"XFX claiming Black Edition cards to be its Family Jewels - a marketing claim that made us slightly hesitant when it came to opening the box. Fortunately, the box contained no genitalia but it did house a graphics card."
any one noticed what driver version was used in this review for Nvidia. 256 drivers are 5-15% faster (more so in bad company) WHQL is now out now, When the review was made most likely did not have WHQL drivers but Bad company 2 really needs the 256 drivers beta or not, as map load time sucks with 197 game is a lot more stable as well and less jumpy
Originally Posted by bw67958 Accordign to Scan its £399 inc vat which doesn't make it that great when you can get a gtx480 for a bit less!
Or you can just buy a reference 5850 that can OC to 5870 performance with a small voltage tweak. anyhooo
this review is alright at best, very informative but you missed out 1 crucial element in the review & thats OVERCLOCKING - obviously the card is already pre-overclocked but i thought you guys would have tried to see if it could clock any further to validate XFX's claims that these Cypress XT chips are the best of the best of the best.
"XFX claims to allow some overclocking headroom in its Black Edition cards, so we cracked out AMD Clock Tool and managed to raise the GPU speed by 30MHz, which gave a minor boost to our benchmark results. We tried to fiddle with the memory too, but any increase above the standard 1.3GHz of the card resulted in artefacts even on the Windows desktop. "
Don't you get the feeling that bar a few custom coolers Ati and their partners are done with this gen of cards?
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 recently usurped the ATI Radeon HD 5870 as the fastest single-GPU card available to buy.
Funny that in the conclusion of that article it says:
Quote:
While offering performance superior to the HD 5870 in some situations, most notably Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Dirt 2, the GTX 480 is unable to conclusively claim the title as fastest single GPU graphics card
Soo. what happened since then? Driver Update?
Conclusion, the cooler and quieter VaporX is still the way to go as far as 5870's are concerned?
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 recently usurped the ATI Radeon HD 5870 as the fastest single-GPU card available to buy.
Funny that in the conclusion of that article it says:
Quote:
While offering performance superior to the HD 5870 in some situations, most notably Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Dirt 2, the GTX 480 is unable to conclusively claim the title as fastest single GPU graphics card
Soo. what happened since then? Driver Update?
Conclusion, the cooler and quieter VaporX is still the way to go as far as 5870's are concerned?
I second this. Last time I checked the GX480 was far from being the undisputed single card performance leader. If anything it's a tie.
oh dear! are the ATi fan brigade getting worried over a few fps points lost to the fermi?
Read the conclusion again as Bit-Tech clearly recommend picking up the standard 5870. As a willy waving contest yes, the GTX480 just and only just pips in the single card range but at a large cost to heat, noise and power. Until that is sorted, I'm holding off my next Nvidia purchase.
I was wondering how much power (idle) the cards consume when areo is not enabled. For modern graphics card to make this much wattage when doing nothing but some 2D and added 3D. (areo)
Why don't the GPU chip makers not implement some energy saving measures. Like for example run at half speed, disable 70% of calculation cores etc. Or switch to onboard GPU and shutdown pci-e GPU when not in use.
Just get stock and watercool. Personally I don't see the point in shopping around for an OC version. If you buy a decent brand up front whether it be eVGA, Gigabyte, ASUS, XFX (or any other respectable brand) they basically perform on par (assuming they all have the same memory and board design). Yeah some manufacturers throw in better air coolers but for the extra cost for the card you can get their identical stock offering and watercool for less with half the heat and none of the noise.
Originally Posted by [USRF]Obiwan I was wondering how much power (idle) the cards consume when areo is not enabled. For modern graphics card to make this much wattage when doing nothing but some 2D and added 3D. (areo)
Why don't the GPU chip makers not implement some energy saving measures. Like for example run at half speed, disable 70% of calculation cores etc. Or switch to onboard GPU and shutdown pci-e GPU when not in use.
All modern graphics cards clock themselves down when idle - the last bit sounds like Nvidia's Optimus (search the site) so they're working on that too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bogie170 So what would you recommend as the best 5870 card for speed, quietness and price?
Asus, XFX, Powercolour?
All sound like good bets, yes. The reference cooler for a HD 5870 is pretty good, and everyone has at least reference-cooler model in their range, so choose your favourite manufacturer/retailer or look out for special deals and bundles.
