The XFX 4890 Black Edition really suffers in our temperature testing due to the use of the reference cooler. 79 degrees celcuis isn’t at all a bad result considering the 1GHz core but the focus of our criticism is actually centred on the noise levels generated by the fan. After listening to the near silent cooling solution found on the
Sapphire 4890 Atomic the cooler on the XFX card is simply unacceptable... in fact, at times I find it too difficult to game without a headset on due to the racket it makes. The card really could have done with an aftermarket cooling solution, even if it meant adding £20 to the price.
On the flip side of the coin the Zotac GTX285 infinity really excels in our thermal performance test thanks to the DangerDen waterblock. This is the main selling point of the card but note that the thermal performance figures may vary depending on your water cooling configuration. With our setup consisting of a Thermochill PA120.2 and Laing D5 pump the card idles at a low 35 and only reaches 52 under extreme load which really is impressive.
Our overclocking attempts were quite limited with the Zotac GTX285 Infinity, however it isn’t too much of a cause for concern as the card is already overclocked by a significant amount from the factory. The card could only reach a stable 728MHz core - to put that into perspective the last
Zotac GTX285 we looked at was able to reach 745MHz - the overclocking potential will vary from card to card. The memory was also given a boost from 1350MHz to 1403MHz.
The XFX 4890 Black Edition was able to pushed up to 1035MHz which is a huge 185MHz increase over reference speeds. The memory was also capable of reaching a speed of 1092MHz.
Both cards performed slightly better in Left4Dead, however the more noticeable being the XFX 4890 Black Edition which received a larger clock boost.
