Graphics card maker XFX started to sell its first AMD-based graphics cards in January. At the same time it is known for overclocking the cards. Therefore it came as no surprise that XFX will launch a 1GHz model of Radeon HD 4890. Earlier Sapphire, PowerColor and MSI have been revealed to be working on similar cards. But XFX will be the first to be actually available in stores in Europe. XFX have 100 cards ready now and in one to two weeks the next batch will be ready.
A solid source has revealed that XFX will start shipping its first 1GHz graphics cards to Europe and the supply will be limited. XFX will ship the card to selected online retailers only. XFX’s new 1GHz model will be a part of the Black Edition family and the first cards are intended for previous Black Edition customers.
We have also received some information on the graphics circuits used.
The quality of AMD’s Radeon HD 4890 GPUs can vary quite a lot and to minimize the chance of a poor GPU several companies have announced overclocked models, with higher clock frequencies straight from factory. XFX is one of these but even if most 4890 chips can do 900MHz with no voltage increase you need something bigger to go up to 1GHz.
AMD runs a quality check of the HD 4890 GPUs and exactly how detailed it is remains undisclosed, but wheat we do know is that AMD sells an OC version of the 4890 GPU, on top of the regular retail GPU. The OC version has been tested for considerably higher clock frequencies than the 850MHz reference.
XFX Radeon HD 4890 XXX (900/975MHz)
As we reported earlier MSI has purchased these, more expensive, chips from AMD for its 1GHz version of 4890 and so does XFX. XFX then runs its own manual tests with all chips to ensure the quality of the chip before packaging and shipping its overclocked graphics cards. The exact cooler and GPU voltage was not revealed.
The price of XFX 4890 Black Edition is expected to cost $280 and ships with the DX10.1 version of the game HAWK.
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