XFX HD 4890 Black Edition Pictured

[eidairaman1]

Card dosen't look any different form the previous 4890 but XFX lifetime warranty can't be beat atm. Other vendor usually only do 1-2yrs warranty.

Other Vendor is Visiontek, Now if XFX would get a clue and think outside the reference box.

 

[Ketxxx]

I gotta agree XFX should put a decent cooler on that premium card. A 1GHz GPU by itself doesn't warrent a huge pricetag all by itself, I would much rather get a regular 4890.

 

[kenkickr]

That's what I was saying yesterday but seemed to get knocked for it. I'm glad to see others sorta agreeing with me on the "lack" of a good, and good looking, HSF.

 

[Ketxxx]

Lots of people these days get awed far too easily, me and you are a dying breed my friend

 

[alexp999]

I dont see anything special about it either. Even a black reference HSF would have been something.

 

[Ketxxx]

Yea, or even a clear HSF so you could see the cool black PCB and the fins. It really wouldn't be hard for a manufacturer to make a cheap, decent cooler. All they have to do is use a fan that doesn't sound like a turbine @ 100%, and add some memory standoffs so the memory gets cooler properly, not those shitty thermal pads.

People also forget far too easily a regular 4890 GPU can clock pretty well anyway, and its not the GPU you really need to focus on, its the memory. GPUs are so powerful these days their bandwidth starved.

 

[REVHEAD]

Yea, or even a clear HSF so you could see the cool black PCB and the fins. It really wouldn't be hard for a manufacturer to make a cheap, decent cooler. All they have to do is use a fan that doesn't sound like a turbine @ 100%, and add some memory standoffs so the memory gets cooler properly, not those shitty thermal pads.

People also forget far too easily a regular 4890 GPU can clock pretty well anyway, and its not the GPU you really need to focus on, its the memory. GPUs are so powerful these days their bandwidth starved.

To be honest mate they are actually CPU starved, Cards wont be around for 2 much longer due to this problem, I cant wait for Fusion to hit.

 

[Ketxxx]

CPU bottleneck is one half of the problem, not all of it. As we are talking about a GPU I figured I would keep to GPU talk only As you bought it up though, throughput problems on a CPU are easily solved. You can even run your CPU at stock frequencies but just increase FSB while using a lower multi and that alone will do a decent job. The problem isn't with face value CPU clockspeed, although obviously faster does help.

 

[johnnyfiive]

Everytime you post kenkickr all I see is a hot avy blah, blah, blah, hot avy. They I have to hit the bathroom.

I know right? When he post, I don't even read his comments.. its all about his avy's.

 

[DaveK]

Yeah, Nikki Sims is pretty hot

As for the card, looks like crap lol.

 

[Wile E]

I gotta agree XFX should put a decent cooler on that premium card. A 1GHz GPU by itself doesn't warrent a huge pricetag all by itself, I would much rather get a regular 4890.

That's what I was saying yesterday but seemed to get knocked for it. I'm glad to see others sorta agreeing with me on the "lack" of a good, and good looking, HSF.

Lots of people these days get awed far too easily, me and you are a dying breed my friend

No, most of us just don't give a shit what the cards look like. We buy them for performance, not to stare at them.

And the 1GHz gpu DOES warrant the price increase when you realize these are heavily binned RV790 that run these speeds on stock volts, whereas the majority of RV790 only go up to 900-930 on stock volts.

Yea, or even a clear HSF so you could see the cool black PCB and the fins. It really wouldn't be hard for a manufacturer to make a cheap, decent cooler. All they have to do is use a fan that doesn't sound like a turbine @ 100%, and add some memory standoffs so the memory gets cooler properly, not those shitty thermal pads.

People also forget far too easily a regular 4890 GPU can clock pretty well anyway, and its not the GPU you really need to focus on, its the memory. GPUs are so powerful these days their bandwidth starved.

No, most RV790 don't even get to 950. And the memory bandwidth isn't nearly as important as the gpu speeds on these cards. For instance, at 900Mhz on my 4870, going from 925Mhz mem to 1000Mhz mem makes 0 difference in performance. And I do mean 0. Not a bit of difference.

Now, these cards are 100Mhz faster, but I somehow doubt that 1000Mhz 256bit GDDR5 is a significant bottleneck on these cards.

 

[Ketxxx]

Now now don't get your knickers in a bunch. I never said anything about the stock cooler particularly looking good, just to make a decent stock cooler to warrent the higher price a little more. FYI, a lot of HIS 4890s reach 950MHz+ on the core, screw what little extra you will get on the 1GHz models, its not worth the premium.

 

[Wile E]

Now now don't get your knickers in a bunch. I never said anything about the stock cooler particularly looking good, just to make a decent stock cooler to warrent the higher price a little more. FYI, a lot of HIS 4890s reach 950MHz+ on the core, screw what little extra you will get on the 1GHz models, its not worth the premium.

Yeah, but none of those non-OC 4890's are GUARANTEED to hit 1Ghz on stock voltage, and most of them don't. Even if a handful of MSI cards made it that far, the majority still don't. These cards are worth the few extra dollars for that guaranty, stock cooler or not.