eva2000

Purchased some new hardware which arrived today. My first HD4890 video card, an Amaze 1GB 4890-DT 1024D5 which seems to have a different cooler than the one pictured on their web site.

I purchased one HD4890 first, to make sure if it's reference or non-reference PCB and seem to be unlucky to get a non-reference PCB version although it's same PCB used on Powercolor HD4890 PCS which is default clocked to 950/4400!. But Amaze has naked memory chips rather than copper coloured heatsinks on the Powercolor PCS version. So could be lucky still ? We shall see

The heatsink height on Amaze HD4890 is ~40mm so slightly taller than the reference heatsink and takes up a bit more room making it hard to have two of these cards on Asus P6T6 WS Revolution's blue PCI-E slot #1 and #3. But luckily Asus P6T6 WS Revolution board allows for crossfire also on blue PCI-E #1 and #5 slots. So 2x Amaze HD4890 CF is possible, but 3x or 4x Amaze HD4890 will not be possible. Could go 2x reference HD4890 + Amaze HD4890 for Tri-CF though.

I seem to have messed up calibration of my LCD monitors, so not sure if these photos came out the way I saw them on my monitor heh.


Looks like it's non-reference PCB design which looks exactly like Powercolor PCS HD4890 PCB. The Amaze HD4890 even has same Qimonda DDR5 memory ICs and OnSemi NCP5388 0917 dated controller - so no Volterra controller = no softmods

Powercolor HD4890 PCS+ Bios

Thanks to Randy Bobandy on Techpowerup.com forums for providing the latest Powercolor HD4890 PCS+ Bios to compare with my Amaze card. Seems bios version is same with Amaze card being newer by 6 days but hardware string seems older/different from Powercolor PCS+ version. Also CCC max GPU/mem clocks alot higher on Powercolor card at 1050/1200 vs Amaze's 950/1050 max. Fan speed uses same method with slight difference at lowest temp fan speed profile.


Bios download:

• Amaze HD4890 bios stock speed 850/975
• Powercolor HD4890 PCS+ - stock speed is set at 950/1050 so make sure card can clock that far before flashing!!!

eva2000

Let's take a look at the Amaze HD4890 bios in RBE v1.21. Default 2D/3D voltages are = 0.925v/1.3125v respectively (RBE rounds them up/dpwm).

First Runs with Catalyst 9.8 Drivers

First time using 9.8 Catalyst drivers. The Amaze HD4890 default fan speed runs at 44% and idle temps are 45C. When fan speed set at 100% in CCC, idle temps drop to 40-41C.

So far 925mhz GPU on core is possible and naked Qimonda memory managed to get halfway into 3dmark Vantage @1050mhz speeds but eventually system froze, so backing down on memory speeds for further tests.

Only ran at cpu stock speeds so can compare once cpu is overclocked.

System:

• i7 920 C0 3836A756 #2
• EK Supreme LT 1366 / FESER 480 / MCP655
• Asus P6T6 WS Revolution
• OCZ Platinum DDR3-1333Mhz 7-7-7-24 (OCZ3P1333LVA6GK 'Animal Series')
• 1GB Amaze HD4890 9.8 CAT
• 750GB Samsung SATA
• Pioneer DVR-217 DVD-RW
• Corsair HX1000 PSU
• Win7 Ultimate RTM 7600 Build 64bit

AMD/ATI Catalyst 9.8 Drivers

GPU Tool

GPU Tool reports, no softmod voltage adjustments as expected from non-Volterra controller based non-reference HD4890 design.

3dmark Vantage

3dmark Vantage at stock 850/975 vs 925/975 was a 635pt difference at cpu limiting stock i7 920 speeds.

eva2000

WinXP Pro SP3 GPU Tool Stress Test
(Temperature tests)

Using GPU Tool stress test in 26C ambient out of the box, desktop setup environment with 100% fan speed set first, then manually set to 44% (note WinXP default fan speed is actually 50% but in Win7 it defaults to 44% fan speed).

Click image for larger full screen shot images.

@100% Fan Speed

• GPU: 40C idle > 71C peak load temps
• Display IO: 40.5C idle > 71C peak
• MEM IO: 46C idle > 77C peak
• Shader Core: 43.5C idle > 76.5C peak

Load


Post Load Idle

@44% Fan Speed

Weird that Rivatuner monitoring lost the ability to display fan speed RPM value instead now has fan duty percentage ???

• GPU: 44C idle > 87C peak load temps
• Display IO: 44C idle > 86.5C peak
• MEM IO: 50.5C idle > 92.5C peak
• Shader Core: 47C idle > 93C peak

Load


Post Load Idle

Multimeter Measured Voltages

Well I grabbed my Digitech QM1538 multimeter (old batteries so not sure of it's accuracy) and measured at the following locations and got for GPU volts 1.206v idle and 1.378v load for 3dmark06 and 1.391v load for GPU Tool stability test. Looks like maybe the card is already overvolted to hit 850/975 so poor clocker to start with ? Or my multimeter is off heh.

Not sure what 1.604v idle/1.62v load volt is ? Memory ??

eva2000

reserved #3

CryptiK

Nice, been awhile since Ive seen some 3D benching from you with current cards. Should be good.

eva2000

Yeah my time and $$$ spent focusing on memory/cpu/board more but thought it's time to play with some more recent GPUs

Wonder if there's a pencil volt mod for OnSemi NCP5388 controllers on Amaze HD4890 ?? Default 3D volts on this card are 1.3125v apparently.

youngpro

hey mate,

look forward to your results with this one... i also lucked out and got non-reference sapphire vapor-x cards... but fortunately the hard mod is an easy one =)

eva2000

Yeah hope maybe pencil mod out there for my card

Ouch, I thought your 4x HD4890 were MSI brand ? So they're sapphire vapor-x - hopefully they're not from that recalled faulty batch
Looking forward to your results too.