TestBed

Motherboard: MSI P45D3 Platinum ( Provided by: MSI );
Processor: Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition at 3.6GHz ( Provided by: Intel );
Memory: Corsair Dominator 12800 7-7-7-24 ( Provided by: Corsair);
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300G 10,000RPM ( Provided by: SmoothCreation );
Driver: ATI_VistaWin7_Radeon_4890_8.592.1RC1_March26.exe
          Nvidia_182.06_geforce_winvista_32bit_english_whql.exe
         
Vista 32 SP1

We’ve tested Sapphire HD 4890 and HIS HD 4890 Turbo cards a few days ago and we know that the Radeon HD 4870 falls behind by about 10%. Today we included the XFX HD 4890 900M XXX card running at 900MHz. So, it’s a factory overclocked card by 50MHz above reference and memory at reference 975MHz.

In the tables we also include one of the fastest GTX 260 cards – Gainward’s GTX 260 GLH card (650MHz GPU / 1,100MHz memory) which beat AMD’s latest card in quite a few tests but at the same time costs some €20 more.


Futuremark Tests

3DMark06 shows that Sapphire’s reference HD 4890 is off to a good start and it beats the HD 4870 1GB and the GTX 260 by 7% and 3% respectively. XFX’s and HIS’s cards run at same clocks so they score almost identically. XFX’s overclocked card beat the HD 4870 by about 8%, but it didn’t manage to outrun Gainward’s 260 GLH card.



3DMark Vatage shows that the HD 4890 runs about 10-13% faster than the HD 4870 1GB. Geforce GTX 260 is faster and it took the Xtreme settings to match its performance to Sapphire’s HD 4890. Gainward’s GLH is still on top and has no trouble beating both XFX HD 4890 XXX and HIS HD 4890 Turbo cards by about 4% at Xtreme settings.









Gaming

Far Cry 2

FarCry 2 is every graphics card’s nightmare, but HD 4890 handled itself like a champ. It outran the GTX 260 Core 216 card in each test, most notably at 1920x1200 where the GTX took the heaviest beating by as much as 20%. On the aforementioned resolution as well as 2560x1600, GTX 260 cards run a bit slower but as soon as we turned the filters on, the HD 4890 found its competition to be tough nuts.


















Left 4 Dead

It seems like Left 4 Dead developed a taste for AMD’s cards, as the GTX 260 Core 216 loses at every single resolution. The new AMD’s cards outran Gainward’s GLH card as well, up until the high 2560x1600 resolution.

We’ve again noticed that GTX 260 cards are faster with antialiasing filters, and that there’s usually very little to separate them provided filters are off. The higher the resolution – the lower the difference, but the GTX 260 GLH managed to win at the highest tested resolution.


















World in Conflict

With antialiasing in the game, the HD 4890 does much better than its HD 4870 cousin. At 1920x1200 and no filters on, the difference between the cards is mere 4%, whereas the same resolution with antialiasing and aniso filters on sees the difference almost triple – 11%.

While GTX 260 was on HD 4890’s tail in Left 4 Dead, tables have turned in World in Conflict. It took a 1920x1200 resolution for the AMD’s new card to catch up with the GTX 260, and the highest tested resolution, 2560x1600, sees it even win by 2%. At the same resolution, the XFX HD 4890 XXX beats the reference GTX 260 by 7%.
















Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X


XFX is bundling Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X game with its HD 4890 cards, and this game is one of the big titles that feature support for DirectX 10.1.

At 2560x1600, without DirectX 10.1 the card scores 45 FPS. With DirectX 10.1 the same card at the same resolution scores 51FPS.

At 1920x1200 without AA and without DirectX 10.1 it scores 62FPS while with DirectX 10.1 enabled the same game scores 70 FPS. The same resolution but with AA and without DirectX 10.1 XFX scores 48 FPS while with DirectX 10.1 enabled it scores whopping 57 FPS. We are talking about 10 to 15 percent difference which is a lot.

With Nvidia cards, none of which have support for DirectX 10.1 there is no option to turn this feature on in the game. It took ATI long enough but at least with this title they made a huge difference with its ability to support DirectX 10.1.