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uHOH ! Sapphire 5850 vanilla not reference ??

Soldato
Joined
14 Nov 2002
Posts
4,309
Guys, just recieved my Sapphire 5850 from OCuK, and I am concerned its not a ref design.
Its on a blue pcb for a start, no ATI/AMD print near the pci-e and the cooler doesn't look like the square reference one ...

not best pleased if its not, might have to return it :(
 
Associate
Joined
3 Mar 2008
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909
Location
Land Based
Afaik, all the AMD partners are bringing out non-reference designs that look to have a better cooler, but often have less coper in them,aswell as cheaper ram/volt chips, which reduce overclocking or completely disable it, to increase margins/reduce production costs.

Had to swap my PCS+ (not a bad card)for a HIS refence board for a ek block to fit, and it seems no-one has any reference 5850s for sale anymore. I belive the 5870s are still reference, but as most people here and other forums know of how fantastic the ref 5850s are (5870 o/clocks+), they seem to have all gone.

If not going for watercooling, i would have a look at the PCS+ / Vapour-x/Toxic, cards for both 5850/5870


Edit: Not sure about Asus, but they may still be reference as their advertised as 'voltage tweak'.
Allso, if you do want to send it back, do so asap as the 7 day Distance Selling Regulations applies afaik.

Hope that helps :]
 
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Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2007
Posts
22,261
Location
North West
Nah it's not right, they should use the actual picture of the card you're getting, I think you could return it under them grounds.

As for none reference, slightly better cooling " the fan looks very fragile compared to reference ones " but cheaper parts and no volt adjustment.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Jul 2007
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1,396
Location
nottingham
I bought this Sapphire from ocuk http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-214-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502 last week to go xfire with my other sapphire 5870 this is what turned up last week

http://sites.google.com/site/ayupfromdik/files/crossfire.JPG?attredirects=0&d=1

Its on its way back to ocuk for rma because it wouldn't hold its xfire lock.Load heaven bench and runs nice xfire frame rate then close and reload the benchmark and it runs single card performance and it was the same with all my benchmarks and games.

The build quality on this new card feels very cheap and when i placed it underneath the reference card the fan noise when the card got hot drove me nuts and swapping them around resulted in a quieter set of cards.

The card i got is not the card shown on ocuk and it didnt work well with my other reference card.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
14 Nov 2002
Posts
4,309
Yeah Guys its not reference for sure :(
Phoned OcuK and will be returned, I aint worried about non ref coolers, but the non ref boards are a pain as I need it to fit on the 5850 EK waterblock.

Pictures are listed as for "illustration only" which is fair point. ..... now I gotta hunt for a ref design, Asus pull ya fingers out :p
 
Associate
Joined
13 Feb 2009
Posts
1,952
Location
London
Nah it's not right, they should use the actual picture of the card you're getting, I think you could return it under them grounds.

As for none reference, slightly better cooling " the fan looks very fragile compared to reference ones " but cheaper parts and no volt adjustment.

+1
I got a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X a while back.
Pic showed V1 with the black board. but i got V2 with the blue board.
So it went back.
I knew V1 would clock better then V2.
From this day it still shows V1, where it's V2.
In my eyes this is not right.
The pic's should be updated, otherwise people will only send them back.:p
 
Associate
Joined
27 Nov 2008
Posts
669
Location
UK
its quite easy if the sapphire code starts with a 2 its an AMD built card if its a 1 its Sapphires own PCB design and components.

Maybe a should do a post explaining the Sapphire codes.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2007
Posts
22,261
Location
North West
its quite easy if the sapphire code starts with a 2 its an AMD built card if its a 1 its Sapphires own PCB design and components.

Maybe a should do a post explaining the Sapphire codes.


Some one should tell OCUK that then, they seem to be sending out none-reference cards, with reference codes on the product description page for them.
 
Associate
Joined
27 Nov 2008
Posts
669
Location
UK
there is some ref cards still about asus's model number has V2 for version 2/Custom built and if it doesn't its custom. Problem is OcUK probably arn't told when its a reference board or not when they buy them direct/distribution so cant really blame them if they are unaware that what they are buying has changed.
 
Associate
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
294
Location
The Faithful City
Hi,

I received a reply when querying if the below product was an ATI reference card from OCUK (Sapphire 5850);

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-215-SP

"Thank you for your webnote.
The product should be SKU 21162-00-50R as specified on our website."

That SKU is for the reference board version.

Are some people getting the Sapphire blue PCB version when ordering the above?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
14 Nov 2002
Posts
4,309
Thats the card I ordered and got a blue PCB one Mercurial.

If Asus arent reference, I think it may be just the cooler, or do they have their own pcb too ? come to that even non ref coolers might be a pain if they have custom heatsinks on the back of the card (VRM I pressume).
 
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