ASUS EAH4890 TOP Video Card @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS EAH4890 TOP Video Card - Based on the Radeon HD 4890 GPU, the new ASUS EAH4890 TOP has numerous improvements over the reference design, including a new cooling solution and improved power circuitry. We compare it against a reference Radeon HD 4890 and a GeForce GTX 275 in the latest games including Call of Juarez Bound in Blood, Ghostbusters, and Demigod.

ASUS hasn’t just removed the reference heatsink, added their own, and boosted the frequencies. ASUS has worked hard to make their video card better. Our testing shows that the EAH4890 TOP overclocks very high out of the box and also uses less power than a reference 4890, the data simply backs up the work put into this card.
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I didn't see a mention of noise level?

and I am a fan of flat black!!!!!
 
As usual, nice review.

Why didnt you guys push the vcore like you did last time with the Asus reference 4890 review? ASUS bills this non reference 4890 design as best overclocking 4890 out there...would be nice to know how well the card overclocks after the addition of the Fujitsu capacitor.

Also very surprised on the lack of cooling effectiveness. I thought a heatsink this big would be more then enough to keep temps down.

cooler3.jpg


Maybe asus should rethink the black cover and put in bigger fans?
 
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Very nice article.

I like the design and heatsink.

Looks like a good buy.:D

Ever think about using STALKER: ClearSky in evaluations???
 
Yes, why did Mark NOT push the Vcore on this card since this is one of the reasons we gave it an award? Anyone? Brent?
 
Come back after you set the VRM's on fire or don't come back at all Brent. :D
 
SilverSliver said:
Come back after you set the VRM's on fire or don't come back at all Brent. :D
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They may in fact! Our card was an early sample, and unfortunately was missing some screws on the heatsink, we got them of course, but in the course of our testing the thermal tape may have been worn, this is why it wasn't done initially, but we will certainly take it up until it melts now that we are done with the testing we need :D
 
Brent_Justice said:
Noise level was mentioned in conclusion under the bottom line, there wasn't much to mention about it since it wasn't any quieter than the reference fan.
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That explains why I missed it I was looking for it in the temp/overclocking/power page SORRY!
 
After reading that I'm not regretting my GTX 275 purchase :cool:

Great review, by the way!!!
 
Interesting review so far. The main impetus for purchasing one of the aftermarket-modified 4890s, in my opinion, is for the added overclocking ability and the reduced sound footprint. The reference 4890s are well-known to be loud cards. That said, it looks like ASUS has done a decent job with the overclocking potential, and the long-term advantage of the SuperML capacitators may also be substantial. The sound footprint appears to be the same.

This is notable, as I would wager that the main competition for this card is the Sapphire Toxic 4890, which comes with a factory OC of 960/1050 and is overvolted by default.

Perhaps the Asus will run even better volted to 1.4. That would give it the competitive edge it needs. Right now, it looks like a comparably priced (slightly cheaper?) if moderately louder Toxic.
 
Nice review. I personally like the look of the HSF and I think that it did a good job of keeping things cool. Looking at the temp chart it runs only 1 degree higher (idle and load) when overclocked vs. the stock clocks. Not a huge stock overclock but the HSF seems to be doing a pretty good job at keeping things cool.


Brent or Matt, how did the temps look with the new overclocks (960MHz/4.5Ghz)? Is that something you'll add with the tweaked overclocked results?
 
Have you checked to see if the card can do 2560X1600 resolution on both DVI ports? ASUS' Tri-Fan 4870X2 (non-reference) can't and has been admitted by them, it'd be interesting to see if their non-reference design 4890 meets the spec's.
 
When asus put the aftermaket heatsink on they never reinfoced the pcb. The card sags under its own weight in my tower.
 
In the call of juarez screenshot, whats up with all the little lines appearing in random places all around the roof tops with the gtx 275? Is it just the angle the shot is being taken causing that? Looks like there are pieces missing from the roof and all those additional dark black lines hovering over them.
 
Drepd said:
In the call of juarez screenshot, whats up with all the little lines appearing in random places all around the roof tops with the gtx 275? Is it just the angle the shot is being taken causing that? Looks like there are pieces missing from the roof and all those additional dark black lines hovering over them.
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That is suppose to be the heat waves coming off the hot roofs. You can also see some of it on the 4890. Those heat waves are moving in the game however when you take a screenshot they can end up in difference phases for the picture.
 
if you guys really "blew up" the card can we at least get some pics of charred caps / burned out vrms :D
 
Zero82z said:
This hasn't been done. Are you still planning on adding it?
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It actually has been done, and is in the editor, but due to a problem with the editor it is not showing up on the main evaluation. I will copy and paste our results on that testing here:

Now we really wanted to see just how far we could push the EAH4890 TOP so we made use of ASUS’s “Voltage Tweak” and increased the Vcore to 1.375. With that done, our EAH4890 TOP was able to reach the Holy Grail of 1GHz. That is 40MHz over our initial overclock with default the voltage.

It even seems that we have some overclocking potential left in our GPU since we reached our GPU frequency limit of 995MHz in ASUS’s Smart Doctor and 1GHz in Catalyst Control with only a Vcore of 1.375. While we couldn’t get other third party tuners to work like RivaTuner, maybe in the future we will be able to use the full 1.45 Vcore that ASUS’s Smart Doctor allows and get even more impressive results.
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We had an issue getting RivaTuner to work correctly, to allow over 1GHz frequencies, so we maxed out Overdrive at 1GHz at 1.375v. Default voltage is 1.312v FYI.
 
Just want to add, we have another evaluation of a video card coming up that has even more special features, going as far even as being able to change the memory voltages AND timings! It is an ASUS card. We will be testing all of these features, without restrictions on frequency. Talk about overclocking potential.
 
Brent_Justice said:
We had an issue getting RivaTuner to work correctly, to allow over 1GHz frequencies, so we maxed out Overdrive at 1GHz at 1.375v. Default voltage is 1.312v FYI.
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Did you guys get the HD 4890 custom volterra plugin for Rivatuner?
 
Brent_Justice said:
It actually has been done, and is in the editor, but due to a problem with the editor it is not showing up on the main evaluation. I will copy and paste our results on that testing here:
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Well, by "hasn't been done" I meant the addition to the evaluation. Of course I had no way of knowing whether or not you had actually done the testing.
 
This is why I don't overclock my 4890. The performance increase is so negligible.
 
I notice quite a difference with my Asus 4890 TOP going from 900/4000 to 990/4500. It's not monumental, but anything that keeps that minimum frame rate up when gaming @1080p with heavy AA is more than welcome.

Upping the voltage doesn't affect the temperature much either, while gaming anyways.
 
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