Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Review

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Call of Duty: World at War

Call of Duty: World at War

To benchmark this game, we played through 10 minutes of the third mission (Hard Landing) starting from when the player first enters the swamp, through the first bunker until the final push onto the airfield. This was benchmarked using FRAPS.

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The performance of the HD 4890 1GB is nothing short of incredible, especially in situations which allow its high clock speeds to shine. Performance between it and the HD 4870 1GB sometimes exceeds the 10% mark which is really something to behold. It even punches in the same weight category as the GTX 285 and more than holds its own against the latecomer GTX 275 as well. Not too shabby for a card that should cost around $325 ($250USD).

 

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Crysis: Warhead (DX9)

Crysis: Warhead (DX9)

To benchmark Warhead, we recorded a 5 minute timedemo on the Ice level which included ranged and hand to hand combat. The sequence was then played back using the Crysis Benchmarking Tool from HOC

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ATI seems to always struggle against the competition in Warhead and even after numerous driver updates, not much has changed. While the HD 4890 is able to hang with the GTX 275 quite well in some tests, it starts falling further behind as resolution and IQ settings increase. On the other hand, it once again shows remarkable gains over a stock HD 4870 1GB.

 

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Crysis: Warhead (DX10)

Crysis: Warhead (DX10)

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To benchmark Warhead, we recorded a 5 minute timedemo on the Ice level which included ranged and hand to hand combat. The sequence was then played back using the Crysis Benchmarking Tool from HOC

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While the HD 4890 proves to be quite competitive at most resolutions, it just can’t seem to keep up with the GTX 275 in Warhead DX10. However, it still shows some good improvements over the HD 4870 1GB and nearly catches the GTX 275 at the highest resolution.

 

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Fallout 3

Fallout 3

For these Fallout 3 benchmarks we decided to use one of the more graphically intensive portions of the game: a gameplay session which starts at the exit from Vault 101, through Springvale, over a small hill towards Washington and then back towards Megaton. Within this session two ants were fought near Springvale. All in all, the gameplay time is about 6 minutes.

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When it comes to Fallout 3, the HD 4890 simply rules the roost. This is especially true if you take into account the minimum framerates displayed across the board. What is amazing is that with this performance, the HD 4890 is able to compete blow for blow with the GTX 285 in some cases.

 

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Far Cry 2 (DX9)

Far Cry 2 (DX9)

Even though Far Cry 2 has its own built-in benchmarking tool with some flythroughs and “action scenes”, we decided to record our own timedemo consisting of about 7 minutes of game time. It involves everything from run-and-gun fights to fire effects. The built-in benchmarking too was then set up to replay the timedemo and record framerates

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The performance of the HD 4890 in some of these apps is pretty shocking considering it is punching way above its weight class in some cases. In Far Cry 2 DX10 it either beats or sticks right with the GTX 275 and once again outperforms the HD 4870 1GB by a wide margin.

 

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Far Cry 2 (DX10)

Far Cry 2 (DX10)

Even though Far Cry 2 has its own built-in benchmarking tool with some flythroughs and “action scenes”, we decided to record our own timedemo consisting of about 7 minutes of game time. It involves everything from run-and-gun fights to fire effects. The built-in benchmarking too was then set up to replay the timedemo and record framerates

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In DX10, the tides turn a bit as the GTX 275 is able to make a comeback but the HD 4890 is still able to put forward some damn impressive numbers.

 

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Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

Due to the limitations the game puts on the graphics presets and how they can be adjusted, we decided to tweak our install. To do this we added a .txt file within the main game install folder with the command parameters –norestrictions and –nomemrestrict. In addition to this, we added the -availablevidmem (+memory multiplier) to effectively fool the game into thinking 512MB and 896MB cards were in fact able to access about 1GB of memory. Unfortunately, this means a 512MB or 896MB card will in fact be accessing slower system memory to make up for the discrepancy but that is a necessary evil to get comparable results. Finally, view distance was limited to 50%. Here are the full settings we used:

In this test we didn’t use the built-in benchmark but rather used a 10 minute gameplay sequence during in-game daylight conditions of which approximately 6 minutes were spent on foot while the remainder was spent driving. Basically, we find the in-game benchmark isn’t worth spit. All results were recorded with FRAPS.

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Unfortunately, it seems like ATI may be having some driver issues with as its performance goes through the floorboards the second we hit 2560 resolution. On the other hand, at any thing but extreme resolutions it performed amazingly.

 

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Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

For benching Left 4 Dead, we used a pre-recorded 5 minute timedemo taken during The Rooftop Finale mission. Framerates were captured with FRAPS.

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The HD 4890’s performance in Left 4 Dead was odd to say the least. Even though it retained a healthy lead over the GTX 275 in 1680 and 1920 resolutions, performance dropped significantly when extreme resolutions were used. Considering its memory bandwidth and framebuffer size advantage over the GTX 275, this is a bit of a head-scratcher.

 

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Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX9)

Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX9)

Even though HawX has a built-in benchmarking tool, we found that it did not provide accurate enough results needed to reflect what actual in-game performance would be. Thus, we played through the first 6 minutes of a mission and recorded the results with FRAPS.

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Even though HawX has been actively marketed by ATI, it seems that Nvidia cards have the upper hand by a long shot. One way or another, every card here provides more than adequate performance in this game.

 

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Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX10 / DX10.1)

Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX10 / DX10.1)

Even though HawX has a built-in benchmarking tool, we found that it did not provide accurate enough results needed to reflect what actual in-game performance would be. Thus, we played through the first 6 minutes of a mission and recorded the results with FRAPS. DX10.1 was enabled for ATI cards.

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Since ATI had some claims about DX10.1 performance in Hawx, we decided to put them to the test. Lo and behold, the change over to DX10.1 gave us all the bangs and whistles of the DX10 yet provided a huge boost in performance for the HD 4890. As you can see by the charts, normally ATI’s new card would be trailing the GTX 275 but with DX10.1 enabled performance shoots through the roof. Hopefully, more developers will begin implementing DX10.1 into their games if it means this kind of performance boost.