Packaging and Accessories

Before we discuss the design features and specs of the three unique ATI Radeon HD 4890 cards, we will describe their retail packaging and accessories.

Sapphire Vapor-X HD 4890 2GB

The box with the Vapor-X HD 4890 2GB is colored a cold mixture of silver and blue. It looks quite attractive.

There is not much of useful information on the box: the amount and type of graphics memory and the stickers telling that the box contains Futuremark 3DMark Vantage and CyberLink PowerDVD/DVD Suite. No mention of the GPU and memory frequencies. Inside the colorful wrapper there is a brown cardboard box. Inside it there is a plastic tray that contains the graphics card in an antistatic pack and additionally protected with pieces of foam rubber. Underneath it there is one more flat box with all the accessories to the card.

• HDMI → DVI-D adapter;
• 2x4-pin Molex→ 1x8-pin PCIe adapter;
• 2x4-pin Molex→ 1x6-pin PCIe adapter;
• CrossFire bridge;
• Sapphire logo sticker;
• User manual;
• CD disk with drivers and utilities;
• CD disk with СyberLink PowerDVD 7;
• CD disk with CyberLink DVD Suite 5;
• СD disk with Futuremark 3DMark Vantage.

The accessories are all right. Perhaps a copy of a popular game would be appropriate, but even without one the box contains everything necessary to run the Sapphire Vapor-X HD 4890 2GB. The product is good from this aspect.

MSI R4890 Cyclone OC

The packaging of the MSI R4890 Cyclone OC is devoid of any decorations and looks rather serious and demure.

There is as little information for the customer as on the Sapphire’s box: the type and amount of graphics memory and the remark that this model is pre-overclocked by the manufacturer. MSI, like Sapphire, does not spare marketing words, though. The manufacturer claims that the use of 8mm instead of traditional 6mm heat pipes is going to boost cooling efficiency nearly twofold. This can hardly be achieved in practice, though. The claim of using military grade components is dubious, too. High-quality capacitors and chokes do not make a graphics card a military grade device although does have a positive effect on its stability and service life.

Besides the graphics card, you can find the following accessories in the box:

• Two 2x4-pin Molex→ 1x6-pin PCIe adapters;
• CrossFire bridge;
• Brief user manual (English);
• Brief user manual (multi-lingual);
• CD disk with drivers and utilities.

Among the three versions of Radeon HD 4890 described in this review, MSI’s comes with the fewest accessories. They might have at least included an HDMI→DVI-D adapter in case the R4890 Cyclone OC will be connected to two monitors with digital inputs simultaneously.

Gigabyte GV-R489OC-1GD

GV-R489OC-1GD with a war robot, dragon or busty warrior girl, too. Instead, there is a list of features specific to the Ultra Durable VGA series. The dark-blue upright box looks pretty enough.

Besides some general information, the potential customer can read that the graphics core of the GV-R489OC-1GD is clocked at 900MHz. And there are again a few marketing myths like the myth about a favorable effect of gold plating on the operation of the HDMI connector. As a matter of fact, this plating has no effect other than aesthetical and an HDMI panel connected via an appropriate adapter to an ordinary DVI port is going to work just as well. Like MSI, Gigabyte mentions the use of high-quality components in its UVD series graphics cards, which is good.

Besides the graphics card, firmly fixed in a foam-rubber tray, the box contains the following accessories:

• HDMI → DVI-D adapter;
• DVI-I → D-Sub adapter;
• 2x4-pin Molex→ 1x6-pin PCIe adapter;
• CrossFire bridge;
• User manual;
• CD disk with drivers and utilities.

This kit is somewhere in between the kits from Sapphire and MSI: lacking any special bonuses, it does include all the adapters and connectors necessary to make full use of the card. The user manual should be noted individually as it is a detailed and well-written piece of information.

So, the Sapphire Vapor-X HD 4890 2GB has so far left the most positive impression on us, but pretty packaging and rich accessories are but secondary properties of a good graphics card. Therefore let’s proceed to what is really important.