PowerColor, Sapphire out OCed 5870s

[zalbard]

Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/

Sapphire and PowerColor will be among the first AIBs to launch factory overclocked versions of AMD's HD 5870, but if you were hoping for a massive overclock, you might be a bit disappointed.

PowerColor's AX5870 1GBD5-WMDH is clocked at 875MHz and 1250MHz for the core an memory respectively, while Sapphire's Vapor-X Radeon HD 5870 ends up at 870MHz and 1250MHz. Basically we're looking at a slight overclock, just 20MHz to 25MHz for the core and 50MHz on the memory side.

However, there is a catch. Powercolor's AX5870 features a waterblock, while the Sapphire sticks to Vapor-X air cooling. Obviously, both cards should offer quite a bit of overclocking headroom but superior cooling comes at a price, a rather high one.

Both cards are currently listed at around €450, which doesn't sound like a very good deal considering the dual-gpu HD 5970 is expected to sell for €499.

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It's a decent offer for those who doesn't like the stock cooler.
I'd personally appreciate if someone shared Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X BIOS, it seems like earlier BIOS revisions for 5870 limited the performance. And I am also curious what OC limits that BIOS has.

[hazardous]

i like the vapor X cards, but it all seems a little pointless if they cant even keep the stock cards on the shelves. I'm having a hell of a time finding 5870s at all

[Utnorris]

Obviously, if you can find a regular HD5870 then buying the EK block yourself would be a better deal and them doing a slight overclock is ridiculous considering what the current HD5870's have been doing just on stock cooling much less on water cooling. Once again, someone decided to get greedy and offer nothing for something.

[AAbenson]

the Vapor-X of the 4xxx Radeons were very successful,a "spot on" product, so i guess management decided to get stupid....just milk the cow...
anyways if you gonna seriously oc a card then buy an after market cooler or as most of the users here - theyve already got one from their previous gfx card.
as for the water cooled card...unless that specific water cooler is tested and confirmed performance it doesnt mean jack ass...just cause its "water cooled" doesnt mean that it will perform better than a top of the line after market air cooler such as HR-03 GT,T-Rad^2 ...etc

[Baulten]

The block on the PowerColor card is a standard EK acetyl top I believe, so it's not a bad water block.

[Smartidiot89]

This is all theory crafting on my side... But I think AMD is holding the AIBs down atm when it comes to overclocking these cards, just like with HD4770 at it's release (which ASUS was quick to break).

Perhaps AMD rather wait until Nvidia have their new cards out and allow the AIBs to release 1GHz OC'd cards?

[kadozer]

Obviously, if you can find a regular HD5870 then buying the EK block yourself would be a better deal and them doing a slight overclock is ridiculous considering what the current HD5870's have been doing just on stock cooling much less on water cooling. Once again, someone decided to get greedy and offer nothing for something.

Yeah, I would rather buy XFX (best warranty) and waterblock. Comes out to about the same price.

[LordEC911]

This is all theory crafting on my side... But I think AMD is holding the AIBs down atm when it comes to overclocking these cards, just like with HD4770 at it's release (which ASUS was quick to break).

Perhaps AMD rather wait until Nvidia have their new cards out and allow the AIBs to release 1GHz OC'd cards?

Or more like, please don't bin cards/cores until we have enough supply.

[zanzabar]

dose that power color one have an aluminum block, or a nickle block i cant tell but i dont see them spending the money for nickle plating. and it looks like they forgot to cover the memory controller voltage fet so they are about to get alot of complaints and rmas

[Manicdan]

dose that power color one have an aluminum block, or a nickle block i cant tell but i dont see them spending the money for nickle plating. and it looks like they forgot to cover the memory controller voltage fet so they are about to get alot of complaints and rmas

i dont think so, the VRMs are able to throttle when overheating, not crash (i dont have a 5000 card, so i cant tell for sure, but thats what i remember reading)

[zanzabar]

i dont think so, the VRMs are able to throttle when overheating, not crash (i dont have a 5000 card, so i cant tell for sure, but thats what i remember reading)

thats the voltera part, im speaking of the memory controllers voltage regulator thats near the xfire bridge connector. if u dont cool it, it will supposedly kill the card and it looks uncovered. it also looks aluminum i thought that people would have learned by now that aluminum is bad

[strange|ife]

i like the vapor X cards, but it all seems a little pointless if they cant even keep the stock cards on the shelves. I'm having a hell of a time finding 5870s at all

Amazon has them, but the price has gone up across the board. No thanks.

waiting till next year

[Jamesrt2004]

dose that power color one have an aluminum block, or a nickle block i cant tell but i dont see them spending the money for nickle plating. and it looks like they forgot to cover the memory controller voltage fet so they are about to get alot of complaints and rmas

it is cooled =) its just the EK block btw

[zanzabar]

it is cooled =) its just the EK block btw

thats good to hear i was not expecting that, so that means that its also nickle

[Manicdan]

thats good to hear i was not expecting that, so that means that its also nickle

you mean nickle plated copper i hope

[zanzabar]

you mean nickle plated copper i hope

thats what nickle means with liquid cooling, and nickle is a heavy metal it would be illegal to sell somehting with a solid nickle block on it in the US or EU

[Manicdan]

thats what nickle means with liquid cooling, and nickle is a heavy metal it would be illegal to sell somehting with a solid nickle block on it in the US or EU

sorry for watching your back, too many on here wouldnt know and take you literally

EDIT: lols i got the "you must wait 1 more seconds" error

[initialised]

You mean the one's I posted in the watercooling gallery last week?:

This thread should read Powercolour released first factory overclocked 5870.







Clocks are 875/1250 MSI afterburner 1.3 didn't work to overclock the GPU, RAM gets unstable over 1275MHz, GPU is happy at 900MHz.



And to confirm, yes it is a nickel coated EK block. It does a good job keeping the GPU around 50C during at least 60 hours of FurMark 1.7 on a modest RS120, Antec Tri-Cool (medium, push) and 200lph XSPC bay res cooling loop.

[Hornet331]

*Sigh* still no 2gb cards

[Manicdan]

so the watercooled one cant OC as well due to software compatibility?

[Utnorris]

I have the XFX with the EK water block and I hit 1125/1298 on my card. I do not see why they are doing such a mild overclock considering the increase in cost.

[initialised]

so the watercooled one cant OC as well due to software compatibility?

For now, I'm also fairly time limited with these as most of the watercooled cards are upgrades on delayed systems which originally had aircooled cards. With the right tools or software updates there's no reason to expect OC potential to be gimped for long.

EDIT - Review of the Sapphire Vapour-X on Rage3D