Best 5870

555BUK · 8 Apr 2010 at 13:46

jij said:
80deg? Is that all? That's good isn't it. What voltages are you using?
Damn, should have brought a ASUS!

Compared to Fermi it is freezing. I have owned 3 5800 cards and they required between 1.225v, 1,25v and 1.3v to hit 1000MHz. Whichever card you buy, I suggest using MSI Afterburner to set a fan profile to suit your ears. I keep my fan set to 20% (completely silent) below 50degrees and allow it to ramp up a bit after that. Availability cannot be that bad, because other places do have them in stock. Also look out for MSI cards which allow overvolting as well.

jij · 8 Apr 2010 at 14:57

555BUK said:
Compared to Fermi it is freezing. I have owned 3 5800 cards and they required between 1.225v, 1,25v and 1.3v to hit 1000MHz.

And I'm stuck on 1.15V :-/

555BUK said:
Whichever card you buy, I suggest using MSI Afterburner to set a fan profile to suit your ears. I keep my fan set to 20% (completely silent) below 50degrees and allow it to ramp up a bit after that.

I use that too, with a similar fan profile, 20% at tick over, hitting 100% at 90deg, which it never gets anywhere close to, max 73deg in FurMark

555BUK said:
Availability cannot be that bad, because other places do have them in stock. Also look out for MSI cards which allow overvolting as well.

I might see if I can get my money back at the shop I brought the Vapor-X from. Or swap it for an MSI / ASUS. A cheaper board that runs faster! How does that work?!

Troop · 8 Apr 2010 at 18:28

My reference Version LCS card arrived today(water cooled)
First play, upped the core from 1.168 stock to 1.2v straight in at 950 core, have more time to test at the weekend.

Got to love these Temps, max of 38C , so another card to consider.

Schoieuk · 8 Apr 2010 at 18:34

Vapor-X i got 2 in Xfire and i get rediculus fps in everything.

Best 5870 unless u wana spend a silly amount of money on waterdooling which isnt even needed when the vapor-X will cool it even when u OC it (not that u need to as its alleady got a higher stock clock)

Kharbyne · 8 Apr 2010 at 18:46

Asus one 3 years warranty

V4nger · 8 Apr 2010 at 18:50

i think i will go with asus but im just worried about noise levels

Ultim8 · 8 Apr 2010 at 21:05

hmmm i wonder if the 5870 2gb toxics will be reference designed PCB's when they come out or if its something they have let the vendors do?

AgedIdiot · 8 Apr 2010 at 21:27

Got an xfx but if I were buying now would go for the Asus -3 yr warranty+ voltage tweak

bhavv · 8 Apr 2010 at 21:54

Asus one has 3 year warranty and doesnt need to be flashed.

Sapphire one has a great cooler, but it has locked maximum clocks.

jij · 9 Apr 2010 at 07:58

bhavv said:
Asus one has 3 year warranty and doesnt need to be flashed.

Sapphire one has a great cooler, but it has locked maximum clocks.

(And you can't overvolt the Vapor-X rev 2)
If only a manufacturer would take these good ideas and put them together in one card. Good cooler, that you can overclock+overvolt out of the box, How hard can it be? Anyone want to set up company?!

cainer · 9 Apr 2010 at 08:36

the vapour X's are nice and tbh if you HAVE to have your core at more than 900 to make a game run smooth then you need more than a 5870, you need the next generation

jij · 9 Apr 2010 at 08:54

AgedIdiot said:
Got an xfx but if I were buying now would go for the Asus -3 yr warranty+ voltage tweak

But if you want to use the ASUS in anger at 1GHz the reviews seem to say it has trouble keeping the temp/noise levels down, pureoverclock review:

We should mention a couple effects of this overclock: heat and noise. It is rather unfortunate that only a stock cooler is included on the EAH5870, as this has difficulty controlling the heat output when you push the voltages higher. As we saw earlier, the temperatures (and noise) are fine when running at stock speeds. But you don't buy a Voltage Tweak graphics card to run it at stock settings, do you? When overclocked, the EAH5870 struggles to keep load temps under control. Consequently, we recommend 1.35V as the maximum safe setting for stock cooling.

As we also know, noise is the byproduct of working to control the heat output with the stock cooler. While noise levels are very low at stock speeds, the reference 5870 heatsink here is very loud at high RPMs when coping with the overclocked temperatures. Frankly, it sounds like a hair dryer. Clearly, ATI has not resolved this design problem which harks back to the 3000 series cards. Open request to ATI: design a quieter cooler already!

