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Let me just say that....

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

Soldato
Joined
12 May 2005
Posts
8,384
....I’m not a fanboy, and I’m in no way promoting fanboyism….. However I can honestly say that without any doubt that me buying an ATI 5870 Vapor-x for my PC has been the single best purchase I’ve ever made in terms of me actually using it, as I’ve been known to buy kit and ‘not’ really use it to full potential or get my moneys worth out of it..

£350 for a bit of kit that coupled with a Quad CPU, 4GB of memory a 1080p display and an Xbox 360 gamepad sounds a lot of money. However, I’ve never had so much fun with playing games in my life…

I’ve been a games player since the Amiga days, and the only other time I’ve been so impressed with graphics and gameplay was back in the days of Playstation 1 and then shortly after the 3Dfx days…

It came close before when I got an ATI Radeon 9700 pro, however in the last three months of owning my 5870 Vapor-x I’ve played so many great games in 1920 x 1080 and had a complete blast that the 5870 has now become an instant hit with me…

Lets see since getting the card I’ve installed and thoroughly enjoyed with eye popping speed and visuals -

Dirt 2
Need for Speed Shift
Grid
Batman Arkham
Call of Duty World at War
Metro 2033
Settlers 7 path to a kingdom
Devil May Cry 4
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Assassins Creed II
Crysis

Ooo to name a few. I’m a big single player fan; I love to play games that give me both eye candy and a story, also like the odd driving game too. The ATI 5870 Vapor-x has provided the eye candy, the 360 gamepad has provided the control method and the games have certainly kept me entertained…

I’ve purchased high end Graphics cards before (or at least expensive enough for me rate them as high end)…. My last graphics card – 8800GT never got nowhere near the attention I’m giving the ATI 5870 Vapor-X. Just can’t put my finger on it, even though I felt the NVIDIA driver suite was excellent, the ATI is just getting so much more use..

My PS3 is sat gathering dust, whilst my PC is being exhausted of HDD space, gamepad being worn out and my stash of PC titles is growing…

ATI – well done, its certainly a very capable product. Product delivers. Does just what it says it’ll do…. HD gaming and movie playback. Anyone who’s considering a new GPU – take a look at the 5870. You won’t be disappointed (provided you’ve got a Quad at 3ghz and 4GB of memory)…

Oh and thank you to all the members who recommended this card to me.... You were all 'bang' on the money about how good they are..!! cool.:)
 
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Oh just to add...

Wasn't quite so impressed with DX11 in Metro 2033. The DOF and Tessellation settings either weren't noticed or killed the framerate. Maybe as time goes on ATI will release better drivers to increase performance of these new techs in DX11 titles...
 
Yeah I believe the 5000 series of cards have been a resounding success " excluding the 5830, stupid card " great performance and efficient heat and power management, can't wait to see what ATI have for us next.
 
Yep, ATI have done a really good job with the 5000 series, i'm interested to see what ATI have in store for us next.
 
I'm gonna be buying a 5870 at the end of this week for my first ever self-build, cannot wait to get it!

Why would I go for the Vapor-x ahead of say the Asus 5870? What does the extra ~£25 actually buy you? My apologies in advance if that is a stupid noob question! :)
 
goonerfan said:
I'm gonna be buying a 5870 at the end of this week for my first ever self-build, cannot wait to get it!

Why would I go for the Vapor-x ahead of say the Asus 5870? What does the extra ~£25 actually buy you? My apologies in advance if that is a stupid noob question! :)
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Far as I'm aware I was advised when I got mine that the Vapor-x provides much better cooling. Although, the Vapor-x also has a locked out ROM and cannot be unlocked to allow higher overclocks.

I oc mine using the ATI CCC, currently set at the highest settings I can move slider across, and using CAT 10.4 drivers (to fix a issue with dual screens) my idle temps at 41c and underload I average between 62 - 70c..!!

So buying a Vapor-x provides a much better cooler, although before Cat 10.4 using 10.3 my idle temps were low 30... This is because the 10.4 drivers up the memory speed in powerplay to prevent screen flicker when it down clocks so, fixes one issue creates another. Still 41 idle is still rather good I'd say.
 
Got to agree with you, got the same card about 3-4 weeks ago and have been mass playing games since heh.The cooler is incredibly good, in furmark even i do not go over 68c on autofan which is quite incredible considering my GTX275 hit 92c in it.

As for Metro 2033 you're right they do not add much difference to the game but depth of field seems to kill the fps a bit more than tessellation(?) though i could play on very high in DX11 with it on but not depth of field however i just switched both off in the end which made it a lot smoother.

I've encountered zero issues with this card so far too.:)
 
first off im glad you like you card but aren't the 5870 vapour x's a bit of a con, i paid over £100 less than you for a 5850 + accelero s1 + 120mmfan. the card is currently clocked at 900/1250 and idles at 30c and loads at 50c, i just dont see the value in the vapour x to be honest.
 
phill0i said:
first off im glad you like you card but aren't the 5870 vapour x's a bit of a con, i paid over £100 less than you for a 5850 + accelero s1 + 120mmfan. the card is currently clocked at 900/1250 and idles at 30c and loads at 50c, i just dont see the value in the vapour x to be honest.
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They're most definitely a con. Even reference 5870s are cons really.
 
*sniff* and I was in such a good mood…. Lol Nah in all fairness to the chaps here, you mostly said that a 5850 clocked to 5870 speeds was just as good and would have saved me some dosh..

However, I’m not the best with oc’ing and I bought this to be on the safe side. Even my i5 was a pre clocked bundle… I have an OC pre clocked profile in the BIOS and all I did was load this once I’d installed the CPU heatsink and installed the GPU and O/S…

Easy, simples and I just load up a game and off I trot to play it… Well, something like that. For the sake of a few quid – to me anyhow, rather play safe then blow something up. I’m ok with using ATI over drive to clock the card up a bit, wasn’t so sure about flashing a board to make it run the same as a 5870… Erm, nah. The idea of cooking a £300 GPU just isn’t my idea of fun…

Maybe a con to some, to others its just an easier route to a powerful and cool running (ish) GPU.
 
Well I'm still gonna go for a 5870, rip off or not.

I mean 11 inches, that's more than twice...ahem.. er. yes.

I had seen some bench testing of 5850 vs 5870, and it looked like the latter came out on top... is it just the difference is too small to be worth the extra money?
 
rounddodger said:
Kylew when will you realise not everyone sits there with a calculator working out the *bestest* *possbilest* bang for buck??? If he was on a budget then yeah but who cares, it's his money.
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chuckle ....that's a fair point ...it is increasingly hard to say anything on the majority of forums w/out some 24/7 ubernerd having their 2pence.
 
rounddodger said:
Kylew when will you realise not everyone sits there with a calculator working out the *bestest* *possbilest* bang for buck??? If he was on a budget then yeah but who cares, it's his money.

@iv-tecman - enjoy your new card. :P
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This is a discussion forum.

Let's say it together, slowly.

Dis-cuss-ion for-um.

I'm entitled to my opinion just as much as you are.

Why not have a moan at the guy who said it before me though?
 
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