Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Review

A Closer Look At The Sapphire HD 4890 1GB

Please note that due to a change in the heatsink stickers, the below pictures have been modified at Sapphire’s request.


Deja Vu anyone? Yup, upon first glance the HD 4890 is a spitting image of its lower spec’d brother; the HD 4870. It is the same 9.5” length and like most other ATI high-end cards it uses a full coverage heatsink to dissipate heat from the core and memory. In Sapphire’s case they decided to use a heatsink shroud sticker which closely mirrors the color scheme chosen for the box art. Unlike the HD 4870 X2, this card sticks with ATI’s usual red PCB and cooling assembly.


Sapphire has used both the heatsink shroud and the cooling fan hub for some additional ATI branding. As usual, the sticker placed on the side of the heatsink is placed in such a way that it will be upright if you install it into a standard ATX case. Those of you with reverse ATX Lian Li enclosures may want to flip this sticker around.


The HD 4890 uses a double bridge Crossfire connector that has been the staple on most other Crossfire-compatible cards. It is slightly hidden underneath an overhang from the heatsink but during testing, this didn’t have any effect on access to the connector.

According to ATI, the maximum board power for this card hovers around the 180W mark and as such it requires a pair of 6-pin PCI-E connectors. Considering the clock speeds, we really have to say that 180W a most isn’t bad at all.


One advantage that the HD 4890 has over the GTX 275 is size. Overall, the GTX 275 is a good inch longer than ATI’s card.