With the recent arrival of the new Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards causing an great deal of interest, the previous best performing single GPU from ATI has been left by the sidelines. While, on the whole these DirectX 11 capable graphics chipset launches have been an great success for ATI, but many users will still be sticking to the previous series, if not older. And as ATI seeks to monopolise the DirectX 11 market with NVIDIA's Fermi technology lagging far behind, it's surely a good time to be investing in a Radeon HD 4890 or other series. To further the lure of the Radeon HD 4890, ASUS have been quick to beef up the card with a unique cooler allowing increases to both memory and core frequency. - XSReviews

ASUS Extreme AH4890 Formula Card Version Review

The box is certainly eye catching with immediate attention drawn to the image of the cooler, evidently styled to look like an F1 car with the speed lines coming out behind. ASUS have also come up with the figure of 23% cooler, presumably than the stock Radeon HD 4890 model which makes this video card not only unique but allows for higher core and memory factory clocks over the stock model. The card is dominated by an unusual cooler which cools better than the stock cooler. Again, parallels can certainly be drawn between the design and that of an F1 car but the aesthetics are only a minor part and what we really want to see.

Looking at the results at a whole, it is very evident that the Radeon HD 4890 is a much better card than this GeForce GTS 250. Throughout all testing, the frames per second readings were considerably higher with no major problems in any of the benchmarks. So we must say that this cooler is much quieter than the stock coolers accompanying many graphics cards and at idle, the noise is pretty much inaudible. Of course as the video card is put under more stress, the noise levels do increase but not as with other coolers. With a price of around $249, its a little more than a generic Radeon HD 4890 but you do get a much better cooler.

The ASUS Radeon HD 4890 showing has definitely been a good one, so first and foremost we've got to mention the cooler. Essentially, this is what separates this card from the many other Radeon HD 4890 cards on the market. Overall, we're pretty pleased with it. Sure their F1 styling could be considered a little gimmicky, but the extra cooling is certainly welcome and allows for the factory overclocking. And the frame rates on the whole, were again very good throughout all types of games. Although to be fair, we must concede that Crysis Warhead is very harsh when the graphics levels are set to a maximum, so should be tuned down.

While price wise, you are looking at a $40 difference between the ASUS Extreme AH4890 Formula and a stock version. We have mixed feelings as to whether this board is worth this much more, but it is definitely something different with some performance increases to be had due to the higher clocks. All in all though, good job ASUS with another fantastic card which pretty much ticks all the boxes.