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Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 1GB

Very fast, very quiet

The core and memory clock speeds of the Sapphire Vapor-X are 870MHz and 4200MHz which is slightly faster than a basic reference 4890, which typically runs at 850MHz. Factory overclocked models are clocked at 900MHz, so the 870MHz chosen by Sapphire falls in the middle.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X

It's the cooler that makes the difference

Sapphire runs the 1GB of GDDR 5 at a true clock speed of 1050MHz which gives an effective speed of 4200MHz. This is at the top end of the various 4890 models on sale, which range from 3900MHz to 4200MHz.

During our testing we found that the Sapphire would overclock comfortably from 870MHz/4200MHz to 950MHz/4480MHz which is slightly slower than the 970MHz/4400MHz we achieved on a reference 4890. The difference amounts to two or three frames per second in Far Cry 2 using Full HD settings. This is mildly disappointing as the Sapphire HD 4890 Vapor-X is a premium graphics card. However, speed is only part of the equation.

3DMark Vantage Results

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X

Longer bars are better

Power Draw Results

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X

Power Draw in Watts (W)

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