The New $250 Price Point: Radeon HD 4890 vs. GeForce GTX 275

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for. And it's a tie. Pretty much. These cards stay pretty close in performance across the board.

Looking at Age of Conan, we see something we didn't expect. NVIDIA is actually performing on par with AMD in this benchmark. NVIDIA's come a long way to closing the gap in this one, and for this comparison it's paid off a bit. Despite the fact that this one is essentially a tie, NVIDIA gets props for being competitive here.

While NVIDIA usually owns Call of Duty benchmarks, the 4890 outpaces the GTX 275 at 16x10 and 19x12 while the GTX 275 leads at the 30" panel resolution. As long as its still playable, then this isn't a huge deal, but the fact that most people have lower resolution monitors who might want one of these GPUs isn't in NVIDIA's favor.

Crysis Warhead is really close in performance again.

AMD leads Fallout 3, and this is the first game we've seen any consistent significant difference favoring one card over another.

FarCry 2 takes us back to the norm with both cards performing essentially the same.

The 4890 does have a pretty hefty lead under Race Driver GRID. The gap does close at higher resolution, but it's still a gap in AMD's favor.

Left4Dead is also pretty much a tie with the card you would want changing depending on the resolution of your monitor.

Overall, this is really a wash. These parts are very close in performance and very competitive.

The Cards and The Test What will an Extra $70 Get You? Radeon HD 4890 vs. Radeon HD 4870 1GB
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  • SiliconDoc - Tuesday, April 7, 2009 - link

    Another red rooster who cannot argue with the facts and the truth, and doesn't want them known.
    Perhaps you'd notice, I didn't comment right away when the STORIED review came out, you FOOL.
    I came days later, and made my comments after you had your bs fest of lies, so I don't expect a lot of responders, you DUMMY.
    But you're here, and your response is calling for DEATH.
    Now, if anyone needs to be banned, YOU DO.
    Futhermore, I really don't care if you're here, and have enjoyed some of your posts, but the fact remains, where I have absolutely FACTUALLY retued your BS in some of your posts, you have no response - other than, your own personal rage.
    I'll be glad to see how you can defend yourself, but you obviously cannot.
    Go ahead, there's 22 pages, and I've pointed out your lies several times. Have at it. Good luck, just calling for DEATH, and spewing "ban him!" while carrying your torch of lies is just what I expect from someone who doesn't care what bs they spew.
    You already claimed you can't understand - LOL - of course you can't, you'd have to straighten out yourself and your lies then.
    Good luck doing that.
  • SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link

    LOL - the folding was crap forever on ati, and now it's slower.
    We know the release date for both cards, and the nvidia is already listed on the egg dude.
    When you're a raging red rooster, nothing matters to you but lying for the 2 billion dollar loser - ati.
  • sidk47 - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link

    You cannot argue with facts and the fact of the matter is that you can't help the world find a cure for cancer or Alzheimer's by buying an ATI!
    So those of you with an Internet connection, should buy an NVidia and fold@home all the time to help make the world a better place!
    Take that ATI and your associated fanboys!
  • x86 64 - Sunday, April 5, 2009 - link

    Folding at home is a total waste and is just an excuse to be smug and think you're special, so there to both of you.

    "Oh I'm going to save the world by buying overpriced hardware and letting some university use it for studying the human genome. I'm such a humanitarian."

    Please, you can justify your over indulgence any way you want but it still doesn't cover up the fact that you're trying to justify sitting on your asses instead of doing some real community work to help change the world.

