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PowerColor HD 4890 LcS tested |
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Written by Sanjin Radoš
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Wednesday, 02 September 2009 14:23 |
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Review: Stable and cool at 1GHz
Back in April, AMD unleashed its fastest graphics chip so far, dubbed RV790. This chip will be cemented in history thanks to the fact that it was the first GPU to break 1GHz, and many AMD partners managed to hit 1GHz even with reference air cooling. However, the reference cooler gets extremely loud while cooling GPUs at 1GHz so many partners opted on their own coolers. PowerColor is one of the few companies that took to water cooling the RV790, which as you know is the ticker within HD 4890 graphics cards. Our today’s PowerColor graphics card is named LCS HD4890 1GB GDDR5 or AX4890 1GBD5-WH if you prefer codenames. The following photo shows a nice single slot graphics card running at 900MHz, which is 50MHz more than the reference 850MHz.
The overclock on LCS HD 4890 card isn’t particularly high compared to reference speeds. We’ve seen that PowerColor has a couple of faster, air-cooled cards in its offer, also running at 950MHz. Still, water cooling is an appealing feature when we’re talking about the RV790, as it easily gets over 90 degrees Celsius, not to mention that it will greatly help with any potential overclocking. Most RV790 cores can easily run at 1GHz, provided the cooling is adequate.
The memory got a boost on PowerColor’s card but only by 25MHz compared to reference speeds. Since we’re talking about GDDR5, the speed is effectively 4000MHz, whereas the reference speed is 3900MHz. The card features 800 shaders and DX 10.1 which will come in handy in games such as HAWX.
Radeon LCS HD4890 comes with eight Qimonda IDGV1G-05A1F 1C-40X memory modules, where all of them are in direct contact with the water block thus allowing for stable operation and overclocking potential. The following picture shows the bare PCB, when we took the water block off. The white marks are thermal paste prints.
PowerColor made the water block in cooperation with the famous water-block maker EK. As a certificate of quality EK’s logo proudly graces the front of the LCS HD4890’s water block.
The card’s PCB is a reference design. It’s painted red and has two PCI-Express power connectors, eight memory modules and two CrossFireX connector’s enabling for a system with up to 4 graphics cards.
The photo above shows the now obsolete white pin-head connector, a leftover from air cooling.
The I/O panel features a TV-out, two dual-link DVI outs with HDCP and HDMI via a dongle. In order to make the card more stable within the case, the panel is dual slot as well.
The LCS HD 4890 1GB GDDR5’s box looks pretty nice and compact, and there is just enough space left to list the important specifications.
Within the box you’ll find the S-Video to Composite dongle, HDTV cable, DVI-to-HDMI adapter, DVI-to-VGA adapter, CrossFire bridge connector, a short installation manual and the driver CD. Of course, since this is a water cooled graphics card you’ll also find fittings and clamps 3/8’’ and ½’’ in diameter.
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