We take AMD's latest 4890 card apart to see what makes it tick - and what cools it.
The 4890 is the latest card to come out from AMD/ATI, and is their newest flagship single-core card. It's not exactly revolutionary though, as we found it's more an evolution of the same tech that we've seen already.
While it isn't particularly new there is one significant thing that has changed about it, namely the Thermal Design Power (TDP). It's been bumped up to 190W, and even more power will be devoured when overclocking, so there has to be some serious cooling gear underneath the hood - and that's what we've set out to find.
Being a single-slot card, and only a single PCB means that it's going to be a lot easier to pull apart than the original GTX295 ever will be, but keep in mind that doing so will void any warranty you have. Of course, warranties aren't worth worrying about for us, so we ripped straight into the card.
Our test subject for this one is ASUS' 4890 card, so click on to see what's inside.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012