MSI Radeon 4890 Cyclone SOC review (1GHz) - Introduction

So if we look back, say roughly a year .. what were the two products that had the most impact and success? Yeah, I tend to think that was the release of Core i7 and the Radeon 4870 based on the RV770 graphics processor. Last year when ATI introduced their Radeon HD 4870 series product it was clear from day one and onwards that they designed an ASIC which was very powerful, and thanks to gDDR5 memory, a big performance leap at an affordable price was a reality.

Prolonging the success of the 4870... in early April this year ATI launched a respin ASIC called the Radeon HD 4890. As you guys likely know this is labeled as the RV790 ASIC, a slightly tweaked yet faster running version of that original model.

One of the biggest surprises of that RV790 graphics processor was its scalability in terms of clock frequency. Where the Radeon HD 4870 reference was clocked at 750 MHz, the Radeon HD 4890 was from day one clocked at 850 MHz. But it didn't stop there though, no Sir. Merely a week or two after the launch of the 4890 the first rumors, and later on press-releases, surfaced; the AIB, AIC partners of ATI would be releasing overclocked models of the Radeon HD 4890, which was just barely released. 900 MHz is the norm for most of the overclocked products. The really exquisite ones are clocked at 950 MHz and right now there are even cards being released with a 1000 MHz core clock frequency (!).

As such it is the first time ever that we are testing a graphics card with it's graphics core clocked at 1 GHz, and this editor actually finds that to be a milestone in the history of Guru3D.com

So when we look all the way back to that Radeon HD 4870 and compare it to the new faster clocked 4890 models, we surely have to admit, ATI and its partners have done a hell of a job moving forward at a steady and incremental pace. Today we will test and review the all new MSI Radeon HD 4890 Cyclone SOC edition (Super OverClocked), and oh-my-gosh ... for the money this thing is going to be fairly spectacular.

Have a peek at the product and then let's move onward to a nice in-depth review of the MSI Radeon HD 4890 Cyclone SOC.