The Dutch techsite tweakers.net set a new world record for 3Dmark03. While the old record (180,349) was set using four 4890s the new record uses only three 5870s and a Xeon W3540 clocked at 5231 MHz. The 5870s ran at 1200 MHz with only slightly overclocked memory at 4900 MHz.

AMD is preparing yet another performance-mainstream Radeon HD 4000 series SKU. The Radeon HD 4790 finds lineage from the Radeon HD 4890, currently AMD's fastest GPU. The RV790 GPU will be given a new set of specifications and memory configuration, to yield an SKU that performs better than the Radeon HD 4770, and slightly better than HD 4850. It beats us as to why it is positioned in the HD 4700 series, and not say "Radeon HD 4860", but we are too late to comment on that.

Specifications-wise, the RV790 core runs at 600 MHz, slightly lower than the RV770 in Radeon HD 4850 (625 MHz), but its performance increment over it comes from the use of GDDR5 memory. The GPU makes use of a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It handles 512 MB of memory clocked at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective). Being based on the RV790, it is pin-compatible with any existing HD 4890 PCB. Price-wise, it is expected to sit between the HD 4850 and HD 4870.

Apparently there is still a huge number of AGP users that want to upgrade their graphics, yet are not willing to invest in a new system with PCI-Express support. PowerColor has listened to those requests and has now announced the PowerColor HD 4670 AGP PCS which is going to be the fastest card available for this dying interface.The cornerstone specs are 1 GB GDDR3, 128 bit memory interface, 750 MHz core, 800 MHz memory.

Less than a year ago, Palit-owned Gainward, a premium graphics card manufacturer, signed a contract with AMD/ATI and began to manufacture graphic accelerators with AMD/ATI Radeon chips. However, it now seems that Gainward will end its relationship with AMD/ATI and return to being an NVIDIA-only board partner. This is further backed by the fact that Gainward has not released any Radeon HD 4890 or HD 4770 cards and apparently it has already notified some distributors about ending its AMD/ATI line-up.

Following the trend of other manufacturers, after AMD officially announced 1 GHz variants of their HD 4890, it looks as though XFX will be releasing a Black Edition HD 4890 with the famed 1 GHz GPU clock speed. It would appear that XFX are using a black PCB and a change to red DVI ports as seen on some of their other ATI based graphics cards. Whether or not the PCB uses a reference design is not known at this point but XFX have stuck to the reference cooler with an XFX Black Edition sticker.

Building on the success of the recently launched ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card - driven by the world's most powerful graphics processor - AMD today announced availability of a factory overclocked graphics processor that is the first to break the 1 Gigahertz (GHz) barrier using standard air-cooling solutions.

AMD clinched the performance crown from NVIDIA, and retained for a significantly long amount of time with the dual-RV770 based Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics accelerator. The company recently introduced the RV790 GPU, which went into making the Radeon HD 4890 graphics accelerator. Our reviews of this card, especially the AMD Radeon HD 4890 CrossFire review, brought forth some interesting findings with regards to how the accelerator works in tandem with another of its kind.

Holding significantly higher clock-speeds than the Radeon HD 4870, the accelerator managed to consume lesser amount of power in a pair than a single Radeon HD 4870 X2 accelerator. As a solution, it emerged faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295. The findings of several such reviews sparked of fresh speculations surrounding AMD planning a dual-RV790 accelerator with which it could potentially regain the performance crown. All such speculations were laid to rest by David Cummings, AMD's director of product marketing of discrete desktop graphics, under the graphics product group, in a recent interview with X-bit Labs (read here). Cummings claims that the company has no plans to create a "Radeon HD 4890 X2", at least not yet. The Radeon HD 4890 fills the gap between the HD 4870 and HD 4850 X2, while the HD 4870 X2 holds post at $399. A dual-RV790 card would not be feasible keeping the global economic climate in mind. The HD 4890 accelerators though, are capable of running in tandem with up to four cards of its kind, provided the system supports such a configuration.

PowerColor will launch the world's first water cooled Radeon HD 4890 next week, less than one week after the RV790 card was officially launched.

Part of PowerColor's LCS series, the upcoming Radeon card comes with a single-slot EK-made waterblock that has a copper base and high-flow 3/8" or 1/2" fittings. The waterblock should lower the GPU temperature by up to 20°C compared to the reference air heatsink. PowerColor will ship the Radeon HD 4890 LCS with GPU and memory clocks of 900 and 4000 MHz respectively.

The MSRP of the card will be $339.

ASUS, world-leading producer of top quality graphic solutions, has today introduced the ASUS EAH4890 Series-the world's first graphics cards to utilize Voltage Tweak technology. With this innovation, users will be able to boost GPU voltages via the SmartDoctor application and enjoy up to an amazing 15% in performance improvement. For users who are looking for a graphics card offering astounding graphical performances even on default settings, the ASUS EAH4890 TOP will enable an 8% performance boost, delivering exhilarating gaming experiences.