Overclocking Extravaganza: Radeon HD 4890 To The Max
by Derek Wilson on April 29, 2009 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
All but two.
That's how many benchmarks in which our 1GHz/1.2GHz (core/mem) Radeon HD 4890 lead the stock NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285. That's nothing to sneeze at. Certainly it doesn't mean that the 4890 is faster or better than the GTX 285, especially because the GTX 285 can be overclocked as well to improve performance. What this does mean is that for about $100 less we have the potential to achieve the stock performance of NVIDIA's flagship single GPU part with a highly overclocked AMD GPU. From an end user value perspective, that extra $100 is there to ensure you get at least the performance of the GTX 285 along with any potential overclocking benefits you might have from the higher end part. There is still reason to buy the GTX 285 if you need even more power. But this is quite intriguing from an architectural perspective.
These tests show that there is the potential for a 959 Million transistor AMD GPU to consistently outperform a 1.4 Billion transistor NVIDIA GPU in the same power envelope at 55nm with similar memory bandwidth.
Yields and business being what they are, it doesn't make sense for AMD to push out a part at the extreme clock speeds we tested. But from an engineering standpoint, even with the smaller die, less is more, multiGPU at the top end strategy, AMD has built a part that can (when overclocked) best the stock performance of top of the line NVIDIA hardware designed to pack as much power into a single GPU as possible.
And that seems pretty significant.
At the same time, while we don't have any solid standardized OpenCL tests to run as of yet, it appears from some limited applications like folding@home and others that NVIDIA's approach may be better suited to GPU computing or more general purpose or flexible applications beyond gaming. We can't really confirm this theory yet, as there isn't a wide enough range of GPU computing applications, but it might not be that NVIDIA has been pushing CUDA so hard because they know it to be an advantage, not just in terms of software support and a feature check box, but in terms of a fundamental performance or architectural edge for these algorithms. The architectural path NVIDIA has chosen may well prove useful when DX11 hits and we see a further push away from DX9 towards really deep programmability and flexibility. Only time will tell on that front, though.
In the meantime, NVIDIA's margins are much tighter on their larger GPUs and now their single GPU performance advantage has started to erode. It seems the wonders of the RV7xx series have yet to exhaust themselves. Competition is indeed a wonderful thing, and we can't wait to see what comes out of the upcoming DX11 hardware battle.
For now, at resolutions below 2560x1600, the Radeon HD 4890 has the advantage. At 2560x1600, the lines become a little more blurry. For stock hardware the GTX 285 is still the fastest thing around in most cases. But if you want to take your chances with overclocking, 30" gaming on a single AMD GPU just got a lot more potentially attractive.
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lopri - Thursday, April 30, 2009 - link
It's my impression that AMD cards are more responsive to clock frequencies, while NV cards are rather dependent on units/clusters. We've seen it from GTX 260 vs. GTX 280, as well as 8800 GTS vs. 8800 GTX. There were situations where GTX 280 / 8800 GTS can't come over the performance of their older brothers, even with massive overclocking. (and their clock generator don't generate clocks linearly)Just a thought.
Depeche - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
BTW, great article but very long and time consuming xD to interesting. Keep up the great work!Depeche - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
Doesn't AMD make the cards a whole different way then Nvidia? Don't they have like really high clocks and memory while Nvidias is a lot lower with higher of other parts?Also has Nvidia made a card that's simply overclocked like the 4870/4890?
SiliconDoc - Saturday, June 6, 2009 - link
ATI has lost TWO BILLION DOLLARS SELLING THEIR GPUs ! A BILLION A YEAR EASY - YET DEREK HAS THE UNMITIGATED GAUL TO SAY THIS:.
" In the meantime, NVIDIA's margins are much tighter on their larger GPUs and now their single GPU performance advantage has started to erode. It seems the wonders of the RV7xx series have yet to exhaust themselves. "
ROFLMAO !
THAT MIGHT MAKE SENSE IF ATI HADN'T COST AMD A BILLION PLUS A YEAR ON BARELY 2 BILLION IN SALES! ATI IS LOSING 33%.
THEY SELL $100's OF ATI CARD, THEY LOSE $33 !
---
THE TRUTH REALLY REALLY SUCKS , HUH RED ROOSTERS !
SiliconDoc - Saturday, June 6, 2009 - link
depeche: " Doesn't AMD make the cards a whole different way then Nvidia? Don't they have like really high clocks and memory while Nvidias is a lot lower with higher of other parts?Also has Nvidia made a card that's simply overclocked like the 4870/4890?
"
THE ARTICLE HERE " We absolutely must caution our readers once again that these are not off-the-shelf retail parts. These are parts sent directly to us from manufacturers and could very likely have a higher overclocking potential than retail parts. "
LOL - WELL THAT SHOULD ANSWER YOUR QUESTION !
cocka doodle dooooo ! cocka doodle doo ! red rooster rides again !
ValiumMm - Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - link
lol noooobkmmatney - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
I had an NVidia Ti4200 that overclocked well - good enough to basically double the cards value. The original Radeon LE also overcloked well, and you could unlock extra pipes. I also still have an X800GTO2 that could be Bios flashed to an X850XT.nubie - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
I am not sure I understand what you mean by "simply overclockable"Just add the coolbits registry value to the classic control panel and there are two simple sliders. It has been that way for years.
As far as the speeds you can reach, just take care that there is enough cooling and power (voltage bumps if need be).
I learned how to shade a resistor and take voltage measurements over at vr-zone, I think Shamino has a tutorial for it.
StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
The most Overclockable card that I can remember from nVidia was the Geforce FX 5700LE it's stock core speed was 250mhz, I managed to crank my core speed on that card all the way to 640mhz on the stock Heatsink and fan, however thats not saying much as the 5700LE was basically a regular 5700 but with it's clockspeeds reduced to 5200 speeds, before that I had a Geforce 2 MX100 which was incredibly overclockable, and the TNT Vanta I had before it was as well, however I don't think I have seen a high-end part with that much overclocking margin.nubie - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
If you are willing to raise the voltage you can get really good overclocks.I had a 7900GS up to 720mhz (from 450mhz) before it couldn't take it. Backing off to 708-700 made it stable, so I settled for 650 and it has been rock-solid for 3 years.
It all depends on the kind of cooling and power you can bring it.