Now trying to keep track of whether NVIDIA or ATI have the fastest video card is about the same as asking what day is it? From one day to the next that title can change hands from one company to the other in a matter of hours. Looking back at the path that have gotten AMD to where they are today, has not always been smooth sailing, but when they released the first of their X2 series of cards things began to look up for them. This graphics card we are looking at today, very well maybe the last of these Radeon HD 4800 series of cards to appear since we are already seeing and waiting on these Radeon HD 5800 series to make their grand appearance, shifting the market in favor of ATI based cards. - Hi-Tech Reviews

HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 Board Series Preview

The front of their carton is typical HIS digital design with an nice fridged looking background that is a playoff on the newly designed iCooler x4 double slot cooler that is employeed on this card. This cooler not only helps keep your card cooler thanks to the four 6mm heatpipes, but it also keeps the card operating at least 10db quieter than a normal cooler would. That alone is a major selling point in our eyes. The four icons across the top of the carton let you know that this is a PCI Express card and it makes use of one gigabyte of GDDR5 memory. The center of the box has an icon showing the game title Stormrise which is included.

This board has an almost robotic look to it, thanks to the use of a black shroud which covers the majority of the video card itself. In the center you have a blue ultraviolet reactive fan which is all part of the iCooler x4 assembly. At the front of the board you will find one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector which supply auxiliary power. The rear of the graphics card is pretty standard fare, and you can see the rather large X-shaped retention bracket used to hold everything in place. These iCooler x4 features an high performance dual slot cooler which comes with four 6mm copper heatpipes that transfer heat effectively towards the central fan.

After using the HIS Radeon HD 4890 iCooler x4 graphics card for about a week now and playing countless games with it, we have to say that this video card is phenomenal. The question a lot of people are wondering about is whether this Radeon HD 4890 is a good card to purchase or should they wait for the Radeon HD 5700 series cards which are due sometime this month. As far as comparing them we can't tell you right now how they will stack up to one another since the samples have not shown up yet. But would we recommend this card to anyone, absolutely if you are a gamer and plan on having hours of fun playing games.