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Which 5850 ? PowerColor's PCS+ or Asus DirectCU

Soldato
Joined
20 Apr 2004
Posts
4,365
Location
Oxford
I want to order one of these today. I can get the PCS+ for £233 with MW2 , MW2 which I already have so I could sell that for £20 or so knocking the price down to a nice £213.

The Direct CU I'm looking at £245 but comes with no games i think.

They both seem to OC about the same and both are quiet (replacing my faulty GTX 280) with the PCS+ being much larger but that is a non issue in my Aurora 570. which leaves RMA's and warranty what are Asus (3 years) and Powercolor (2 years) like on RMA's (time taken , were i have to send to card to etc.


So I need some help as I'm torn between the two and I rather not get a stock card.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
20 Apr 2004
Posts
4,365
Location
Oxford
I would go Asus, better quality PCB and by all accounts a better clocker with eight and six pin power connectors for stability when overclocking.

but what are the RMA's like. If Asus has a UK based graphics card RMA that will be a real deal breaker with its 3years warranty. Never had to do a RMA with ether company you see (although I've plenty of each products).
 
Associate
Joined
11 May 2010
Posts
207
Location
Nottingham
I can say that my Asus isn't a great overclocker, I struggle to stably hit 950 on the core and 1250 on the memory, even with 1.35v. I'm looking at getting it RMA'd too (with the supplier) as there is a ticking noise coming from the fan. I think I might move to a reference design card though as I've heard they clock better and run cooler.

Just my 2 cents though, you might get a better card than myself.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
20 Apr 2004
Posts
4,365
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Oxford
I be happy with 925/1200 sort of level as i would get very close to 5870 performance in a smaller neater card. and it would punch my faulty GTX 280 OC in the nuts some what
 
Associate
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11 May 2010
Posts
207
Location
Nottingham
I can do 900/1230 at 1.2v with the card maxing out at late 80's under Furmark. 3DMark Vantage hits mid 70's, and the GPU score comes in very close to the 5870 score on Guru3D's charts.

Edit:- Raven, that's the TOP Edition, which I'm assuming is binned higher and will most likely be a better clocker in general than the normal versions.
 
Associate
Joined
11 May 2010
Posts
207
Location
Nottingham
Sorry to hijack the thread, but what kind of overclocks and temperatures do you see up2nogooduk? As I'm thinking my noisy fan on mine might be affecting my overclocks and temperatures too.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Feb 2007
Posts
3,430
I have owned 2 ASUS 5850's and one ASUS 5870. All 3 overclocked to 1000MHz core easily with voltages bumped to ~1.3v. The best 5850 can run 1050core / 1300mem and the worst did 1000core / 1250mem. The 5870 sat in the middle @ 1000/1300.

Without voltage tweaks they would only go to ~870core which will be your limit with PCS version.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Mar 2009
Posts
187
Location
Alsager
i've got the PCS+ and the best i can get out of it 100% stable is 850/1150, runs cool at 66 max.

very quiet card as well, no voltage tweek on the powercolor (at least not on mine anyway)
 
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