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Asus 5870

Soldato
Joined
14 Nov 2007
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16,060
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In the Land of Grey and Pink
Is the asus 5870 in the OC shop a V2 ?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-214-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502

I've seen many articles saying how you cant tell from looking at the box and you should be sure to get a v2 as thats whats current.

thanks for any response im not in a rush but could drive me to a faster buy instead of endless pondering.


Nope, you should be looking to get the original. V2 has no backplate, is louder, and in at least one review, didn't overclock very well:


"As you can see, the ASUS HD 5870 V2 sample we received exhibited atrocious overclocking potential. The Voltage Tweak (VT) software did help matters a bit but even with the software’s maximum allowable voltage coursing its way through the card, the V2 was still at the bottom of the pack. Memory overclocking on the other hand was exactly what we have come to expect from this card."

Pros:

- Great looking design
- Revised heatsink provides good temperatures
- Voltage Tweak Software works if you want to push overclocks
- ASUS Xtreme Design means this card is a cut above a reference product


Cons:

- Louder than the stock heatsink when playing games
- Slightly higher power consumption than a reference card
- Location of power connectors means card will actually end up being longer than a stock HD 5870
 
Associate
Joined
11 May 2010
Posts
207
Location
Nottingham
I ordered a very similar looking product from another e-tailer and received the V2. So I can give some views on overclocking and temps.

I can overclock it to 940/1320 on stock voltage and fan settings and be 100% stable, this overclock nets me near 18,000 GPU points on Vantage with my CPU (Q6600) at 3.2ghz, when I overclock my CPU to 3.6ghz I see over 20,000 GPU points.

Max temps with Furmark on Xtreme Burning are 79c (w/overclock) after 5 mins of testing, and the fan speed hits around 40% which I would describe as mildly noisy, but easily hidden under low volume gaming noise.

Card idles at around 55c with the latest drivers screwing up Powerplay, and with overclocking disabled it idles at around 34.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this card, but I'm also a little miffed that I don't think I'll be able to install any aftermarket coolers as I'd love to keep the noise down a little more and allow more overclocking headroom. I'm also a miffed at the fact that most e-tailers show the V1 model, but actually ship the V2, because I don't think that's fair to the customer.

As long as you're not looking for a silent card, or looking to put a third party cooler on it, I think you'll be happy with the V2 overall.

Edit:- Not sure how that guy managed 1.1ghz core at stock voltage as I can't hit that even with full voltage and 100% fan speed.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
2 Oct 2009
Posts
829
Location
Belfast, UK
From the majority of forum posts the Asus 5870 V2 seems to overclock rather well. I consider mine a mediocre sample in the range of cards, and it reaches 1000 core. The cooler is a little noisier than reference, but when heavily overclocked it is quieter than a heavily overclocked reference 5870.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1858&pageID=9022&Content_Random=2960

Smartdoctor is a pain, but fingers crossed MSI afterburner will have unlockable voltage control in the future (The voltage regulators can be controlled by software).

Also, the backplate increases the GPU tempatures on the reference 5870's when left on from what I have heard.
 
Associate
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2 Oct 2009
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829
Location
Belfast, UK
I can get to 1Ghz and 1250 Memory with 1.2885 volts, but I had a random 'program has stopped responding' after about 2 hours of Crysis the otherday, so have backed off untill I can do some better testing. Mine only hits 940 on stock volts, but seems to scale well with voltage. I have a custom fan profile with MSI afterburner, hits max 75c in furmark with the fan spinning up to 43%, or 72c in crysis with the fan at 37%.
 
Associate
Joined
11 May 2010
Posts
207
Location
Nottingham
I'll have to have more of a play with mine. I've heard some people say some of the third party coolers will fit on these cards but the VRM heatsinks won't. I'm very interested in replacing the stock cooler.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
24 Apr 2009
Posts
154
Thankyou for the response. after my Extremly noisy 9800gx2 I would definetly be interested in a quiter card I'm sure compaired to what I've got both would be an improvement. I'm set on a 5870 I'm not interested in overclocking graphics so probably V1 , might give overclocking graphics a go in the future. V1 or V2 will do the trick I would go for an alternate make but I like Asus so tempted towards the matrix but im sure the cost performance difference wouldnt be satisfying i probably wouldnt notice anyway.

Thanks

Jon
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Feb 2007
Posts
3,430
New V1's are as hard to find as England World Cup medals (and pretty soon to be as rare as Scots World Cup Medals). If you want to get the best you may have to look at the second hand market. I have now owned 4 V1 5800 series cards and all have hit 1000MHz easily. Two of them (one ASUS, one Powercolor flashed with ASUS bios) were stable at 1050MHz core / 1300mem. The only V2 I have tested could not get past 870MHz.
 
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