tofuPhanbuey, I'm on the same boat heh. Flashing 4870 to 4890 sounds like the REAL DEAL.

*Stares down at my 512MB card* :banghead:

if it works my 4870 1GB will follow.

However notice that they mention the core has changed from RV770 to RV790 - that to me implies differences on the inside (die shrink?)

I have high hopes that ATI will beat the GTX 280 with the 4890, and the GTX 295 with its upcoming X2 sibling.

Musselsif it works my 4870 1GB will follow.

However notice that they mention the core has changed from RV770 to RV790 - that to me implies differences on the inside (die shrink?)

I don't see HD4870->HD4890 flashing will be possible.

While both cards might use the same GPU core, the cards use totally different PCB power designs. Say you were lucky with a good OC'ing RV770 GPU core, if the additional power necessary isn't there (and delivered in a stable fashion) then your HD4870 isn't going to be running at 850MHz, no matter what you flash it's BIOS with.

The increase from 3 vGPU phases to 5 vGPU phases is a sure sign that ATI is (over)volting the hell out of their RV770 (now called RV790) chips to get them running at 850MHz.

While the HD4890 isn't going to touch the GTX 280/285, it should certainly have enough extra juice to beat the GTX 260 in most if not all current games and "important" benchmarks...

randomflipPeople, even enthusiasts will hardly ever consider heat output when it comes to buying a high end card.

1. Because its more than likely they will change the stock cooler with water cooling or aftermarket GPU cooler..
2. Mainstream users just aren't on their computer as much, I doubt they would even bother checking what AMD overdrive is and just trust the fact that their bundled computer system is perfect.

So why do you always get into irrelevant debates when you post into an ATI related thread? And I don't see how you can be so sure with the references you hand out, do you own a gtx295/285/280/260? do you own an ati 4850/4870/4870x2? :confused::confused:

Mainstream user will surely not care, until the cards start failing/artifacting on them. I'm not saying that it will happen, but it's a posibility. Here in Spain many HD48xx failed in the summer due to overheating and I suppose that the same can happen in any country between the same latitude and the equator. Is far from being irrelevant IMO.

And regarding if I have one of those cards, no I don't, but (maybe this sounds strange in a forum like this so be prepared) I have friends! :eek: Actual friends, many friends, with their own life and everything, GPUs included. And because I am the "geek" in the group I have to choose and install their PCs. More than "have to" I just do it and I get many more valuable things in exchange. They think they get the best part on the deal, so couldn't be better. Did I say some of them are girls? :D (wait no it's not what you are thinking, kinda)

DarkMatterMainstream user will surely not care, until the cards start failing/artifacting on them. I'm not saying that it will happen, but it's a posibility. Here in Spain many HD48xx failed in the summer due to overheating and I suppose that the same can happen in any country between the same latitude and the equator. Is far from being irrelevant IMO.

And regarding if I have one of those cards, no I don't, but (maybe this sounds strange in a forum like this so be prepared) I have friends! :eek: Actual friends, many friends, with their own life and everything, GPUs included. And because I am the "geek" in the group I have to choose and install their PCs. More than "have to" I just do it and I get many more valuable things in exchange. They think they get the best part on the deal, so couldn't be better. Did I say some of them are girls? :D (wait no it's not what you are thinking, kinda)

So the fact you think something like that "maybe" sounds strange in a forum like "this", you implying no-one in this forum has friends? Whats up with that :confused:

My friend has an 8800GT that I helped him install/troubleshoot and my gf which i might add lives in the same room as me has a 4650 that I installed and help her troubleshoot as well, still though I do not post comments about how those cards work from my perspective simply cause their not mine weather or not I've read information online me posting about possible heat issues etc. would be completely irrelevant, its just another small way of opposing. Yes yes the 4xxx series can get too hot and maybe die but IMO I think the user will notice if its in trouble then obviously either report back to the retailer or just look online for a solution, once again no biggie and again becomes too small of an issue to be considered when buying a card, my reference 4850 ran at 110 degrees at summer for a few weeks at load 69 idle nothing went wrong with it until I broke it by installing an aftermarket cooler LOL the irony :/.

EDIT: It might have been because the accelero screws were on too tight and that i didn't use the swashbucklers .. :/

all video cards can overheat. god we had 45C summer here, with a closed door a room could pass 50C.... no cards going to last long in 50C ambient, and even if it didnt die immediately it would surely bring it closer to its grave.

Arrakis+9looks just like a 4870

alexp999Thats cus it is effectively just an OC'd 4870.

Yay, even more heat/noise issues! :rolleyes:

agreed im say this too before , but sometimes i think if this one have good overclock , imagine this card can get 100 more GPU and 200 memory

Musselsall video cards can overheat. god we had 45C summer here, with a closed door a room could pass 50C.... no cards going to last long in 50C ambient, and even if it didnt die immediately it would surely bring it closer to its grave.

Good thing I had separate air conditioning in my room otherwise it will heat it up bad even though I turn on house AC. These company need to do something about the heating. Every new generation it consume more power and produces more heat. Not everyone willing to pay 200$+ extra for a VGA water cooling... I buy an window air conditioner($150) instead and it's quite useful cooling all of my overclocked PC component and me. I can't say that when it come to summer though unless you had like a $400 AC. Electric bill can be hell if you game a lot in the summer.

Well if this card comes out of the Gate Excellent, i May Pick it up, otherwise a 4870 will suit me.

kid41212003My card idle at 63C at 40% fan speed.

