Rumour: Radeon HD 4890 coming in April

Author: Ben Hardwidge
Published: 16th February 2009
Comments (14) Stumble
Rumour: Radeon HD 4890 coming in April

The Radeon HD 4870 PCB already has space for a larger VRM, which could regulate the higher voltage from a GPU with higher clock speeds

In a bid to take on the threat from Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 285, the rumour mill reports that AMD is planning to release a new single-GPU graphics card in April called the Radeon HD 4890.

Tech gossip site VR-Zone claims to have spoken to a source with a sample of the GPU, who says that it will be based on the RV790 core, and will feature a core clock speed of 850MHz and a GDDR5 memory clock speed of 975MHz (3.9GHz effective).

The site also reports that two versions of the GPU will be released as standard – a standard edition and an overclocked edition. The former is apparently due to be released in mid April, with the latter arriving in a future month.

As a point of comparison, a standard Radeon HD 4870 has a GPU clock speed of 750MHz and an effective GDDR5 memory clock speed of 3.6GHz. The site also claims that the GPU will have a comparatively high operating voltage of 1.3V, but makes no mention of an increase in the number of stream processors or texture units, meaning that the GPU would just offer a hike in clock speeds.

When we first looked at the Radeon HD 4870, we noticed that there were two spare solder pads next to the card’s Vitec 59PR9853 multi-phase inductor, which regulates the voltage of the GPU, so a larger VRM could be installed on an existing RV770 PCB to accommodate a new GPU with a higher voltage.

This would tie in with other reports on the Web that say that AMD is working on a product to fill the gap between the current 55nm RV770 and the future 40nm RV870 core, sticking with the same 55nm fabrication technology as the former. If the RV790 is a 55nm that’s pin-compatible with RV770, then it would be easy enough for board partners to use the existing PCB and slot in a new VRM and GPU. VR-Zone claims that the Radeon HD 4890 is due to be priced at around $299 US (£241.13) when it’s launched.

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Quote V3ctor 16th February 2009, 12:14
Regular HD4870 can do 820Mhz in the Core, and the memory can get those 3.6Ghz... so... I just hope that is has some more transistors under the hood..
Quote Goty 16th February 2009, 12:24
A voltage bump would be kind of scary with ATI's stock cooling. Hopefully they either A) come out with a new cooling solution or B) have tweaked the design enough to bring down the power consumption a bit.
Quote Jack_Pepsi 16th February 2009, 12:31
I just want the price of the 4850 to drop to £100 or lower.

:D
Quote wiak 16th February 2009, 12:43
techpowerup reported 960 shaders
http://www.techpowerup.com/85275/RV740_Launch_Pushed_to_April.html

given the fact that RV770 cards have memory rated for 4ghz this makes sense :P
so board partners only need to change VRM and GPU, nothing else as the memory is rated for 4ghz ;)
http://img.techpowerup.org/090216/Capture100-20090216-134242.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Diamond/HD_4870/4.html
Quote Farting Bob 16th February 2009, 15:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by
I would hope that this new card uses less power than original 4870's. It'll be ~9 months since the 4870 was released, plenty of time for them to work on reducing power consumption to offset the speed increase.
And i wonder if the next generation will be the first to actually have LOWER power needs than the previous gen? GPU power consumption cant continue to go up. Idle power is pretty good, but once you start using the card even a mid range card these days will use more than all your other componants combined.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 16th February 2009, 17:14
lol and I bought a couple of 4870 a couple months ago... eh thats what always happens lol oh well probably not really worth the upgrade from 4870 to 4890 so I will hang tight for the 5k series ^__^
Quote V3ctor 16th February 2009, 18:05
I'l hold for the 6k Series... ^_^ I'm just going to change my Q6600+HD4870 in 2011 or so when Sandybridge arrives... To me HD4870 is more or less like 9700PRO... great bang for buck, and I hope it lasts until 2011 ^_^
Quote loftie 16th February 2009, 19:22
Sounds pretty good, though I agree with the power and heat problems. The 4870 ran pretty hot and so did the 4850, hopefully they will have solved that problem. And the idle power. From what i remember nvidias idle power was much better, at least if it's under load you can understand it using a fair bit of power, but when its doing nothing it's just silly. Either way, hopefully it'll shake up the prices a bit!
Quote quake1-rules 16th February 2009, 20:07
Quote:
Originally Posted by loftie
Sounds pretty good, though I agree with the power and heat problems. The 4870 ran pretty hot and so did the 4850, hopefully they will have solved that problem. And the idle power. From what i remember nvidias idle power was much better, at least if it's under load you can understand it using a fair bit of power, but when its doing nothing it's just silly. Either way, hopefully it'll shake up the prices a bit!

FYI the ATI 4870 can be configured to save idle power, it just doesn't do by itself. I save 36watts (my UPS says so) of idle power consumption by dropping my 4870 512MB to 160mhz GPU and 225mhz for the RAM. Core temp drops to 38c doing that with fan at %25.
Quote yanglu 16th February 2009, 21:39
Its looking like the RV790 won't be a 40nm chip then. I was kinda hoping it would be, that would really put pressure on Nvidia which has only moved to 55nm quite recently.
Quote DXR_13KE 16th February 2009, 23:10
Quote:
Originally Posted by wiak
techpowerup reported 960 shaders
http://www.techpowerup.com/85275/RV740_Launch_Pushed_to_April.html

given the fact that RV770 cards have memory rated for 4ghz this makes sense :P
so board partners only need to change VRM and GPU, nothing else as the memory is rated for 4ghz ;)
http://img.techpowerup.org/090216/Capture100-20090216-134242.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Diamond/HD_4870/4.html

didn't qimonda go belly up?
Quote boiled_elephant 16th February 2009, 23:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by HourBeforeDawn
lol and I bought a couple of 4870 a couple months ago... eh thats what always happens lol oh well probably not really worth the upgrade from 4870 to 4890 so I will hang tight for the 5k series ^__^

Yeah, me too. I'll bump mine up to crossfire like you when things get sluggish, that'll be enough for me. I'm hoping that after the next couple of years, graphics will hit a platform for a while where the visual improvements become imperceptible and we can lay off buying £900 machines every two damn years...
Quote HourBeforeDawn 16th February 2009, 23:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXR_13KE
didn't qimonda go belly up?

they probably have a lot of stock
Quote Horizon 17th February 2009, 09:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXR_13KE
Quote:
Originally Posted by wiak
techpowerup reported 960 shaders
http://www.techpowerup.com/85275/RV740_Launch_Pushed_to_April.html

given the fact that RV770 cards have memory rated for 4ghz this makes sense :P
so board partners only need to change VRM and GPU, nothing else as the memory is rated for 4ghz ;)
http://img.techpowerup.org/090216/Capture100-20090216-134242.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Diamond/HD_4870/4.html

didn't qimonda go belly up?

no, not yet they only filed for protection
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.