Which was the reason I went for the Vapor-X, but I didn't realise you couldn't overvolt it, now I've got even more buyer's regret, thanks to 555BUK posting above:

555BUK said:
My reference ASUS boards run very quietly, even with the cores cranked up to 1000MHz. If do get a little noisy for you, you can always alter the fan profile via software. Even at 1000MHz my card never goes above 80degrees when gaming..

So perhaps the ASUS board is only really noisy when benchmarking in FurMark etc, which is what the review will have been testing with. For normal gaming the load will be much lighter?

555BUK · 9 Apr 2010 at 09:40

I think noise is very subjective. For me the reference 5850's are very quiet. I cannot hear the card above my 120mm case fans when it's fan speed is below 25%. As it stays at this level until 50degrees it is inaudible unless I am gaming or benching. Even when my card is gaming, the fan will only reach 35-40% @ 1000MHz (custom profile). The noise is still very acceptable for me because I tend to have my speakers on when gaming.

If Fermi can run safely at 95degrees I am sure the 580xx's will be fine above 80, so there is more scope to reduce fanspeeds if you desire. MSI Afterburner is a great tool.

But, if you absolutely must have a completely silent case there are quieter options.

V4nger · 9 Apr 2010 at 10:03

555BUK said:
I think noise is very subjective. For me the reference 5850's are very quiet. I cannot hear the card above my 120mm case fans when it's fan speed is below 25%. As it stays at this level until 50degrees it is inaudible unless I am gaming or benching. Even when my card is gaming, the fan will only reach 35-40% @ 1000MHz (custom profile). The noise is still very acceptable for me because I tend to have my speakers on when gaming.

If Fermi can run safely at 95degrees I am sure the 580xx's will be fine above 80, so there is more scope to reduce fanspeeds if you desire. MSI Afterburner is a great tool.

But, if you absolutely must have a completely silent case there are quieter options.

And the 5870s are supposedly cooler than the 5850s which means the fan wont need to be as fast to cool it. im not looking for a completely silent case i just dont want any major noise. i use headphones for gaming so i guess the fan noise level should be acceptable for me too. i think i will get the cheapest 5870 and use AB on it. is it true you can overvolt without flashing the BIOS with AB?

bhavv · 9 Apr 2010 at 10:05

If you cant overvolt the Rev 2 Vapor X, seriously do not bother. Overclocking these cards is too much fun.

jij · 9 Apr 2010 at 10:12

cainer said:
the vapour X's are nice and tbh if you HAVE to have your core at more than 900 to make a game run smooth then you need more than a 5870, you need the next generation

Which next generation is that? ATI? Not out for a while are they?
... it just seems a waste... you could get to 1050MHz which is a 23% overclock, i.e. about the same as a stock GTX480 fermi... but cheaper, and cooler. The 5870 seems like a brilliant cool-running design to me, with lots of overclocking headroom. I used to be an Nvidia fan, but they seem to have less headroom, as they are already running v hot at stock speeds. Overclock a GTX480 by 23% and you should be able to cook those eggs!

bhavv · 9 Apr 2010 at 10:34

Yea these vapor X coolers could easily handle around 1050 Mhz, putting such a cooler on a card and then locking out voltage tweaking is plain ridiculous.

If you arent going to overclock, then you dont even need the Vapor X cards. The normal cooler will be silent and cool at stock frequencies.

Which one is which out of the two that support / dont support voltage tweaking - 40R or 50R?

Ultim8 · 9 Apr 2010 at 10:56

40/50r is the box contents its the start of the code if it starts with a 2 its refrence design if its a 1 its a sapphire built pcb

Jabbs · 9 Apr 2010 at 21:32

Asus is easy to overclock had 1000 on the core without any issues but jeez its noisy on 50% its shockingly loud, great card but disappointed with the noise level its terrible for me way way to loud, will deffo have to be a better cooler.

I almost wishing i had stuck with the card that was faulty and had a replacement the Sapphire 5870 pcs+

Edit. I guess these things run hotter than a 5850 ? trying mine at 950/1250 and in furmark it was hovering around 74c with around 45% fan and that was ok noise wise, what temp is safe for these to reach

Managed to get a bit better fan profile its not that bad now and i at 990/1280 very good card i have to say, i will get a better cooler at some point.