XFX HD 4890 @ 901Mhz core / 1200Mhz memory

Vantage default tests

Date reviewed: March 14th, 2010

Author: Chris

This benchmark required me to do a pencil mod. in order to raise the HD 4890's core voltage to 1.45volts. Without the volt mod. my card topped out at a speed of 885 Mhz for the core.

Here are the system's configuration for this test:

• CPU : Intel Quad Core Q6600 (lapped) @ 3.6 Ghz
• CPU Heatsink : Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (lapped)
• CPU Fans : 2x Silverstone FM-121 fans in push-pull configuration
• Motherboard : Gigabyte P35-DS3R
• Memory : OCZ Gold XTC Series 2x2GB PC8500 @ 1050MHz CL5.0 6-6-18 2T Dual Channel
• Videocard : Radeon HD 4890 @ 850/975 mhz Stock cooling
• Hard Drives : Seagate 500GB SATA2 16MB Cache
• Monitor : BenQ 24" FP241VW LCD HDMI
• Case : Antec P-180
• Case Fans : 2x Silverstone FM-121 fans in exhaust configuration
• Sound Card : Creative Audigy 2ZS
• Power Supply : Corsair TX750W
• OS : Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit SP2

The first pics show the front packaging, the back packaging wich lists the info above and we can see the plastic holder inside the box to keep the ram heatsinks from moving around.

Here you can see the 3 sinks side by side in a front shot, and you can see better the towering presence of the BMR-C1's.

Now obviously I have a dilemna because these sinks will never fit below the heatpipes of the HR-03 GT. I can either use the old included small silver sinks, or I can do some modifications. I opted for the latter. I marked the BMR-C1's and started sawing them 1 row of 5 pins at a time. Once i removed some material with the saw blade I bent each pin back and forth until metal fatigue snapped the pins off. Then once all the pins were removed I broke out my 220 grit sandpaper and tried to even the pins out as much as possible. And here are the results voila!

I tried to remove the least amount of copper as possible in order to maximize the space below the heatpipes, but still I had to cut the BMR-C1's to about 6mm from 14mm. But as you can see from the pic below that is still twice the height of the included small Thermalright sinks.