Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890

Introduction:

As more and more GPU’s find their ways out of the factories and on the shelves (and possibly in your hands), we at TechwareLabs feel the need to show you the performance of yet another video card in ATI’s lineup. Sapphire’s Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 seems very promising from it’s crafty box art (what a silly penguin), to its sinister yet hovercraft appearance out of the box. However, before jumping to conclusions, is picking one the latest and greatest GPU’s really the best choice? Many can be deterred just by price alone. Yet does the GPU perform as well as one would like? Is it silent? Will it to turn your room into a sauna? Keep reading and find out how the Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 fares.

Sapphire’s Take:

“The SAPPHIRE HD 4890 Vapor-X model is a new SAPPHIRE original design. It has SAPPHIRE’s Vapor-X cooling module on the GPU together with a heatsink and profiled fan venting heat out of the case. It is quieter and significantly faster than the standard reference model, with core clock speed of 870MHz and 1GB of DDR5 memory clocked at 1050MHz. Any two of the four output options can be used simultaneously, giving maximum flexibility for connection to different display types.”

Features:

• TeraScale graphics engines
• 800 stream processors + 230GB/sec of memory bandwidth
• Unparalleled anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering
• Dynamically conserve energy at idle or when demand is low
• ATI CrossFireX technology with quad GPU support
• GDDR5 Performance
  

Specifications:

Grahics Controller	ATI Radeon 4890 GPU
System Requirements	PCI Express based PC is required with one x16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard. 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended (600 Watt and four 6pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode). Certified power supplies are recommended. 1GB of system memory of higher. Installation software requires CD-ROM drive DVD playback requires DVD drive. Blu-ray / HD DVD playback requires Blu-ray / HD DVD drive. For a complete ATI CrossFireX system, a second SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per board are required.
Operating System	Windows Vista Windows XP Windows XP x64 Edition Windows Media Center Edition 2005
Monitor	High-resolution MultiSync or multi-frequency Monitors or any other type of VGA monitor
External Connectors	DisplayPort Output HDMI Output DVI-I Output VGA Output

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Packaging:

The Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 box has an artic/winter theme. It comes in a blue, white and grey box displaying a penguin on ice and the specs and features on almost all sides.

Box front	Box rear

Once the box is opened the bundle contains: a manual, the installation/driver cd, CyberLink DVD Suite, CyberLink PowerDVD, a full version of 3DMark Vantage, an HDMI to DVI adapter cable, two molex to PCI-E adapters, a “Fueled by Sapphire sticker, and the CrossFire bridge (which can always come in handy).

Manual	(2) molex to PCI-E adapters
HDMI to DVI adapter	Installation/Driver CD
3DMark Vantage: Advanced Version	Cross Fire Bridge

A Closer Look:

The video card itself is packaged in a very nicely padded bubble-wrap anti-static bag. It also displays a giant warning stating: “You MUST connect this graphics board to the computer’s power supply.”

4890 Vapor-X in anti-static packaging	Warning up-close

Out of the anti-static bag the design of the card has a very sleek black glossy hovercraft-like look. The Vapor-X cooling solution contributes to the overall look and design. The GPU is powered by (2) 6-pin connectors. One of the many key features of this GPU is the combination of display outputs. There are 4 to be precise: a VGA, DVI, HDMI and Display Port. The HDMI output also supports up to 7.1 audio. You are able to use dual monitors using the HDMI to DVI adapter that came with the bundle.

Top view of video card	All the display outputs

The Test Rig:

• Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 -SP1
• Motherboard: ASUS M3A78 Pro
• CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720
• Video: Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890
• Power Supply: In Commander 850W PSU
• Memory: 2GB of Super Talent DDR2-1000

Benchmarks and Games Used:

• 3D Mark Vantage
• Unigine Tropics
• Crysis Warhead
• Far Cry 2
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• Left 4 Dead

For testing, the Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 will not be overclocked, however, the GPU itself is already overclocked from the factory at 870MHz. The temperature from the card is showing 50 Celsius even after being on for the majority of the day. The default settings for the fan have it set at 50%, which is not audible at all. The fan does not really become audible until set to around 80% and at that the temperature shot down to around 45 Celsius before returning it to 50% for the testing.

3D Mark Vantage:

3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 performance of your graphics card. They’ve been making 3DMark for over 10 years, with each new edition using the latest 3D technology to determine real-world performance. A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system’s 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system. 3DMark is widely used by the PC industry, press and media as well as individual users and gamers, for comparing performance levels between whole systems or even specific components.

