Overclocked: Our Custom Radeon HD 5870 Roundup
by Ryan Smith on May 19, 2010 11:53 AM ESTThe Test
For this roundup we’re using our new benchmark suite that we introduced back in our review of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480. We’ve gone ahead and dropped Wolfenstein from this roundup since it’s far more CPU sensitive than it is GPU sensitive.
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.33GHz |
| Motherboard: | Intel DX58SO (Intel X58) |
| Chipset Drivers: | Intel 9.1.1.1015 (Intel) |
| Hard Disk: | OCZ Summit (120GB) |
| Memory: | Patriot Viper DDR3-1333 3 x 2GB (7-7-7-20) |
| Video Cards: |
Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Toxic 2GB MSI Radeon HD 5870 Lightning Gigabyte Radeon HD 5870 Super Overclock AMD Radeon HD 5970 AMD Radeon HD 5870 AMD Radeon HD 5850 AMD Radeon HD 5830 AMD Radeon HD 4890 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 |
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA ForceWare 197.13 NVIDIA ForceWare 197.17 AMD Catalyst 10.3a AMD Catalyst 10.4 |
| OS: | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
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dgz - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
Guys, you should really use Left 4 Dead 2 instead of the original game as the sequel is way more intensive on the system. The visual difference may not be stunning but the hunger for performance is there.Jumalauta - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
Very interesting roundup, thank you.Seeing how idle noise is basically The Gigabyte card's only flaw, I was wondering if you tried to remedy that by controlling the fan speed with MSI Afterburner software? It's VERY handy for creating custom fan speed curves. The only question is compatibility with Gigabyte's custom card.
sneakyB - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
This article comes at the best of time for me, I've been trying to decide for the last two weeks wich OCed 5870 to get. But I'm surprised that there's no Asus matrix in the review, maybe it's that we have it here in Europe and it's not on sale in the US ? I would have liked to see it compared to the Gigabyte, as my usual store has both for sale.FH123 - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
Was the Gigabyte clocking down properly on idle? I have a an Asus 5850, based on the reference design. Once you attach 2 monitors it no longer clocks down to something like 157MHz core / 300MHz memory, but instead idles at full speed 700MHz core / 1000MHz memory with a consequent rise in noise levels, which first alerted me to the fact.Jumalauta - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
If you take a look at idle GPU temps, I'd say the problem is elsewhere.FH123 - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
Agreed.Lonyo - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
You dropped Wolfenstein, one of the few OpenGL games, because of the way it responds, and yet you keep in Left 4 Dead, one of the most CPU limited games there is.Sounds like a great decision.
East17 - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
I think that there should be another chapter included in OC cards RoundUps :1)test the cards @ default settings (already done)
2)test the cards @ OC settings (already done)
3)try to see what PCB design and options are better by excluding the cooling limitation imposed by the specific coolers and test the cards @ OC setting WITH the best VGA cooler available at that time
I think this is a good idea and should be included in future reviews IMHO .
Have a nice day!
Jumalauta - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
You still wouldn't get anywhere due to GPU sample variance. You would need a lot of test samples of each variety to attain even remotely conclusive results.ajlueke - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
The fact that these cards are typically running around the $500 mark, which is the same price tag as an Nvidia GTX 480, is a deal breaker. You pay Fermi price without the Fermi performance. Stock 5870s can be had for $400 these days, and a sub 10% performance increase with a 25% price increase hardly seems worth it. It is possible to achieve similar overclocking results for less money and with less noise with a good after market cooler.