14 DAY TRIAL // Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is expected to launch a new high-end graphics card, dubbed Radeon HD 4890, which will be powered by the new RV790 graphics processing unit. The card has recently surfaced the Internet on a number of occasions, providing us with a couple of details regarding its technical specifications, performance capabilities and even a quick look at its exterior. In one of the most recent leaks, the card appears stripped down of its cooling solution and showcased in its simplest form.
The fellows over at DailyTech managed to score a Radeon HD 4890 graphics card from a source in Taiwan, whose name was undisclosed for obvious reasons. The technical specifications of the model are in accordance with what you have read before. At the basis of the new Radeon graphics card, AMD has put the new RV790 graphics processing unit, which has been clocked at 850MHz. In addition to that, 1GB of Qimonda's GDDR5 memory chips has been provided for more performance. The memory is clocked at 3900MHz and offers a bandwidth of 124.8 GB/s.
There's still some speculation over the possible release date of the new card, but there's a good chance that AMD will be unveiling its new high-performance single-GPU card sometime in early April. According to DailyTech, there are still some discussions over the price of the product, which shouldn't be significantly higher than that of current RV770-based Radeon HD 4870.
In addition to the new card, AMD is also expected to unveil a new suite of Catalyst drivers, which will boost performance and validate some of those early benchmarks of the new model. Currently, Radeon HD 4890 is rumored to provide a performance similar to that of the GTX 280 and close to that of GTX 285, but that is yet to be confirmed when new drivers become available. More details on the card will be unveiled next week, probably at the GDC 2009 event in San Francisco, California.