As the name just suggests, MSI's new Radeon HD 4890 SOC Cyclone version is based on AMD's Radeon HD 4890 series featuring the RV790 graphics chipset. Even though a 40nm GPU has been announced in form of the RV740, AMD has chosen to produce these RV790 cores in their proven 55nm process which offers considerably better yields and uses readily available production facilities. So MSI has taken AMD's base design and heavily modified it for their purposes and as such released even three different Cyclone versions. The fastest of them all is the SOC edition which comes clocked at 1GHz which is using an rather big 100mm heatpipe cooler, though very much needed to keep running cool. - techPowerUp

MSI Radeon HD 4890 SOC 55nm 1GB Cyclone Review

The MSI packaging is dominated by black which makes it look just stylish and elegant. The front has only the most basic product information, while the back goes into much more detail what separates this product from the competition. One other thing that we noticed is that the cardboard that makes up the package is rather thin which gives this whole box an quite flimsy feeling. The center of attraction of these Radeon HD 4890 Cyclone is the big GPU cooler which goes a bit beyond the edge of the PCB. As expected the card uses a dual slot cooling concept, please note the pretty MSI stamp in the cooling slot cover.

You may combine up to four Radeon HD 4890 graphics boards in CrossFire for increased performance or higher image quality settings. You are of course free to mix such Radeon HD 4890 cards from any manufacturers for CrossFire. So be advised however that the cards will all sync to match the lowest common clock speed and memory size. Also we would like to point out that even though this cooler protrudes beyond the board and looks like it would block the CrossFire bridge, however this is not the case. The bridge bends nicely around the cooler, as long as you have standard spaced PCI Express expansion slots.

MSI offers their Radeon HD 4890 SOC Cyclone at a price point of $249. AMD's Radeon HD 4890 graphics card came in at a rather crucial time, to replenish the company's competitiveness in the higher performance graphics market against a stronger GPU lineup from NVIDIA. These newer fleet of 1GHz strong Radeon HD 4890 overclocked cards from various vendors manages to lock horns with the GeForce GTX 275, while not charging too much of a premium over the reference speed models. And this is where manufacturers such as MSI chip in with unique product design, cooler enhancements and bundles that sweeten the deal further.

Its biggest unique selling point, their Cyclone cooler does a satisfactory job in keeping the overclocked card cool, though it is not as quiet as we wanted it to be. At least it's not disturbingly loud. When idling however, the cooler is whisper quiet compared to most accelerators in its class. Being branded as an overclock accelerator, and the least we could expect would be better overclocking potential compared to the base models, as those premium parts are expected to be of higher manufacturing grade and the first choice of the discerning overclocker. Though this is where the MSI Radeon HD 4890 SOC Cyclone is a let down.

This low overclocking headroom also leaves a window open for the competing GeForce GTX 275 cards to catch up with its overclocking potential. Their power consumption has an similar reputation. To support the overclocked speeds, MSI have raised the GPU voltage and the voltage regulator seems to be less efficient than the reference design solution. So as a result, this is the most power hungry single GPU accelerator that came to our labs in recent times. At its suggested retail price of $249, the MSI Radeon HD 4890 SOC Cyclone is an decent buy for its target buyers, gamers looking great high definition gaming.