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Regular Vs. Vapor-X

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9 Jan 2009
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Olney
Put simply, is the extra £30 on the 5870 worth this cooling system?
It's overclocked already, but with Vapor-X, will it overclock a lot more than a regular 5870 would?
Any info is appreciated, thanks.
 
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27 Nov 2002
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The main advantage is that it's quieter. Cooling probably won't help OC'ing as it will probably be limited by voltage, not heat.
 
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15 Dec 2009
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where Sapphire have been clever with the Vapor-x is the fan speed - I`ve checked with different bioses & the Vapor-x increases the fan speed at much lower temps (on my rev.1) - getting to about 45% , giving the impression of being a much cooler card. With the Asus bios on my Vapor-x it stays on around 25% at about 60° iirc. A permanent speed of about 36% is absolutely silent & controls temps np I`ve found.:)
 
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Sapphire stock coolers are definitely awful.

I actually managed to overheat my graphics card before my waterblock arrived, thankfully got it replaced though.

Loud as heck as well. (At least the 4870 was, the 4890 wasn't that loud but when under load it was still quite disturbing)

If you don't want to replace the cooler I say go for the Vapor-X.
 
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got 2 of these running in xf and would say its worth it pay the extra for cooler and quieter cards and normaly their not that much extra. and for oc you not get that much more anyway and you not tell that much in games because it run every game fine anyway. :)
 
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stoke on trent
I have a 5770 VX in my machine, it is definately completely silent, even when it's under heavy loads. It seems to overclock really well, and sits idle at 34deg, max in games 60.
In the other pc there's an Asus with the egg cooler, believe it or not it runs even cooler (28 idle, 50 in games), is completely silent also, but won't overclock as well and doesn't look as nice (the VX has a nice blue LED logo). Overall I would say they are pretty much the same, but the vapor-x is nicer if you have a transparent side panel. Either way they are brilliant cards with awesome performance, and imho well worth the money :)
 
Soldato
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16 Dec 2005
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Manchester
Damn, at 100% that was loud. However, it is no louder than my GTX260 at only 50 or 60%. So that suggests the V-X is very good, or the fan on my GTX is really bad! :p

EDIT: At 60-70% it is noticeable, but if you were wearing headphones or had your volume up you probably wouldn't care. 50-60% I couldn't hear it over the desk fan behind me. <50% it might as well be silent as I couldn't hear it over the sound of the other fans in my case.
 
Soldato
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Manchester
I have yet to see my card hit 50% in gaming. Though I haven't had a decent-length gaming session on it yet. Hoping RF: Guerilla will actually be good since I am now downloading it on Steam. Every game I have tried last few days I have switched off after 10 minutes cos it were crap! :p

If RF: G is any good it will hopefully stretch the 5870s legs a bit.
 
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stoke on trent
Mine sits at 40% pretty much permanently. The only time i've seen it go up to 50% is when running furmark (reaches 50% fan @ 73deg max). However even at 50% it's only just audible, you really don't have to worry about volume or heat with these, they are perfect for HTPC.
 
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Is that stock or overclocked?
I would be interested to see some overclocked results.

Right now I have my card running at 870 -> 955 MHz and furmark in extreme burning mode barely scrapes 50°C-55°C.
 
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