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- Date:
- Monday , June 22, 2009
- Author:
- Matthew Krysiak
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
PowerColor PCS+ HD4890 1GB
Today we are evaluating the PowerColor PCS+ HD4890 1GB. Based on the Radeon HD 4890 it comes with a 950MHz GPU clock speed and a unique cooling solution out of the box. We see how well it does against a reference HD 4890 and a GeForce GTX 275 in some new games such as Ghostbusters and Demigod with plenty of testing.
Introduction
PowerColor is a well-known manufacturer of AMD/ATI based video cards. Founded in 1997 they produce PC cases, motherboards, TV Tuners, and power supplies. PowerColor exclusively features ATI GPUs and AMD based motherboards.
Today we will be evaluating one of PowerColor’s brand new custom 4890 series video cards; the PowerColor PCS+ HD4890 1GB.
AMD Radeon HD 4890
The AMD Radeon HD 4890 was launched on April 1, 2009. It is powered by AMD’s latest generation GPU the RV790. Its forbearer, the RV770, can be found on the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 series of video cards. Meant to take the place of the HD 4870 as AMD’s fastest single GPU video card, the reference frequencies have been increased on the HD 4890. The GPU clock rate increased by 100MHz to 850MHz and the memory clock rate has increased by 75MHz, for an aggregate data-rate frequency of 3.9GHz, which is 300MHz over the Radeon HD 4870.
PowerColor PCS+ HD4890 1GB
The PCS+ HD4890 1GB is PowerColor’s premier Radeon HD 4890 model with a unique cooling solution, a GPU frequency of 950MHz and a memory frequency of 4.2GHz. That puts it 100MHz over reference frequency on the GPU and 300MHz over reference frequency on the memory. They are very near the 1GHz barrier, and we want to see if we can crack that on this card. PowerColor also offers a PCS HD4890 that uses the same cooling solution, a LCS HD4890 that comes with a full card waterblock preinstalled, and other versions using the reference cooling solutions. However, the PCS+ is PowerColor’s fastest HD 4890 even beating the LCS by 50MHz on the GPU and 200MHz on the memory.
The box is small compared to a few other manufactures; it measures only 11.5"x7.5"x2.75". The front is decorated with a female in elaborate armor holding a sword. Covering up part of her sword is a sticker making note of the "Professional Cooling System" however nowhere on the box does it state its benefits. At her waste is another sticker "PCS+", this is the only thing on the box that gives us any indications that the frequencies have been increased. The back of the box covers the standard details of the HD 4890 series.
When looking at this card your eye is immediately drawn to the quad-heatpiped sleek black aluminum GPU cooling solution. Unfortunately, as your eye starts to wonder around it also notices the copper memory heat spreaders, the copper power circuitry heatsink, and copper card support. It would have been much more aesthetically pleasing if they had just stuck with the black aluminum or gone all copper. Also to note that the hot air coming off the heatsinks isn’t ducted out the back so some of the heat from the card will stay inside you case. The head of the video card has the standard S-Video port with two DVI ports. On the tail end of the video card are the two six-pin power connectors. PowerColor has gone to great lengths to make sure heat is dissipated from all components of the video card that actually get hot.
The video card comes with the basic accessories: a Driver CD, a quick installation guide, a DVI to D-sub adapter, a DVI to HDMI adapter, a crossfire bridge, and an S-Video to composite cable.