GIGABYTE GV-R489-1GH-B Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: This card shreds, pure and simple. Going from a 4850 to this is almost like night and day. Yes, it's that much more powerful.

Cons: I'm disappointed that it needs special drivers. I like the idea of having drivers per series, and this was a bit of a buzzkill.

Other Thoughts: Totally worth my money. If I had a Crossfire board, another one of these would be on the way already.

Pros: This card is awsome. I bought it just under a month ago and haven'g had any issues. Everything I throw at it, it takes it with no problem and still looking for more.

Cons: It's a bit of a heat monster but hey whatever works.

Other Thoughts: I got this card at 850mhz core clock and 975mhz memory clock. Right now its ocd to 975mhz core 995 memory running smooth. At 97% capacity its running 70 celcious. It plays crisis on max settings no problems. Hawx runs outstanding.
Build:
AMD Phenom II 940
8bg OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066mhz
Gigabyte 4890
700 watt apevia psu

I just ordered a second one and can't wait unil it comes in.

Pros: Astounding power. I have been re-installing my games after upgrading my system and I haven't run into one problem or game that this card can't max out. All AA, all high settings, at 1680x1050 and smooth as butter. Yes, ladies and gents, Crysis plays with all settings on high (DX9), at least 4xAA, and is smooth and crisp as nothing else.

Cons: Huge card. 9.5" long and heavy as a brick. It uses two PCIe power inputs. Just be aware.

Other Thoughts: As with any piece of computer hardware, this card cannot pull a system to greatness by itself. I have joined this card with the core components below and have acheived INCREDIBLE results.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE
2x2Gb OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P
560-watt Silverstone PSU
Windows XP Pro (until Windows 7 64-bit)

Pros: Great card for the money. Plays all games at max settings at my resolution of 1680x1050. Only exception is Crysis, but even on high settings at that resolution with 8x AA I get a range of 40-60 fps depending on the events occuring. Even max settings is stable!

Cons: Doesn't overclock well. It may be my system, but even running ATI's overdrive and running the settings they determine, the card shuts down seconds into gaming. Not taking any points away, as it runs fine stock, just beware.

Pros: Fast. Stable. Price is right.

Cons: None

Pros: Fast video performance at a more reasonable price.

Cons: Using a dual screen setup, with a Dell 2408WFP primary, the display randomly blinks for up to a second. Very annoying behavior, unacceptable watching video this way. the secondary display (SyncMaster 213T does not have the issue.) Using ATi 9.5 drivers, and BIOS on Video Card is latest available to my knowledge.

Contacted tech support but received no reply - if they do not have a solution, the card is going back.

The system is an i7 Extreme 965, 12GB OCZ DDR3-1600, Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Raid 0 of 2 300GB VelociRaptors, 650W Corsair PS.

Other Thoughts: Also tried the Diamond version of this, it did not have this issue, but lots of others users of various 4890 boards have it when combined with the Dell LCD.

Pros: Great performance, decent price, runs fairly cool, overclocks great!

Cons: loud fan

Other Thoughts: I bought this because I was sick of Nvidia cards as I've had 3 out of 4 arrive defective on recent builds. This card outperforms my GTX 260 core 216 by 10-20% (depends on game) and my HD4850 by close to 50% in some games. Fan is quiet until card heats up and then it becomes annoying. Temperatures are good though rarely getting much over 60C compared to the 90C of my GTX 275. For around $200 AR, this is a very solid card and the ATI drivers are solid.

Pros: Excellent Video Card, couldn't believe how much better the graphics and frame rates are on this, compared to the XFX Black Edition 9800GTX+, I replaced it with.
The graphics are very crisp and clear, weather it be a movie or game
At just normal settings on this VC, I gained some 25 - 30 FPS, over the other one.

Cons: That I didn't buy this one 2 month's ago, instead of the 9800GTX+, I could've saved $200. But I've always been a Nvidia fan until now.

Other Thoughts: Installs very easy on XP 32bit system, But I had to tweek it some when I upgrade OS to XP Pro x64 bit, but no biggy. just take your time.

Pros: Great at overclocking as/is with Catalyst software. Do not spend the extra money for a card that comes overclocked. Awesome graphic value. I haven't found a game yet at full settings that it won't handle at 60Hz (too many to list).

Cons: Stock barrel fan is too loud at high speeds, as everyone has already pointed out.

Other Thoughts: I personally don't push any overclocking super hard, so I've dialed it in at 960MHz GPU and 1000MHz RAM. It is rock-solid, not a single issue.

The Scythe USA SCVMS-1000 Sleeve VGA Cooler is an extremely quiet (nearly silent!), better cooling alternative. Reference it and see if it might be for you. At full load over 2 hours, overclocked and with the fans set to 50% on this cooler, my temps peaked at 54C max. Idle temp is 42C. Not bad for dead-silent cooling.
System main specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 955
Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard
Antec 900 case
Corsair 850TX Power Supply
OCZ 2x2GB DDR3 1800, item: N82E16820227326

Pros: Installed two of these in a CrossfireX setup. Performance is absolutely flawless, with Crysis running like a dream on "Very High" settings accross the board. Quieter than I expected two cards of this size to be.

Cons: Had some slight technical issues on first installation, but I'm not sure if that was the cards, or some other particular about my system. Had to boot into Vista's "640x480" desktop mode once before the drivers would "take", was just getting a blank screen until then.

Size of the cards and arrangement of my motherboard (P5Q-E) made it troublesome to use all my available USB/Firewire connections. Thankfully I don't need that many and so didn't bother. This isn't a problem with this card itself, but rather the double-wide form factor in general.

Other Thoughts: Fans are a little loud on boot, but quiet down once the drivers load and take over fan control.