ASUS EAH4890/HTDI/1GD5 is one of the earliest card to appear in the market that spots a reference design. Although it is a reference design, ASUS puts in the option for us tweak the voltage. This is highly unusual but it works.

In fact, we were quite happy to see a SmartDoctor, a software tool provided which can do just that. Sometimes we are just tired, searching for third party tools to overclock the latest graphics card when it is  newly launched. Chances are that the third party software do not recognize the new card as yet.

In our test, we used the software tool provided in the package and adjusted the voltage to 1.4v (the maximum setting is 1.45v). We managed to run through 3Dmark06 and 3DMarkVantage with no issues at 1GHz/1.1GHz (GPU/Mem). That is a 17% increase in GPU Core and a 13% boost in the graphics memory.

We also checked out the fan speed and temperature using SmartDoctor. At default, it runs at around 47 deg Celsius with a fan speed of 2780 RPM. It is quite quiet. In our test, we set within the software to auto increase the fan speed based on temperature range. We found that after running 3DMark Vantage, the GPU temp remains at 53 Deg Celsius.

Package wise, ASUS provided the very basic for it's hardware and added mostly software enhancements e.g. SmartDoctor that you won't find on other manufacturer's card. This is good for the end consumer if the price tag is on par with other vendor's similar product.

In conclusion, if you are looking for the speediest single core GPU today, the ASUS EAH4890 is worth considering.

Price ~ 259 USD (Click the icons on the top and bottom of the page)

Pros

• Low CPU utilisation when playing back Blu-Ray
• Supports  DX10.1 & SM4.1
• CrossFire X support
• Software tools bundled - SmartDoctor

Cons

• No games included

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.