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Review: Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 XT and XFX Radeon HD 4890 OC XXX vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275

by Tarinder Sandhu on 2 April 2009, 05:00 3.7

Tags: Radeon HD 4890 XT 1GB (Sapphire) 9.4, AMD (NYSE:AMD), Sapphire, ATi Technologies (NYSE:AMD), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), XFX (HKG:1079), PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaroh

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System setup and notes

    
Graphics cards BFG GeForce GTX 285 1,024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
896MB		 BFG GeForce GTX 260 
896MB		 XFX Radeon HD 4890 OC 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 XT 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1,024MB
Current pricing, including VAT £299
 £199+ (estimated)* £160 £225+ (estimated) £199+ (estimate)
 £165
Shader model 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.1
Stream processors 240 240 216 800 800 800
GPU clock speed (MHz) 648 633 576 900 850 750
Shader clock speed (MHz) 1,476 1,404 1,242 900 850 750
Memory clock speed (MHz) 2,484 2,268 1,998 3,900 3,900 3,600
Memory bus width (bits) 512 448 448 256 256 256
CPU Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1,366)
Motherboard Foxconn Bloodrage X58
Motherboard BIOS P04
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.0.1012
Memory 6GB Corsair DOMINATOR PC12,800
Memory timings and speed 9-9-9-24 1T @ DDR3-1,333
PSU Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1,000W
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px
Disk drive(s) Seagate 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (3Gb/s mode)
Graphics driver ForceWare 182.06 ForceWare 185.63 ForceWare 182.06  Catalyst 9.4 beta? Catalyst 9.4 beta? Catalyst 9.3
Operating system Windows Vista Business SP1, 64-bit

Software

3D Benchmarks Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark: DX9 - very high quality
Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX10 - very high quality
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality
Far Cry 2 v1.01 - very high quality
Race Driver: GRID v1.2, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark - ultra quality

Notes

It's single-GPU mayhem with a total of six cards that currently cost anywhere between £145 and £299. The GeForce GTX 285's pricing will change, we're sure, but the real comparison is between GeForce GTX 260 896MB, '275 896MB, Radeon HD 4870 1GB, 4890 XT 1GB, and 4890 OC 1GB. Ready?

Due to the late arrival of the GeForce GTX 275-supporting driver, R185, which brings performance increases on its own, the only card to run with it is the new GPU from NVIDIA. Bear this in mind when looking at results, please.

* We've been reliably informed that all major etailers have plentiful stock of Radeon HD 4890s. However, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 275 appears to be few and far between, suggesting that its 'launch' was pulled forward to match ATI's.

The pricing of the new cards is our best-guess for day of launch, based on the cheapest SKU around. You may well see cards listed for substantially more, but that's generally true for any launch. Think of the pricing as indicative of week two's.

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