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XFX 4890-ZDFC

D

denmason

n00b
Joined
Jan 19, 2007
Messages
25
Well... I received my second XFX 4890 in the mail today. My first one is a ZDDC and it's wearing an EK-FC4890 water block, all is good. When I removed the stock heatsink and fan off my newest one I found that I can not install my other EK-FC4890 block because there is a row of caps on the zdfc that will not allow the water to sit correctly. I'm bummed but all is not lost. I will be taking the 4890 out of another system of mine and putting this new one in it's place. Just thought I'd post up and let anyone who might be planning to use the ZDFC and the EK-FC4890 together that it doesn't work.
 
Is it a total redesign, minus the digital VRMs and Volterra VRM chips, or just some added/moved components?
 
Nafets said:
Is it a total redesign, minus the digital VRMs and Volterra VRM chips, or just some added/moved components?
Click to expand...

I acquired the card yesterday and it has a slightly redesigned heatsink (3 heatpipes as opposed to 2, different fan):

115415d1247290409-xfx-4890-unboxing-oc-lots-pictures-img_4062-1-.jpg


The fan on mine buzzed quite loudly (sounded like it was defective) and was irrevocably a dealbreaker along with the fact that you mentioned: no software voltage control. I can't understand why they did this; I do know that the card doesn't have any heatsink on the VRMs, so maybe these ones run cooler or something. But I also know that it didn't overclock for shit with the stock voltage and so for all these reasons is going to be RMAed.

I suspect that if you are putting a waterblock on it you want to overclock the bejesus out of it, so you should probably stay away from this model due to the lack of voltage control unless you find some way to hardware mod it.
 
Those are the cheapest 4890's i can find in nz, seriously, good price and brand - sux about the voltage reg's but my vapor-x is the same :(
 
Here's the naked card: I've got a ZDDC that will take this ones place in the Crossfire.
48901-1.jpg

48902.jpg
 
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e-geek said:
Those are the cheapest 4890's i can find in nz, seriously, good price and brand - sux about the voltage reg's but my vapor-x is the same :(
Click to expand...

Yeah I like the Vapor-X coolers. From what I hear they are much quieter than the stock fan, but I think only the Toxic has the Volterra PWM and it is much more expensive and hard to find as well.
 
Why didn't you just go with matching cards? You could have been sure that your aftermarket coolers would have fit on it then.
 
Ahh. Too bad. XFX cheapened them up getting rid of the digital Volterra VRMs (no software voltage control) and using a cheaper (noisier? poorer performing?) heatsink/fan setup.

Sure it's nice that the VRMs on these newer models (probably) run a bit cooler, but I personally wouldn't be happy with a cut down card.

denmason: Thanks for the great pics. It's easy to see what the differences are now between the ref. and non-ref. PCBs.

Good idea to steer clear from this joker of an HD4890, unless it comes extremely cheap compared to other HD4890s out there...

krameriffic: Looking at your HD4890, it looks like you have a reference PCB under that redesigned heatsink, along with the proper Volterra VRM chips. It doesn't look anything like the PCB on denmason's HD4890. You sure you don't have any software voltage control? Odd.
 
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krameriffic said:
Yeah I like the Vapor-X coolers. From what I hear they are much quieter than the stock fan, but I think only the Toxic has the Volterra PWM and it is much more expensive and hard to find as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah the cooler is nice, you can hardly hear it at 80% and it does a good job(well i cant hear it at all over my other fans, but by itself very quiet).

Toxics are impossible to find here as well, was looking for 1 to upgrade when i had to rma my orig 4890 - non vapor-x. Still i can hit 930 core 1120 mem with respectable temps.
 
vjcsmoke said:
Why didn't you just go with matching cards? You could have been sure that your aftermarket coolers would have fit on it then.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have thought there would have been that much of a difference between the two.
 
I did have the matching card in my cart at newegg and was about to make payment and my phone rang..... after answering phone I tried making payment and couldn't.. someone bought it!!! the last one!!! So I threw down for this. Girl friend will love it. :D
vjcsmoke said:
Why didn't you just go with matching cards? You could have been sure that your aftermarket coolers would have fit on it then.
Click to expand...
 
Nafets said:
krameriffic: Looking at your HD4890, it looks like you have a reference PCB under that redesigned heatsink, along with the proper Volterra VRM chips. It doesn't look anything like the PCB on denmason's HD4890. You sure you don't have any software voltage control? Odd.
Click to expand...

That isn't my card, I just posted that picture of it because it shows the slightly different heatsink and fan setup. The one I posted is some other guy's XFX 4890 XT that he got off Tigerdirect. I pulled mine back out of the box to examine it and it has the same setup as denmason's: those 5 extra caps near the VRMs and the big row of caps next to the RAM chips.
 