    Folding@home = Too fat and too lazy to really make an effort.
  • SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link

    Uhh, dude, they're doing it at college, on like triple TESLA machines with the "supercomputer" motherboards - so you know, go get an education and start whining about unbelievable game framerates - that's what's really going on -
    Professor cuda machine checker " What happened ? "
    Gamer students " Oh, uhh, well it crashed again it was a Crysis, I mean uh, no crisis, last night and it took us about 5 hours to to reset the awesome TESLA cards. We'll come in tonight to keep an eye on it, and clean up the pizza boxes and lock up again professor."
    " Very well."
    WHO LOVES THE EDUCATION OF AMERICA? !!!
    hahahahaha
  • LeonRa - Saturday, April 4, 2009 - link

    Well, since you cannot argue with facts, it's a fact you are a stupid fanboy who doesn't know anything! Check your facts before you post something like that. It is a fact that you can do f@h with an ATI card, as I have been doing it for some time now. So STFU and go spill your hatred somewhere else!
  • SiliconDoc - Tuesday, April 7, 2009 - link

    You're not being honest there. A while back ati either couldn't do it all ( no port ) - or it was so pathetic - they had to make a new port - I know they did the latter, and as far having a long stretch where it wasn't available, or just not used much since it was so pathetically slow in compariosn, the fella has the right idea.
    Furthermore, unless something has recently changed significantly, the ati port is still WAY slower than the Nvidia for folding.
    So anyway, nice try, but telling the truth might actually be something the red rooster crew should start practicing .... or perhaps not, considering lying a whole heckuva lot might make those 2 billion dollar ati loses into "sales" that make "overall a profit" a reality...
    On the other hand, if people continuously notice the lying by the red fans, they might gravitate to the competition, for obvious reasons.
    So, honesty, or more bs ? I think I know what you'll choose.
  • marraco - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link

    I hope to see benchmarks with ATI in charge of graphics, and a Geforce in charge of PhysX.

    ... kind of SLI/crossfire betwen ATIs and Geforces :)

    A value-added of the geforces, is that, once you buy a new card, the old can unload Physics from the new card. Nice. I hate wasting old hardare.

    On other side, most of the games on PhysX nvidia list don't relly work with GPGPU PhysX. Only with the old AGEIA cards.

    Sadly, Crisys and Far Cry don't use PhysX. Only Havoc. And AMD still don't support it in hardware.
  • spinportal - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link

    No mention of the death of the HD 4850X2 as the HD4890 trashes the power consumption, price, availability, speed and OC-ability. No mention of advantage of DX10.1 and the games available. Hey, even bad news is good news sometimes by spotlighting. What is really missing is the bang for buck quality (bucks spent for performance increase), and talk about price depression for the HD 4870 1GB model by 10$ to 15$ with $50 step increments.
    4850 (125)[20.9] 4870 (185)[27.9] 4890 (235)[31.7]
    4870X2 (400)[35.0]
    Nvidia is cramping its own style:
    250 (150)[21.8] 260-216-55 (180)[27] 275 (250?)[31.3]
    280 (290)[30.9] 285 (340)[32.8]
    The GTX280 is dead now, overpriced for those trying to sneak into SLI. The GTX260 is overlapped with Core216 55nm you'd want to get, but Joe Consumer might mistakenly get the other 2 prior versions to clean out old inventory. The GTX285's price is not justified but more power to nVidia if they get the consumer's buck.
    Gladly, by the low temps the dual slot blowback is voiding hot air properly so the vendors are finally manufacturing cards with common sense.
    Too bad we have gone the way with power hungry beastly cards needing two 6-pins.
    Also, too bad the effects of AF and 0x00, 2xAA, 4xAA and 8xMSAA modes are not investigated. It would be interesting to see how saturated the units get as AF and AA gets bumped and what are the best modes for nVidia and AMD.
    Oh, nice blurb for nVidia's shadow enhancement, but ATi/AMD's tesselation enhancement is as much as a hit or miss feature. Will AMD have an tech edge when DX11 tesselation cometh?
  • SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link

    Hmm, that said, Derek might be crying, since he couldn't stop crowing about that 4850x2 last review - oh boy, you know - I guess he had the heads up and ati told him what card he needed to help push...
    You know how things are.
    Anyway, good observation.

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