:laugh:

The truth is, I didn't see any high-end cards idle lower than 50C with stock cooling before, it's unrealistic.

My card idles at about 37*C (38*C while I type this), on the stock 40% fan speed. :D

perkamThis isn't a renaming. Renaming occurs when a company literally just changes the box art, sticker and name in the bios.

This is a higher binned product similar to 7900 GTX -> 7900 Ultra or ATI's own 9800 Pro -> 9800 XT...

Perkam

Same specs but higher clock speeds is rebadging in my books. The whole binning concept is half bullshit anyway. Power tweaks will be primarily responsible for the overhead gain.

It's okay ATI die hards.. call it a different gpu if it brings purpose to your life. 48xx was a great success; there's nothing wrong with squeezing it futher with a board rework..

I must say, when it comes to out of the factory looks, unless its XFX making an ATI card, nvidia always win hands down for me - I mean this just looks like a 4870, and they are ugly.

randomflipSo the fact you think something like that "maybe" sounds strange in a forum like "this", you implying no-one in this forum has friends? Whats up with that :confused:

My friend has an 8800GT that I helped him install/troubleshoot and my gf which i might add lives in the same room as me has a 4650 that I installed and help her troubleshoot as well, still though I do not post comments about how those cards work from my perspective simply cause their not mine weather or not I've read information online me posting about possible heat issues etc. would be completely irrelevant, its just another small way of opposing. Yes yes the 4xxx series can get too hot and maybe die but IMO I think the user will notice if its in trouble then obviously either report back to the retailer or just look online for a solution, once again no biggie and again becomes too small of an issue to be considered when buying a card, my reference 4850 ran at 110 degrees at summer for a few weeks at load 69 idle nothing went wrong with it until I broke it by installing an aftermarket cooler LOL the irony :/.

EDIT: It might have been because the accelero screws were on too tight and that i didn't use the swashbucklers .. :/

I'm not implying that no one here has friends, I was just making a joke on the fact that so many people ask if you have this or that graphics card, as implying that if you don't own one you don't know anything about them. When that happens I always wonder, do these guys have friends? They never talk to anyone or what? As I said I have many friends and I have installed, OCed and mantained a lot of cards, from almost every manufacturer. I don't need to own a card to know how it works. I have spent almost as many hours with my friends' cards as I did with mine. Not playing, testing I mean, no benchmarking or heavy overcloking with my current PC, I've left that already until I need it for gaming. And every time there is a problem it's me who resolved it. And of my friends only 2 have an HD48x0, but both have had artifacting due to high temps. Yeah no need to return them in the end, but it was desperating for the user and for me that I had to spend a lot of time in the telephone until we managed to solve the problem. OH and from personal experience I can say that artifacting due to overheating is one of the most traumatic of the problems if it comes from factory, because the conditions in their RMA lab can be different than yours and they could simply not change your card.

Anyway, I usually stay away from my personal experience for such claims as the ones I have made and rely in the internet, because my experience is very limited compared to the big knowledge base in the internet, as in order to speak statistics are much more important, and statistics needs a big sample base. You see only 2 of my friends have HD48xx cards and only three have GTX2xx. Most of them have still 8800, HD38xx and X1900. The only 2 cards that have had problems lately were the HD48xx cards, both Saphire, so not a problem of cheap manufacturer. It's just that as Mussels said any card can overheat, but it's just easier for a card that starts at over 90ºC than one that starts at 70ºC under load.

people should ask "do you have first hand experience with these cards" not "do you own them"

Musselspeople should ask "do you have first hand experience with these cards" not "do you own them"

Exactly. I worked in an store some years ago and mounted like thousands of PCs. It was one "a la carte" retailer so I had to mount PCs with almost every component in the market back then. Testing was part of the price, so I also performed a lot of tests on them. I only had one card in the time that I was working there, but surely had more experience with any of the cards than any of the people that bought them.

Anyway I still think that unless you work in something like that, the internet is a much better knowledge base than your personal experience, even if you have mounted more than 50 friend's PCs as is my case.

One of my 4850s idle at 81c. Its a reference board. My asus idles at 55c which isnt reference. I sometimes wonder its 81c is to high.

81 is quite high but I've seen my own cards at 98 - 100 and they worked fine because I never noticed.

DrPepper81 is quite high but I've seen my own cards at 98 - 100 and they worked fine because I never noticed.

At idle?

TheMailMan78At idle?

yeah the fan was broke.

DrPepperyeah the fan was broke.

My fan works fine. I guess the reference design just sucks on the 4850.

TheMailMan78My fan works fine. I guess the reference design just sucks on the 4850.

I personally prefer two slot coolers because they come with a larger heatsink and cover most of the card. Would you consider aftermarket cooling ?

DrPepperI personally prefer two slot coolers because they come with a larger heatsink and cover most of the card. Would you consider aftermarket cooling ?

Not for this card. Its a visiontek. It has a "lifetime" warranty.

TheMailMan78Not for this card. Its a visiontek. It has a "lifetime" warranty.

Guess there wouldn't be a point anyway if it works fine eh :cool:

MailMan, if you have them in Crossfire, I'm just wondering if you have one just above the other and the Visiontek happens to be the one on top, because that could be the problem.

TheMailMan78One of my 4850s idle at 81c. Its a reference board. My asus idles at 55c which isnt reference. I sometimes wonder its 81c is to high.

you should bump up the fan speed slightly :)