Overclocked ATI Radeon 4890 GPU shatters 1 GHz barrier

Chicago (IL) – AMD has introduced a factory overclocked graphics processor (GPU) that utilizes standard air-cooling solutions to break the 1 Gigahertz (GHz) barrier .

According to AMD, the new 4890 offers superior performance for a number of DirectX games, including Ubisoft’s HAWX, Electronic Art’s BattleForge, SEGA’s Stormrise and GSC Gameworld’s STALKER Clear Sky. The 4890 supports OpenGL3 with DirectX 10-like hardware extensions, along with the recently ratified OpenCL specification.

“The ATI Radeon HD 4890 continues to impress everyone with its ability to be pushed beyond clock speeds once considered only possible with high end liquid-cooling solutions,” explained Zvika Greenstein, manager, GPG Product Marketing, AMD. “The fact that 1GHz was reached with inexpensive air cooling marks an important milestone. We are likely to see game enthusiasts take advantage of the overclocking potential, drawing out every last ounce of performance from the 1GHz 4890.”

Sapphire spokesperson Adrian Thomson expressed similar sentiments.

“Achieving air-cooled clock speeds of 1 GHz with our Vapor-X cooler immediately puts the new Sapphire HD 4890 Atomic Edition graphics card in an overclocking class of its own. At 150 MHz above stock speeds, this card will unlock new levels of performance and allow gamers to push the latest DirectX 10.1 titles to new highs in image quality and frame rates,” said Thomson.