Now, in our next article about an XFX video card, we have these Radeon HD 4890 1GB accelerator. As you might recall, we looked into these first ATI based XFX card which was the Radeon HD 4850 and found it to be a great option for gaming on a budget without making sacrifices on image quality. Although, just recently the Radeon HD 5870 was released which only brings that these older cards will go down in price and be even more affordable, but keeping up their performance. Of course it will no longer be the top performer, though will be able to keep up in most current games. This means it will surely become a graphics card that many would like to go for while not having to spend too much money. - Legit Reviews

XFX Radeon HD 4890 (55nm) 1GB Video Style Review

Unlike the Radeon HD 4850, the Radeon HD 4890 edition comes equipped with a minimum 1GB of memory with some of the add-in board partners upping the ante to 2GB memory. And on our board today, XFX chose to stick with the reference design Radeon HD 4890, which means that these card has 1GB memory. Being that it is a reference design, the GPU is clocked at 850MHz while the memory is clocked at 3900MHz. These numbers are nothing to scoff at, this ATI Radeon HD 4890 video card still has plenty of gaming performance for those looking to spend less than $200, which is already a nice budget but with great performance.

We can see that this card has the reference heatsink and fan, which means it is a double slot solution. We think that the dark tones of the sticker with the red fan and surround make the card look very sharp. Combined with an black PCB, you have a nice looking card. There really isn't much on the backside of these cards, aside from the black PCB and the heatsink retention mechanism. Though, non reference Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards with a frame buffer of 2GB will almost always have the additional memory on the back. When doing so most brands opt to also cool these memory chips with an additional backplate or cooling solution.

The box that our XFX Radeon HD 4890 came in was small, just enough to keep the video card safe during shipping, but nearly as bulky as most other boxes that we have seen. When it comes to performance, this XFX Radeon HD 4890 is very capable of playing any game out now even at high resolutions. As the highest performing single GPU card in the Radeon HD 4800 series arsenal, that is to be expected. And what was very surprising was just how little difference there was between the 2GB version and our XFX with 1GB. Clearly, the extra memory is not showing itself in our game tests, meaning in most it doesn't matter.

Now one thing to keep in mind when trying to settle on an graphics card is the warranty, which is where XFX shines. They offer the double lifetime warranty. This warranty covers you and the person that you might sell the card to against any defects or failures. All that is needed is to register the card when you get it. This actually adds a bit more value to the card over another brand in the event that you do decide to sell it. All in all, the XFX Radeon HD 4890 is a solid card that can still provide an incredible gaming experience at a reasonable price. While it may not be the latest and greatest, it gets the job done for much less money.