SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100269SR

Pros: I upgraded from a 4870 and I can tell you the cooling is vastly improved, expect C cooler compared to a first gen 4870. Very fast at factory speeds, I notice an average of 20-25 FPS increase from my old Meg 4870. Extremely overclockable, Expect speeds of 925 MHZ without the need to bump the fan from auto and speeds of 1000-1050 MHZ with proper tweaking on air cooling. If you own a 512 meg 4870 this card is totally worth the upgrade and will deliver a noticeable bump in performance, I can now game at X AA @ 1980x1200 in just about every game never falling below 60 FPS. When your not gaming expect some savings on the electric bill due to the much improved idle energy consumption.

Cons: Drivers! This currently isn't an issue as CCC 9.4 drivers have just been released. Be prepared for the possibility of having to reformat to get this card working properly, I followed the book on uninstalling my old drivers from my 4870 and running driver sweeper and I was still forced to reformat in order to get this card running perfectly. I spent 6 hours and phone calls to ATI with no solution so THIS review is your heads up on the possibility that you may have to resort to a fresh install for a perfectly working card. Please also understand I wasn't alone with this issue as a quick web search dug up others having the same strange CCC problems.

Overall Review: I was going to give this review a 3 or 4 star rating but decided not to simply because once all the install issues were ironed out the card impressed me big time. I have no idea why anyone buys the more expensive pre overclocked versions, there the SAME card! Once this card is overclocked to 930 MHZ or above, it's the fastest single GPU solution out there! enjoy =)

Pros: Fast, stable, Good overclocking. 50fps in wow with all setting at ultra. Catalyst ATI Overdrive utility works great! Auto-tune gives GPU a nice bump in Mhz at a push of a button. With right fan setting temps stay below 50c while gaming.

Cons: Loud grinding sound from fan at any fan setting below 40%. Had to RMA. Fan tolerable up to about 60% then becomes unbearable.

Overall Review: Create 2 profiles...1 for gaming w/fan set at 50% and one for quiet computing w/fan set at 35-40% and temps not an issue.