Introduction

Today AMD announced their Radeon HD 4890 Series. It is based on the RV790 GPU which is an improved version of the RV770. The major cornerstone specifications have remained the same, only improvements related to clock frequencies have been made. While it was almost impossible to get an RV770 to run far beyond 800 MHz, the ATI HD 4890 reference runs at 850 MHz core by default. Many partners will be offering overclocked boards as well ranging up to 1000 MHz core speed.

We have three HD 4890 reviews for you today:
Powercolor HD 4890 (this review), Sapphire HD 4890 and AMD HD 4890 CrossFire. While AMD has been sending out overclocked cards running at 900 MHz, our cards are based on the reference design clocks of 850 MHz.

Please note that the PowerColor HD 4890 we are testing today has been pulled out of the stock of a german distributor which means it is guaranteed to not be a golden sample.