Starting off this week's article are somemore ATI Radeon HD 4890 cards.

We have here today the MSI R4890 1GB graphics card. This R4890 pictured here is the MSI OC version, which is factory-overclocked.

The cooler used on the R4890 is the reference ATI cooler. The reference ATI cooler is a good design as it exhausts all the hot air from the graphics card out from the back (and also out of your case). The downside is that the fan is programmed not aggressively, which leads to comparatively higher (but still safe) operating temperatures than any card using good 3rd party coolers.

Even though the Radeon HD 4890 part comes with a higher core clock and memory clock, it still uses two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors.

The power circuitry has been somewhat re-designed from the previous Radeon HD 4870 cards, and in addition to that, the rear of the PCB reveals solder points for an 8-pin PCI Express connector actually.