Manli Radeon HD 4890 graphics card

The Manli Radeon HD 4890 offers strong DirectX 9 performance; its performance in DirectX 10 games was adequate, if inconsistent

PC World Australia (online)

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Manli's Radeon HD 4890 graphics card is powerful enough to run modern games without much difficulty. However, it runs slightly slower and has reduced overclocking potential in comparison to other ATI Radeon HD 4890-based graphics cards.

Pros

  • Performs well in DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games, minimal power consumption, HDMI output with audio

Cons

  • Operates at high temperatures, other Radeon HD 4890 cards have greater overclocking potential

Bottom Line

Manli's variant of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card performs well, but runs hotter than alternatives and isn't as stable when overclocking.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 300.00 (AUD)

Like other ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards, Manli's Radeon HD 4890 is powered by the RV790 chipset — currently AMD's most powerful single graphics processing unit (GPU). The graphics card's GPU is kept at stock specifications. This means the 55nm GPU has a clock speed of 850MHz and is complemented by 1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 975MHz.

These stock specifications also means that Manli's graphics card will only consume 60 Watts of power when idle and 190W at full bore, making it a suitable candidate for a lean CrossFire-enabled graphics configuration. Two 6-pin power connections are required to power the graphics card.

The Manli Radeon HD 4890 graphics card has a single S-Video and two DVI outputs. The DVI ports can be adapted to HDMI through a provided dongle and can even output audio over the same connection. This is enabled by default through ATI Radeon drivers, so you won't need an internal SPDIF connection as you do with the NVIDIA's GTX295, for example.

The Manli Radeon HD 4890 is cooled by a single fan located over the memory modules, and a shroud spans the length of the graphics card to distribute the fan's air to the GPU. During testing the graphics card operated at 59 degrees Celsius when idle and at 72 degree under duress. Compared to the temperature range 34-61 degrees seen on Sapphire's and ASUS' ATI Radeon HD 4890 cards, Manli's cooler isn't quite up to scratch.

These temperatures won't notably affect the graphics card's use under normal circumstances but they do inhibit the card's overclocking potential. We managed to reach a GPU clock of 970MHz and memory clock of 1080MHz without destabilising the graphics card. At these speeds, performance did improve — Crysis ran 4.2 frames per second faster. However, the ATI Radeon HD 4890 is supposed to reach a GPU clock of 1GHz with ease. Thankfully, even without overclocking the Manli Radeon HD 4890 graphics card offers good graphics performance. We installed the card in a testbed PC with an Intel Core i7 965 CPU, 6GB of DDR3 memory and a Western Digital VelociRaptor (WD3000GLFS) internal hard drive in an Antec Skeleton case.

The Manli Radeon HD 4890 graphics card scored 9896 points in Futuremark's 3DMark06 synthetic benchmark, which is a slight improvement over ASUS' GTX285. In 3DMark Vantage, however, the Radeon HD 4890 performed significantly worse, scoring X4606 points to the GTX285's X6191. In both tests, the Manli graphics card also didn't match the performance of ASUS' and Sapphire's Radeon HD 4890 stock cards.

Real world games benchmarks indicate strong DirectX 9 performance. Its performance in DirectX 10 games was adequate, if inconsistent. The Manli Radeon HD 4890 graphics card's strongest result was in Half Life 2: Episode Two, which it ran at a rate of 140.11 frames per second — faster than both the NVIDIA GTX285 and other ATI Radeon HD 4890–based graphics cards. It also performed well in Crysis Warhead and Far Cry 2, where it scored 34.72fps and 49.38fps respectively. Both these results were significantly faster than ASUS' EAH4890, though slightly poorer than the GTX285. In Call of Juarez, Manli's graphics card managed 57.4fps which, though better than the GTX285, is 3fps slower than the Sapphire Radeon HD 4890. Overall, there is little difference between Manli's card and other iterations of the Radeon HD 4890.

Where real-world performance is concerned, the Manli Radeon HD 4890 graphics card is another testament to a strong GPU from ATI. However, other Radeon HD 4890 cards operate at lower temperatures and have more overclocking potential.

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