This card is going back to newegg on Monday. Found another ZDDC and ordered it. All will be good. :D
 
Wow they must of just did this change to the card. I have the same model which i got about 1 month ago. I put a Koolance Waterblock on and mine does have those caps on it.
 
Mine doesnt have those caps. Does that mean its the older version? Is that better?
 
I noticed this on Zipzoomfly the other day, they had two different XFX 4890s that were different prices and part numbers. So which is superior?
 
I got the one in the pic as well. For some reason the fan makes the weirdest buzzing sound like its grinding paper or something.
 
bfellow said:
I got the one in the pic as well. For some reason the fan makes the weirdest buzzing sound like its grinding paper or something.
Click to expand...

I was looking at the HD489AZDEC... Is this the one you got? If so, I think I'll pass. :(
 
I'm pissed that my msi cyclone has thse newer vram chips as well. Oh well, this card is fast enough stock and i'll probably get another one for crossfire later (possibly).
 
Mine was making a high pitch squeal when I first got the cards. I was using Furmark and RivaTuner to set the overclocks. But now they are silent. Not sure but maybe it was the caps squealing?? Worried me a bit at first, but all is good now.
 
denmason said:
Mine was making a high pitch squeal when I first got the cards. I was using Furmark and RivaTuner to set the overclocks. But now they are silent. Not sure but maybe it was the caps squealing?? Worried me a bit at first, but all is good now.
Click to expand...

It was the fan on my card. Adjusting it in the CCC showed that: I could only take it down to 20%, but it was notably quieter (or louder) at different settings for fan speed without any load at all.
 
Prod1702 said:
Wow they must of just did this change to the card. I have the same model which i got about 1 month ago. I put a Koolance Waterblock on and mine does have those caps on it.
Click to expand...
i've noticed since hd4890 price drops, the newer revised hd4890 are doing away with volterra controller and going cheaper. I just got my first ever HD4890 - Amaze brand and it's non-reference too without Volterra - same PCB as Powercolor PCS HD4890 which stock clocks to 950/4400 - http://i4memory.com/f18/amaze-hd4890-1024d5-non-reference-pcb-18861/
 
Same thing happened to me with my XFX HD4890 (ZDFC). I've RMA'd it and got a reference design card (Diamond 4890). I know that the Diamond warranty and service cannot be compared to what XFX offers, but since I plan to get an HD58xx when it's available, this is a non issue for me.

So far, the card is working as expected, overclocks great. It's also a lot less noisier than the new XFX HD4890 revision.

Edit: about Diamond support, it looks like it might not be that bad after all! I’ve sent an email to tech01@diamondmm.com regarding a bios update to resolve issues with a Dell 2408WFP monitor, and they have replied in a few hours and asked me for my phone number so they can contact me. about the issue.
 
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The stock sapphire cooler is actually pretty good. Running a sapphire 4890 with the stock exhaust cooler on auto mode. It stays real quiet when browsing, watching movies, etc. but turns up when playing games a little bit. I can't hear it over the game volume when it does turn up. Rest of my system is very quiet also though.
 
hey i just ordered a XFX HD-489A-ZDEC Radeon HD 4890 Xtreme 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

will i be able to fit an Artic Cooling Twin Turbo vga cooler ????
 
Hi denmason,

Do you still have your XFX 4890 ZDFC? If so can you please send me its bios? Many thanks.


Lun
 
Damnedest thing is I had a XFX 4890 with the 6-pin and 8-pin power plug, and I tried to overclock it. Couldn't OC for shit, only 925 core from the default 900 (it was factory overclocked). So I sold it on here to another member and he managed to get it 1000 core, and I asked him how he did this. He said something about using a program to increase the GPU's vcore and that allowed a much higher overclock. I never knew about this so I was very embarrassed but I'm pretty known to learn things the hard way...
 
I saw this and several other threads elsewhere, and having just recently received my 489a ZDFC from the 'egg, I thought, "RMA incoming" as I've been thinking about using this card for my first water-cooled build. I took it out and removed the HS/F and it looks nothing like the above cards- it has black PCB but looks like pics of the reference cards Ive seen elsewhere. What's up xfx?!? Looking around some more I found this image of a Black Edition and I can't see any difference- http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Wasserkuehlung/AC_Aquagratix_HD4890-008_small.jpg did I get a BE by mistake? Will standard 4890 waterblocks fit this?

Ok- Even though my box clearly states in several places that it's a ZDFC, it actually contained a ZDDC xxx card. The 900/1000 clocks gave it away. Just dinking around in RivaTuner I got it up to 1011/1156. Anything higher and I started getting artifacts but I bet it has more room because the fan was only at 40%.

I looked at the box carefully when it came and didn't see any signs of it being repackaged; guess I just got lucky.
 
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