Sapphire Atomic Radeon 4890, from 1GHz GPU

[Golfert]

Introduction

Sapphire is one ATI partner that really takes the time to build a better product for the consumer. Usually the lag time between the original reference video cards release and the "Improved" versions is a few months, at least. Not this time around. Just a scant one month ago, the HD 4890 was released with a clock speed of 850 MHz on the R790 core, and a clock speed of 975MHz on the 1GB GDDR5 memory. Sapphire overclocked the memory on its Atomic edition to 4200MHz effective speed. We like the fact that Sapphire used its Atomic cooling on the first 1GHz card and the company definitely made our day as this card won't make you turn up the music to kill the fan noise.

Vapor-X technology is Sapphire's in-house-designed cooling concept that's been demonstrated to perform better than the reference heatsink.

Sapphire has three iterations of custom card-cooling, encompassing the Vapor-X (non-overclocked), TOXIC (pre-overclocked), and ATOMIC. The ATOMIC ships with the swanky cooler and increases clock-speeds on all parameters.

[Golfert]

Description

The Sapphire card developed by and based on current GPU dedicated to high-end market has a clean layout and essential, even on the heatsink that uses a single central fan. As for most of the models used for the average high-end market, including Radeon HD 4890 Atomic has a dual-slot design while maintaining a length of about 25 centimeters, which does not create particular problems for mounting the same in a standard chassis.

The department has no connections news: there are two dual-link DVI in addition to the ever-present connector for the management of any analog display. Compatible with any LCD panels equipped with HDMI port.

the cards belonging to the series Atomic, as well as Toxic, are equipped with a six-pole connector and an eight-pole Sapphire is due to apply to a similar expedient in order to ensure a sufficient supply for the proper functioning of the card. Consumption, as the graphics processor is the same version of the reference, will be intuitively higher.

[Golfert]

Graphic card design

The design with which Sapphire has developed is its own solution Atomic, no particular revolutions has eight memory chip from 128MB one is around the graphics processor, all cooled by a single heatsink. The rear of the PCB is, as usual, devoted to Power supply.

In order to ensure stability of operation Atomic Radeon HD 4890 is equipped with a power system in seven phases: the five inducers above are visible in their charge to this task. The first two components from the left are those dedicated to the memory modules GDDR5, while the remaining two, respectively two and three phases (Vitec 59PR9852 and CPLA-3-50) are used to feed the GPU. In comparison to Radeon HD 4870, and 4890 represents the evolution, the power sector appears much more advanced and complex, especially accomplices 190 watts required for the operation.

The heatsink used for the Sapphire development is one of the distinctive solution which is of the Atomic series: a combination of Vapor chamber and the heat pipe which take away the heat along with them. The heat is conveyed to all the radiator which, surmounted by a single fan,which is to maintain constant temperature during operation of the card.

[Golfert]

comparison/features between heatsink

The cooler in this case is a slight variant of that used on the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic, comprised of a triple heatpipe equipped base that fits directly over the GPU with the three nickel plated copper heatpipes then running though a stack of cooling fins the length of the card to ensure even heat distribution. A 90mm cooling fan is mounted in the center of the card, blowing air both directly down and onto the GPU and PCB and out and over the cooling fins, with a plastic shroud used to focus airflow towards the front and back of the card.

The Vapor-X heatsink fan used on the HD 4890 Atomic has fewer fan blades than the fan on the HD 4870 2GB Vapor-X edition, released just a few weeks back. There are two heatsinks used on the HD 4890 Atomic: one for the GPU and memory, and a small aluminum finned block that covers the voltage regulation components on the tail end of the PCB. The main heatsink uses Sapphire's own Vapor-X technology, with a copper plate tied to three large heatpipes that carry the heat away to the fin array.

[Golfert]

Temperature
Temperatures are absolutely fantastic on the ATOMIC, and that's even more impressive once you factor in the pre-overclocking on the card and how quiet the cooler is.


Power-draw
Our guess was that Sapphire had bumped up the voltage - and wattage, therefore - on the card to hit the specified core frequency of 1,000MHz. The power-draw numbers bear this out to a very small degree, we suppose, as it draws 9W more than a default-clocked card. The provision of an eight-pin connector is more about Sapphire playing it safe, it would seem.

Note however that not any HD 4890 can be overclocked so high, since such a feat requires the best and 1GHz-capable cores, something that Atomic 4890 obviously packs. However, we can’t say that Sapphire is alone in this game, as a couple of partners have also managed to break the magical 1GHz.

[Golfert]

Warranty

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic comes complete with a two-year warranty that includes cover for parts and labour. During the first year of the product’s life, your point of contact should be the retailer. However, if you’re having problems getting hold of the retailer (or the retailer goes out of business), you should contact Sapphire’s support team directly. During the second year of the warranty period, you should talk directly with Sapphire. This is pretty much in line with what other ATI board partners offer, and while the two year warranty is more than you’re legally entitled too, it isn’t as comprehensive or as long lasting as what’s available from some of Nvidia’s board partners.