Date:
Monday , June 22, 2009
Author:
Matthew Krysiak
Editor:
Brent Justice
Google +1

PowerColor PCS+ HD4890 1GB

Today we are evaluating the PowerColor PCS+ HD4890 1GB. Based on the Radeon HD 4890 it comes with a 950MHz GPU clock speed and a unique cooling solution out of the box. We see how well it does against a reference HD 4890 and a GeForce GTX 275 in some new games such as Ghostbusters and Demigod with plenty of testing.

continued...

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Article Image

For Ghostbusters: The Video Game we picked a level that allows us to show a wide variety of the games scenery. While there are specific spots in the game that drag our framerates down no matter what we do, we find this to be a fairer representation of the game. Our mission starts outside while we shoot our way into a hedge maze. Once setting a switch, we then head inside and find ourselves in a cut scene, then in a battle, another cut scene, and then in deep dungeons of the castle fighting our way towards saving our companions. Our full gameplay performance evaluation is coming up soon to cover this new game more thoroughly.

Highest Playable Settings

Article Image

Article Image

Article Image

(Click Graph for Larger Image)

Note: The two long dips down to 30 FPS are cut scenes and the long dip down to 13 FPS is a loading screen.

In Ghostbusters: The Video Game, all three video cards were able to play at the highest in-game settings, 2560x1600, No AA, and No AF. The game doesn’t have any in-game AA options and the current AMD and NVIDIA drivers don’t allow us to force AA in the control panel. Regardless of the aliasing, we had a fantastic time playing on all three video cards. The PCS+ HD4890 did come out on top with an average of 54.7 FPS, about 4 FPS higher than a reference HD 4890 and a GTX 275.

Image Quality

Article Image Article Image

The two screenshots above are full size images of the game just to show how amazing it looks. The one on the left was taken on the PowerColor PCS+ HD 4890 1GB and the one on the right by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275. There are no image quality differences between these two screenshots.