	Points
Entry	33,132
Performance	9,829
High	6,413

The difference between “Entry” and “High” for settings is quite drastic. Though the point system rated the card fairly decently the FPS seen by the GPU throughout the test was very mixed and did not do too well. However, there are many more benchmarks to look through and this card should not be determined by one test.

Unigine Tropics:

Unigine Tropics is a cross platform 3D engine. Specifically designed to push a GPU’s limits it features photorealistic 3D rendering. It all has support for DirectX 9, 10, 10.1 and OpenGL. It features a very lifelike “tropical” scenery with a dynamic sky and light scattering. The photo realism also goes further with “live” water, HDR rendering and special materials for vegitation. The benchmark mode comes in handy to give a full test of a GPU’s  3D rendering capabilities.

AA = x8 / AF = x16 / all settings max	FPS	Score
1280 x 800	45.2	1138
1680 x 1050	33.2	836

The FPS in the Unigine Tropics test was very sound. The average 33.2 FPS in 1680 x 1050 showed no hesitation or stuttering at all during the test.

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Crysis Warhead:

Crysis Warhead updates and refines the game play of the original game through a side story plot involving Psycho, one of previous protagonist Nomad’s allies. The game is a parallel story that follows Sergeant Michael “Psycho” Sykes,a character from the original Crysis, as he faces his own trials and challenges on the other side of the island during the time period of the first game. It features new fully customizable weapons, vehicles and enemies, along with new multi player content. It also showcases a new, enhanced and optimized version of CryEngine 2 and is the first game developed by Crytek’s Budapest studio. Crysis Warhead seems to be the most demanding game out on the market to date.

No AA/AF	Gamer	Enthusiast
1280 x 768	33.2 fps	20.1 fps
1680 x 1050	20.1 fps	11.4 fps

Cysis still takes it’s toll on video cards. Attempting to run tests while maxing out all settings to “Enthusiast” shows the 4890 crippling under the Cry Engine 2. Even though at times the FPS found its way to 30, its a better bet to lower the settings or possibly take the chances at over clocking. However, when all settings were at “Gamer” in 1680 x 1050 I had no issues with playing. The card for the most part was reading between 27 – 35 FPS without any issues during gameplay over a long period.

Far Cry 2:

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of game play that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a fictional modern-day Central African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer. The game play of Far Cry 2 more closely resembles that of Grand Theft Auto rather than that of the original Far Cry

AA = x8	Ultra High	Very High
1280 x 768	47 fps	58 fps
1680 x 1050	36 fps	44 fps

The Vapor-X had no issues with the Far Cry 2 test. Very nice results.

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the fourth installment of the Call of Duty video game series, but the game now breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games and is instead set in modern times. The story is centered around a fictional near-future conflict involving the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, who are fighting against Russian ultranationalists in civil war torn Russia, and rebels that have staged a government overthrow in a small Middle Eastern country.

AA = x4 / AF = x16 all settings max	FPS
1280 x 768	86.990 fps
1680 x 1050	82.017 fps

There is not much to say, except that the results were very impressive in the Call of Duty 4 testing. Even with the increase in resolution the average FPS barely dropped at all.

Left 4 Dead:

Left 4 Dead is a co-operative, survival horror, first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by the Valve Corporation part-way into development. The game uses the Source engine, and is available for Windows and the Xbox 360.

The game pits four Survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic against hordes of aggressive infected. There are three game modes: a single player mode in which allied characters are controlled by AI; a four-player, co-op Campaign mode; and an eight-player Versus mode. In all modes, an AI, dubbed “The Director”, controls level pacing and item spawns, in an attempt to create a dynamic experience and increase replay value.

AA = x8/AF = x16	FPS
1280 x 768	112.22 fps
1680 x 1050	99.75 fps

Left 4 Dead was the smoothest run test out of the bunch. There should not be an FPS issue with this game even in the highest resolution when running the Vapor-X.

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Conclusion:

After a series of tests we found the card to be a stable GPU that runs cool, stays silent (for the most part) and handles quite a load graphics wise. The frame rate in the majority of games came out excellent. The card didn’t hit temperatures too far over 50 Celsius, even while gaming and the added silence of the fan at 50% was nice. At 100% the video card’s fan sounded like a mini pocket fan, if not quieter. With a price tag of about $200 – $230 there should be no reason to think twice about purchasing this video card, espeically if you are in need of an upgrade.

Because this card performed so well, and especially because of how silent and cool it remained even while under stress, the Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 definitely deserves the TechwareLabs Approved Hardware Award.

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