The Radeon HD 4890 is a faster version of the 4870. Launched in April 2009, it was the year’s only big new item in ATI’s high-end segment. How does it now compare to the new Radeon HD 5800 series?

Size, noise and heat generation

Physically, the 4890 and 4870 are like two peas in a pod. They are same size, same length 24.2 cm (9.5"), with a double-decker cooler. At idle, the graphics chip runs a little cooler than on the 4870, with a temperature of around 65°C. The fan is a little more audible – you can hear it distinctly even if your computer case is sound-insulated.

During intense 3D activity, the temperature was still lower than on the 4870, with the chip staying at approximately 82°C. On the other hand, the fan was quite a bit noisier, to the point of being annoying.

Energy consumption

Energy consumption is still a weak point on this model. Our test computer showed power use of 143 W at idle. A Radeon HD 5850 on the same machine brought that down to only 84 W. In load, the situation wasn’t much better, with a very high 358 W. Nough said, if you’re environmentally conscious, avoid this card. Note that the card requires two PCI-E connectors – one 6-pin and one 8-pin.

Gaming performance

Though it now qualifies to be called an older card, the Radeon HD 4890 still makes for very good gameplay on high-definition (1920 x 1200) displays. Its performance is close to that of the GeForce GTX 285, and it even does better in certain games.


With ArmA 2, for example, at 1920 x 1200 without the texture filters, the 4890 reached an average framerate of 40 fps. The GTX 285 didn’t do any better than 35 fps. But the trend was reversed with Far Cry 2, still at 1920 x 1200 but with the filters activated. Under those conditions, the Radeon scored 32 fps on average and the GeForce 43 fps. So NVIDIA won that round. Finally, the two cards were even with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X at 1920 with filters enabled. Both models scored an average of 61 fps.