Sapphire HD4890 1GB Toxic PCI-e Video Card

Test Methodology:

To test the Sapphire 4890 Toxic, we used a similar test bed as our recent 4890 reviews, as well as the same tests.  We will also take a long look at the overclocking capabilities of the Toxic. 

Here is a recap of our tests:

• Crysis: Warhead

• X3: Terran Conflict

• Stalker: Clear Skies

• Unigine Tropics

• 3DMark06

• 3DMark Vantage

Overclocking:

Overclocking the HD4890 Toxic is a bit easier than overclocking the reference versions of this card, in the sense that the BIOS allows for a greater range of clocks.  On the reference cards, ATI's Overdrive limits the core clock to 1000 MHz, while limiting the memory clock to 1200MHz.  The BIOS on the Toxic allows us some more headroom, allowing 1100MHz on the core and 1300MHz on memory.  Using the new and improved Auto-Tune, we got our Toxic up to 1035MHz on the core and 1055MHz on the memory.  In reality, we were able to get to 1040MHz/1080Hz  to run stable on every bench except Crysis: Warhead, which we had to reduce to 1030MHz/1070MHz.  Ever since ATI overhauled the Auto-Tune test a couple months ago, the accuracy of the overclocks has improved dramatically.  

On the aspect of the enhanced cooling, we used Furmark to log the performance of the fan at stock settings and speeds, and compared it to the max overclock at 100% fan speed:

The fan for the HD4890 Toxic is considerably more quiet than the stock jet blower on the reference card, but is still louder than the fan on the HD4850 Vapor-X we reviewed a couple weeks ago.  I generally find that the sweet spot is around the 60% mark, with anything above that becoming clearly audible. 

Intro Packaging and Layout Test Setup and Overclocking 3DMark Unigine S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky X3: Terran Conflict Crysis: Warhead Conclusion