ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB Not Performing Up to Par

[hugoender]

I just bought an XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB video card for my computer. The rest of my specs are as follow:
My Specs:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit Professional
Mobo: Foxconn C51XEM2AA - AM2 Socket - nForce 590 SLI
PSU: Enermax 500W - two 12V @ 22A - two PCI-E 6pin connectors
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - 4 x 1GB
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2x512KB L2 Cache (Overclocked to 2.889GHz from 2.5GHz)
GPU: ATI XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB
HDD: (1)Seagate 250GB HDD @ 7200RPMs SATA, (2)WD 500GB HDD @ 7200RPMs SATA
Monitor: LG 22" Widescreen running at 1600x1050

In COD:MW2 with all settings maxed and AA set to 2x I get from 40-70 fps (sometimes it dips into the 30's).

In Left 4 Dead with all settings maxed and AA at 4x and AF at 8x I get 30-50 fps.

In Team Fortress 2 with all settings maxed I get 30-50 fps.

I thought this card would perform much better in these not so demanding titles. Therefore, I am guessing my system is bottlenecked somewhere. I want to say it's the CPU but because my mobo only supports AM2 sockets, the only upgrade I can get is the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz with 2x1MB Cache. It is only $60 but I am not sure if it will really show any performance gain.

What do you guys think? I am open to thoughts and suggestions. Mind you, while it's easy to say "get a quad core", it requires me to get a whole new mobo, RAM, and CPU so in practice it's not that practical/easy.

Thanks in advance.

 

[hugoender]

I would like to update this thread.

I got an ASUS Crosshair III AM3 motherboard, AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz cpu, and 2x2GB DDR3 1333 GSkill ram for Christmas. I put it all together last night and ran 3dMark06 again... here is what I got:

Score - 16407
SM 2.0 - 6434
SM 3.0 - 7858
CPU - 4488

Still not as high as I thought it would be but it is a definite improvement.

I was able to run COD: MW2 maxed out (with VSync on) while recording with Fraps (Full-Size) and ran at 60fps constant the whole time so I am more than happy. My CPU was DEFINITELY the bottleneck.

Thank you all for your responses... have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

[impaledmango]

nice, now you should try to overclock the 4890! I have mine at 1000/1100 with no tweaks etc and i ouutperform a gtx 285!

 

[hugoender]

nice, now you should try to overclock the 4890! I have mine at 1000/1100 with no tweaks etc and i ouutperform a gtx 285!

Well right now it's performing beyond what I need it to (my monitor refresh rate is 60Hz so I am capped at 60fps with Vsync on) so I will hold off on the OC until I need it. No need for extra stress on the card.

 

[impaledmango]

true, I'm playing on 1920 x 1200, I need to squeeze out as much extra fps as possible. And I plan to upgrade in spring to either an nvidia fermi card or a 5870 depending on prices.

 

[Yahzi]

Hi there,

I have the 5770 with the AMD Athlon X2 6000+ cpu and I also found games to be pretty slow when AA was engaged. I posted recently in another thread where I was experiencing around 15-20fps on Mass Effect running at 1680x1050, max settings with 4x AA.

Now I know the 4890 is faster than the 5770, but our systems should be fairly similar given the CPU discrepancies. I got about 35-40% improvement in my fps by changing my AA settings in my Catalyst menu. If you switch from 'edge detect' to 'box', you are almost guaranteed to get a major improvement in fps.

Also check to make sure your AA is not set to super sampling. I have mine set to adaptive multi-sampling, as before it crippled my performance by at least 4-8 fps. I can now run Mass Effect on max details (including edited ini for better visual quality ) at 8x AA and I'm getting at least 5-10fps more than what I achieved with 4x AA with my earlier settings.

I also don't know if my CPU is acting as a bottleneck. I've seen benchmarks run with the 4870 card in games like Fall Out 3 and Mass Effect where it's getting like 45fps+ at 1980 res with 8x AA. I'm definitely not getting that kind of performance.

I just got the card so please don't recommend that I sell it and get something else. Thanks.

PS Apologies to the OP. I just registered and I'm not able to post new topics. It says I need to 'mark all threads as old'. Call me a newbie, I don't know why. Sorry for barging in..

Regards,

 

[hugoender]

@Yahzi

I will say from personal experience that your CPU is definitely the bottleneck. As soon as you upgrade you will notice an increase in FPS. This is what happened with me and my 4890.

Thanks for the tips. I already have it set to box and I have heard to turn Adaptive Anti-Aliasing off since it improves performance (correct me if I am wrong).

Right now I have no need to tinker with anything since I am getting a constant 60fps with everything maxed (60 is the cap since I have vsync enabled and my monitor is at 60Hz).

 

[Yahzi]

Hi Hugo,

How much of an improvement did the new CPU upgrade make to gaming ? Which CPU did you get ? Yes, setting AA from super sampling to adaptive AA should definitely give you at least a 4-6 fps boost.

The downside is that there is a shimmering effect as you walk, in pretty much any game. I don't know if others have experienced this, but with me, it's like Adaptive AA doesn't address all objects/landscapes in game, only certain portions, unlike super sampling.

Those more experienced, please correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW, have you tested Crysis with your new set up ? Benchmark results ? What settings do you use...sorry I'm just trying to get a feel for what other users play the game at.

Just another question I was hoping I could ask, how on earth does one benchmark Mass Effect ? I've seen benchmarks here in earlier tests using Firmire and Fraps. But I don't know how it's set up. I really would like to compare my system against the competition.

The same with Fall Out 3. I don't know how to set up the tests. If someone could chime in and let me know I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Edit: Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread. I see you got the Phenom chip...nice. I'm planning on the 965 chip, either that or the i5 750. I'm an AMD fan, been one for a few years now. But if the i5 750 chip is better, well...

Regards,

 

[Guest]

hey guys i have just bought an ati radeon XFX 4890 and in cod when i look at certain places it drops to like 28 - 35, but it runs on like 80 odd on other times. in fallout 3 i cannot run the game at much more that 40 frames on high and with operation flashpoint any XAA destroys the fps from like 40 to 28.
on 3dmark my gpu only scored about 3000 so i am wondering if it is my CPU or motherboard.

here are my specs:>

>Amd phenom 9500 quad, 2mb cache, 2.2mhz
>ATI Radeon 4890 xfx
>MSI K9A2 CF MOBO AM2+
>3 GB 800mhz ram
>500gb HDD

please would some one get back to me and tell me which i will need to buy to stop the bottlenecking of my performance.