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Sapphire HD4890 1GB Toxic PCI-e Video Card The whole motif behind the Toxic cards is that of sleek and black. The box art is no different, using a glossy black color with a white text accent. Instead of the traditional scantily clad woman, we have in this case a hooded assassin type figure, a la Assassin's Creed.
The back of the box carries a similar motif, as well as describing many of the features of the card. Along the bottom are many of the awards that Sapphire has won since 2002.
I really like Sapphire's new packaging setup. The card is firmly packed in an ESD-safe bag, and placed in a black tray. Everything fits into place very snugly, with all the accessories packed underneath.
The Toxic version of the HD4890, like all Toxic cards, uses a non-reference cooler designed to be better than the reference in every way, including noise and temperature performance.
From this angle, we can see the three heatpipes that connect to the heatsink. These are significantly longer than the three that are equipped onto the reference cooler. The fan is larger and sits much closer to the center of the board. While the reference cooler blows from the back of the card and vents out of the PCI bracket, the Vapor-X vents the heat out of both the PCI bracket and the rear of the card.
The interface area of the Toxic is in line with many video cards out there; with two DVI ports set up on each side of the TV-out port.
One of the most important differences between the Toxic and the reference HD4890s is the power arrangement. The default setup for the reference HD4890 is to use two six pin power connectors; the Toxic uses a six pin in conjunction with an eight pin connector. If this setup is good enough for an HD4870X2, then it is almost assuredly enough to find the maximum clock for an HD4890.
While the PCB is a different color, the layout appears to be identical to the reference HD4890 design. The good news is the mounting holes all appear to be in the same place, which should bode well for anyone interested in watercooling.
As with most typical Sapphire bundles, the HD4890 Toxic includes an HDMI converter, a VGA converter, Crossfire bridge, two PCI-e power converters, S-Video converter, and a component video dongle. Also included, but not pictured, are copies of the driver CD, Cyberlink DVD Suite, PowerDVD, and 3DMark Vantage.
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