Sapphire is one ATI partner that really takes the time to build a better product for the consumer. Usually the lag time between the original reference video cards release and the "Improved" versions is a few months, at least. Not this time around. Just a scant one month ago, the HD 4890 was released with a clock speed of 850 MHz on the R790 core, and a clock speed of 975MHz on the 1GB GDDR5 memory. Pretty hefty increases from the HD 4870 it is replacing as the top dog single GPU in ATI's performance lineup. As ATI's largest partner, Sapphire seems to have a leg up when it comes to building enthusiast level video cards that usually start with their own PCB design. From there, the power circuits get the work over - and finally, to top it off, the "Improved" cards usually sport a readily available aftermarket cooling solution as seen on the HD 4850 Toxic model, or a full-on custom creation as seen on the HD 4870x2 Atomic video card.
Lately, the push on the cooling has been the extremely effective Vapor-X heatsink design that has adorned all of Sapphire's top end creations. This cooling concept was first released on the HD 3870 Atomic edition, back in early 2008. The last card we looked at from Sapphire, before the release of the HD 4890, was the HD 4870 2GB Vapor-X edition that took this concept to another level. Talking about going to the next level! What I have in my grubby hands here from Sapphire is a pre-production sample of the HD 4890 Atomic that really is a step above the standard HD 4890. The Vapor-X cooling is just the tip of the iceberg with this card. Let's see just what makes this card so special, and see what it can do.
To view the complete review click here
To view Amazon's price and description (for now just the 4890 standard) click here
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