770 XT GPU featured on the Radeon HD 4870 operates at just 750MHz.

HIS is shipping their Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 (1GB) with Qimonda ICs on-board (IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X). These GDDR5 modules are already rated for 4.0GHz operation, so we don't expect to be able to push them much further. Interestingly, HIS has not decided to cool the graphics cards onboard memory chips, leaving them completely naked.

Other than the improved cooling solution, the only other major modification to the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 is the power delivery system. The power circuitry of this new HIS graphics card is nothing like that of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 reference card. This new design is intended to deliver even more power to the GPU when overclocking. In order to do that the design ditches the dual 6-pin PCIe power connectors for a 6-pin and 8-pin configuration.

Another interesting feature of the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 graphics card is its I/O capabilities. This card is equipped with HDMI, which is impressive, though HIS has also opted to include an old VGA port. The inclusion of the VGA port has us a bit miffed, as HIS could have provided a pair of DVI ports instead and gone with a DVI to VGA adapter for legacy support.

Hardware - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz) - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 (1GB) - ASUS Radeon HD 4890 (1GB) - Palit Radeon HD 4870 (1GB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 280 (1GB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 275 (896MB) - Palit GeForce GTX 260 (896MB) - ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia ForceWare 191.03 - ATI Catalyst 9.10 Beta

Futuremark 3Dmark Vantage reports that the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 (1GB) is a little faster than the ASUS Radeon HD 4890 which is based on the ATI reference design. Still the margin was small and it meant that in this synthetic benchmark the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was slower than the GeForce GTX 275.

The HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 again performs slightly better than our reference base Radeon HD 4890 graphics card, delivering an additional 2fps on average at each resolution. This meant that the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was able to match the performance of the GeForce GTX 260, while it was still a few frames per second slower than the GTX 275.

The HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 performs particularly well in Fallout 3, as all Radeon based graphics cards do. Although the performance was really no different to our reference Radeon HD 4890 graphics card, it did mean that the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was the second fastest graphics card tested, losing only to the new Radeon HD 5870.

The Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards struggle in Far Cry 2, with the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 managing just 18fps at 2560x1600 using maximum in-game quality settings. Still, this meant that it was faster than the GeForce GTX 260, while the GTX 275 did provide a noticeable performance advantage.

Like Fallout 3, the Radeon graphics cards perform exceptionally well in Resident Evil 5, as the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was able to get by the GeForce GTX 285 by an impressive 6fps margin at 2560x1600.

The HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 performed well in S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, though it was still slower than the GeForce GTX 275. That said, at 2560x1600 just 2fps separated these two graphics cards, and with an average of 32fps at this extreme resolution the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was impressive.

The HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 is not as impressive when testing with World in Conflict, as it was found to be slightly slower than the GeForce GTX 260. That said, there was little difference between the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 and the GeForce GTX 260/275 graphics cards at 2560x1600.

As promised, the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was a strong overclocker, easily reaching a core frequency of 1000MHz while the memory was happy at 1100MHz. This lead to a 17% performance boost at 2560x1600 in 3Dmark Vantage and allowed the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 to overtake the GeForce GTX 275. Then when testing with Resident Evil 5, we saw a 16% performance boost at 2560x1600.

The power consumption levels of the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 were typical, making it one of the most power hungry single GPU graphics cards money can buy. Despite being considerably slower than the new Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 does consume more power under load and at idle.

The operating temperatures of the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 were only slightly better than that of the ATI reference design, which surprised us. That said, while temperatures only slightly improve, the operating volume was significantly quieter, especially when under load.

The key change users will notice about the improved power delivery system is that the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 requires a 6-pin PCIe power connector and an 8-pin power connector, where as cards based on the reference design use dual 6-pin connectors. Given that most modern power supplies feature both 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors we do not see this as being an issue, though keep in mind that an 8-pin PCIe power connector will be required to power this graphics card.

While the power design may be new, and too the cooler, the performance was not and without any manual fine tuning the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 performs much like any other Radeon HD 4890. That said, we would prefer HIS keep the card at the standard specified operating frequencies rather than charge a price premium for pathetic factory overclocking, which has become almost common practice in this industry.

Whereas run of the mill Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards are retailing for $200 US with the loud reference cooler, the improved HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 is currently selling for just $210 US, which to us seems like a very good deal. With little effort we were able to boost the performance of this graphics card by more than 15% and we are confident that even better results can be achieved.

In terms of value the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 is not only good when compared to other Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards, it also fairs rather well when compared to pretty much everything else. Priced slightly lower than that of the GeForce GTX 275, the Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 was able to deliver a similar level of performance and depending on the game the results can go either way.

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Reviewed By Steven Walton