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ATI's current generation of video cards is a very complete line-up: they have something to offer at every price-point. From the entry level HD 4350 to the behemoth HD 4870 X2, you might think they finally had all the bases covered -- but, it turns out this isn't the case. (You didn't think they were just going to stop making cards, did you?) Say hello to a new member of the HD 4800 series: the HD 4890.

You can think of the HD 4890 as a souped-up, turbo-charged HD 4870. While there have been some tweaks to the core of the part, which we'll go over on the next page, in many respects the HD 4890 is the next incremental evolution of the HD 4870: more speed is the largest difference between the two cards. Just how much more speed? We'll be figuring that out in today's comprehensive review, where we will compare the HD 4890 to 8 other video cards, and throw in some HD 4890 CrossFire numbers to boot.

Like NVIDIA's move from 192 shaders to 216 for the first and second version of the GTX 260, and the GTX 285 replacing the GTX 280, ATI is constantly trying to get a leg up on the competition in the fierce, fast and frantic world of video card development. As the sun slowly sets on this generation of cards -- now in April, we are fairly far into the HD 4000's product life-cycle now -- ATI have been applying all that they have recently learnt, into some final designs that will bear the HD 4000 series badge.   

If you look at things this way, you can see the HD 4890 as the culmination of ATI's work on the HD 4800 series. Let's see if they are going to close the book on the HD 4000 series with gusto.