Date:
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Author:
Mark Warner
Editor:
Brent Justice
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ASUS EAH4890 Video Card Evaluation

AMD's new Radeon HD 4890 launches today and we've got it covered with a good [H] look at the ASUS EAH4890. We've got a great evaluation for you guys today, comparisons with the GTX 280, HD 4870 1GB and the new GeForce GTX 275. You guys won’t be disappointed, 1GHz GPU possible?

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Crysis: Warhead

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We are using the full version of Crysis: Warhead. We will be playing Warhead in DX10 via the 64-bit executable thanks to the latest patch. We are playing the entire "Train" level, titled "From Hell's Heart." Our run-through starts off with us getting on the train, manning the gun turrets, and blowing up everything along the way as the train progresses down the tracks. We stop at the tower, perform the mission there, and continue on until the end. This run-through features plenty of explosions, shader effects, dense swamps and vegetation, explosions, gun fire, enemy combat, and did we say explosions?

Highest Playable Settings

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(Click the above image for a larger version.)

For Crysis: Warhead, the ASUS EAH4890 proved to be quite noticeably faster than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB, and ended up dead even with the gameplay experience of the GeForce GTX 275, though the framerates were just a tad faster on the 4890. The ASUS EAH4890 allowed us to play Warhead at 1920x1200 with 16X AF, and the in-game Texture, Game Effects, Particles, and Water settings set to the Enthusiast level, while all other in-game settings were playable at the Gamer setting. The same settings were also playable on the new GeForce GTX 275.

The GeForce GTX 280 was faster than the ASUS EAH4890 and the GeForce GTX 275, and quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB. The GTX 280 allowed us to play at 1920x1200 with 16X AF, but with the in-game Texture, Physics, Volumetric Effects, Post-processing, and Water settings set to Enthusiast, and the other in-game settings at Gamer. Though these settings were higher, it was not terribly easy to spot differences in the resulting image quality and gameplay experience compared to the GTX 275 and 4890. There was a large noticeable difference compared to the 4870 1GB though.

At the lower end of the spectrum of video cards we have here (which is odd saying since before now the 4870 1GB was the high-end of what AMD had to offer) the Radeon HD 4870 1GB was only able to play at 1920x1200 with 16X AF and all in-game settings at Gamer. In past evaluations, we have found the same settings to be playable on the GeForce GTX 260. Therefore you can take this gameplay and say that the 4870 1GB and GTX 260 are similar in this game to infer what the GTX 260 would look like in this comparison.

So for Crysis: Warhead at least, the ASUS EAH4890 represents a significant upgrade in performance over the Radeon HD 4870 1GB and a GTX 260. It is even tapping on the GeForce GTX 280's shoulders, coming very close to that more expensive video card's level of performance, while breaking even with the new GTX 275 in gameplay experience.