Date:
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Author:
Mark Warner
Editor:
Brent Justice
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ASUS EAH4890 Video Card Evaluation

AMD's new Radeon HD 4890 launches today and we've got it covered with a good [H] look at the ASUS EAH4890. We've got a great evaluation for you guys today, comparisons with the GTX 280, HD 4870 1GB and the new GeForce GTX 275. You guys won’t be disappointed, 1GHz GPU possible?

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Test System Setup

For our test system platform we are using an ASUS Blitz Extreme motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor at 3.66GHz, and 4GB of OCZ Platinum series DDR3-1600. For the power supply, we will be using a CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 1250W.

While it might be a bit "overkill," we use the 3.6GHz overclocked quad-core processor in an attempt to keep from putting our evaluation into a position of being CPU limited. Obviously, we make every effort to not use CPU limited games for video card evaluations, but the 3.6GHz processor seems to put many peoples’ minds at ease when it comes to that subject.

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Driver Setup

With both the NVIDIA and AMD video cards we will be using the latest drivers provided for evaluation. For the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 275 we will be using ForceWare 185.63 BETA driver, which was provided to us by NVIDIA for testing the GeForce GTX 275. For the ASUS EAH4890 1GB and the AMD Radeon HD 4870 1GB, we will be using Catalyst 8.592.1 RC1 BETA driver, provided by AMD for testing the Radeon HD 4890.

Below is a GPU-Z screenshot of the ASUS EAH4890 video card after we installed the drivers.

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Evaluation Method

We evaluate what each video card configuration can supply us in terms of a playable gaming experience while supplying the best culmination of resolution and “eye candy” graphical settings. We focus on quality and immersion of the gameplay experience rather than how many frames per second the card can get in a canned benchmark or prerecorded timedemo situation that often do not represent real gameplay like you would experience at home. Then we will follow with apples-to-apples testing based on real gameplay as well.