Originally Posted by Lockon Stratos Or you can just buy a reference 5850 that can OC to 5870 performance with a small voltage tweak. anyhooo
this review is alright at best, very informative but you missed out 1 crucial element in the review & thats OVERCLOCKING - obviously the card is already pre-overclocked but i thought you guys would have tried to see if it could clock any further to validate XFX's claims that these Cypress XT chips are the best of the best of the best.
good review - but its lacking
Read The Article again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/06/17/xfx-radeon-hd-5870-black-edition-review/8 XFX claims to allow some overclocking headroom in its Black Edition cards, so we cracked out AMD Clock Tool and managed to raise the GPU speed by 30MHz, which gave a minor boost to our benchmark results. We tried to fiddle with the memory too, but any increase above the standard 1.3GHz of the card resulted in artefacts even on the Windows desktop.
I'm So very disappointed in this XFX Black Edition 5870 as I'm looking to upgrade from my two XFX HD 4890 @ 1 ghz black edition cards. I see no reason to buy this card as the overclock is very weak and XFX offers no voltage control software.
I'm PRAYING that ATi releases a HD 5890 with a 384 bit interface, 1.5 gbytes of GDDR5 as well as a standard 1 ghz core clock as that would make for an awesome card to have (and crush Fermi) before they release their HD 6000 series.
XFX HD 5000 black edition cards have been pretty lame this time around
Why don't the GPU chip makers not implement some energy saving measures. Like for example run at half speed, disable 70% of calculation cores etc. Or switch to onboard GPU and shutdown pci-e GPU when not in use.
This is a very good point as I wish windows would switch to my integrated video card when i'm not gaming to help save more juice. Some genius at some tech company (or some hacker) should make a program that does this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bogie170 So what would you recommend as the best 5870 card for speed, quietness and price?
Asus, XFX, Powercolour?
I would go with ASUS as they have a well designed card with voltage tweak software allowing you to greatly surpass the 1 ghz threshold on an overclock. I've seen some HD 5870 at 1.2 ghz
If over voltage isn't your thing then go with Gigabyte as they make the best cards as they only use the best components and their cards all overclock very well but you won't see 1.2 ghz without an over volt.
Comments 1 to 25 of 45
ReplyI got to say though, the overclocking sucks.
I Loled.
Or you can just buy a reference 5850 that can OC to 5870 performance with a small voltage tweak. anyhooo
this review is alright at best, very informative but you missed out 1 crucial element in the review & thats OVERCLOCKING - obviously the card is already pre-overclocked but i thought you guys would have tried to see if it could clock any further to validate XFX's claims that these Cypress XT chips are the best of the best of the best.
good review - but its lacking
"XFX claims to allow some overclocking headroom in its Black Edition cards, so we cracked out AMD Clock Tool and managed to raise the GPU speed by 30MHz, which gave a minor boost to our benchmark results. We tried to fiddle with the memory too, but any increase above the standard 1.3GHz of the card resulted in artefacts even on the Windows desktop. "
Don't you get the feeling that bar a few custom coolers Ati and their partners are done with this gen of cards?
Conclusion, the cooler and quieter VaporX is still the way to go as far as 5870's are concerned?
I second this. Last time I checked the GX480 was far from being the undisputed single card performance leader. If anything it's a tie.
Read the conclusion again as Bit-Tech clearly recommend picking up the standard 5870. As a willy waving contest yes, the GTX480 just and only just pips in the single card range but at a large cost to heat, noise and power. Until that is sorted, I'm holding off my next Nvidia purchase.
Why don't the GPU chip makers not implement some energy saving measures. Like for example run at half speed, disable 70% of calculation cores etc. Or switch to onboard GPU and shutdown pci-e GPU when not in use.
Asus, XFX, Powercolour?
All modern graphics cards clock themselves down when idle - the last bit sounds like Nvidia's Optimus (search the site) so they're working on that too.
All sound like good bets, yes. The reference cooler for a HD 5870 is pretty good, and everyone has at least reference-cooler model in their range, so choose your favourite manufacturer/retailer or look out for special deals and bundles.
Read The Article again.
I'm PRAYING that ATi releases a HD 5890 with a 384 bit interface, 1.5 gbytes of GDDR5 as well as a standard 1 ghz core clock as that would make for an awesome card to have (and crush Fermi) before they release their HD 6000 series.
XFX HD 5000 black edition cards have been pretty lame this time around
it only costs a couple of bucks at home depot
Andy
This is a very good point as I wish windows would switch to my integrated video card when i'm not gaming to help save more juice. Some genius at some tech company (or some hacker) should make a program that does this.
I would go with ASUS as they have a well designed card with voltage tweak software allowing you to greatly surpass the 1 ghz threshold on an overclock. I've seen some HD 5870 at 1.2 ghz
If over voltage isn't your thing then go with Gigabyte as they make the best cards as they only use the best components and their cards all overclock very well but you won't see 1.2 ghz without an over volt.
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