XFX 5850 any good?

[fs123]

I'm tempted to get the XFX 5850 after checking out reviews of the ASUS directCU.
Is the XFX a reference design since I will probably flash with a bios that can volt mod it later on?

 

[sjcf1]

By refrence design do you mean the cooler?

I've got a XFX 5850, had it for 4 months now, wouldn't have had any other GPU.

 

[fs123]

yes I'm asking whether the XFX card in the 'this week only' offer is a newer custom pcb made by XFX or is it the original Ati reference version that can accept other bioses such as Asus's?

 

[Raikiri]

No idea, but the Asus has Voltage control as standard and for the extra £11 the cooler is a fair bit better than the stock one.

 

[fs123]

No idea, but the Asus has Voltage control as standard and for the extra £11 the cooler is a fair bit better than the stock one.

But according to this HardOCP article about the 5830 which uses the DirectCU cooler..

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/04/19/asus_eah5830_directcu_video_card_review/9

..the temperatures at full load are higher than the stock cooler.

 

[Brizzles]

Cracking card

The revised cooler ( the one with the centre mounted fan ) is extremely quiet even at load, virtually silent.

So impressed i'm going to pick up a 2nd this week for xfire.

 

[Skaface]

I was about to make a topic on this as I'm thinking of picking up the XFX too. Do I get a cookie for using the search function rather than spamming new topics?

Definately looks like a good card, and if the fan is improved it's going to save me a few pennies as I won't need to water cool this one

 

[mel d]

would there be any bottle neck with a dual core running at 3.6 ?

 

[Raikiri]

But according to this HardOCP article about the 5830 which uses the DirectCU cooler..

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/04/19/asus_eah5830_directcu_video_card_review/9

..the temperatures at full load are higher than the stock cooler.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH_5850_TOP_DirectCu/31.html

And in this one it hits 77c, overclocked, under load while being a lot quieter

 

[Marine-RX179]

would there be any bottle neck with a dual core running at 3.6 ?

Yes it will, especially for the more CPU dependent/intensive games such as Battlefield Bad Company 2. A Q6600 overclocked to around 3.2-3.6GHz would be just around on the right balance with a stock speed 5850.

 

[fs123]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH_5850_TOP_DirectCu/31.html

And in this one it hits 77c, overclocked, under load while being a lot quieter

Except that the link I posted puts the cards under extreme load using Furmark rather than just a game. With furmark the DirectCU does a worse job than the stock cooler...

 

[mattgal]

does this card has voltage control?

mrdbristol: what temps are you getting?

 

[Raikiri]

Except that the link I posted puts the cards under extreme load using Furmark rather than just a game. With furmark the DirectCU does a worse job than the stock cooler...

Well, you go play furmark with a hair drier in the background then

 

[fs123]

Well, you go play furmark with a hair drier in the background then

My point is that the directCU cooler performs worse than the stock cooler under extreme load. This is not good if Asus is trying to pass it off as having a better cooling solution and consequently charging a higher price for the card.

 

[Skilid]

I've got said card and i'm over th moon with it. Got a sneaky little overclock on there and it is very quiet, and still runs reasonably cool considering my case gets quite warm.