Almost ready to By ATI 5850

[roller11]

Whatever you do, don't get an XFX brand. The stock BIOS prohibits OCing, and you can't work around this prob with either a BIOS mod or software.

[Klarko]

Whatever you do, don't get an XFX brand. The stock BIOS prohibits OCing, and you can't work around this prob with either a BIOS mod or software.

Everyone else was recommending them over everyone else, anyone care to back this statement up?

[vegettoxp]

Well I was leaning more towards MSI, so there is talk that they are gona release any unlocked Bios soon. But to be honest with you guys, I am 50/50 on OC the card. I mean if I get what I want, then why OC. Maybe I am missing something?

[Blkout]

Whatever you do, don't get an XFX brand. The stock BIOS prohibits OCing, and you can't work around this prob with either a BIOS mod or software.

The average person doesn't care if the video card overclocks past the CCC limits set by XFX and most other manufacturers. That being said, it's very easy to flash any 5800 series card with an MSI or Asus bios to raise the CCC limits so I can only assume you made a typo when you said it can't be done. XFX is also the only company to offer a double lifetime warranty which is nice when it comes time to resale.

I have two XFX 5850 cards in crossfire running an MSI bios and they overclock far past the XFX CCC limits, 1000/1250.

[roller11]

I tried the ASUS bios and ATIFLASH would not flash it. After I posted, I tried again with the -f option and it worked. So now I can successfully OC my card. Still, I got rather poor OC results, only 823/1150 GPU/mem. Overclockers Club got 870/1220 from their Sapphire 5850 card. What OC are you getting from your XFX?

[Blkout]

I tried the ASUS bios and ATIFLASH would not flash it. After I posted, I tried again with the -f option and it worked. So now I can successfully OC my card. Still, I got rather poor OC results, only 823/1150 GPU/mem. Overclockers Club got 870/1220 from their Sapphire 5850 card. What OC are you getting from your XFX?

As stated above, I have run my XFX 5850's in crossfire at 1000/1250. This is with a bump in voltage using MSI Afterburner. I believe I could go higher with the core values, but I have no need for that with a dual card setup as there's already far more speed than I need for any current game. In fact, I use 850/1250 for day to day use since it doesn't require much voltage. I just like to know I can go to 1000/1250 if needed for future gaming.

[roller11]

My XFX card is way underperforming, I'm getting only 913 core and it takes 1.174 volts to achieve that. What voltage are you running to get 1000 core? Both your cards can do 1000?

[phsinc1]

My XFX card is way underperforming, I'm getting only 913 core and it takes 1.174 volts to achieve that. What voltage are you running to get 1000 core? Both your cards can do 1000?

I think it is normal, I have been reading in different forums, and seems for 900core on HD5850 average vcore is 1.15v ~ 1.20v, so I think 1.17v is acceptable, but I wonder some folks who run their memory @ 1100 or 1150 since the ram is rated to run @ 1250, did you try to bump your memory speed? did you get stability problem with your memory oc'ed more than 1150?
I'm running atm 900/1200 1.174v using the ASUS official bios and afterburner 1.4

[Blkout]

My XFX card is way underperforming, I'm getting only 913 core and it takes 1.174 volts to achieve that. What voltage are you running to get 1000 core? Both your cards can do 1000?

That's excatly what my 5850's take to reach that speed so that's very normal.

Keep in mind that mine are in crossfire which means they both have to achieve the same exact speed at the same voltage in order maintain stability.

My voltages are as follows:

850/1250 - 1.125v

900/1250 - 1.174v

950/1250 - 1.225v

1000/1250 - 1.274v

[Blkout]

I think it is normal, I have been reading in different forums, and seems for 900core on HD5850 average vcore is 1.15v ~ 1.20v, so I think 1.17v is acceptable, but I wonder some folks who run their memory @ 1100 or 1150 since the ram is rated to run @ 1250, did you try to bump your memory speed? did you get stability problem with your memory oc'ed more than 1150?
I'm running atm 900/1200 1.174v using the ASUS official bios and afterburner 1.4

The memory is rated to run at 1250 so I see no reason not to run it that speed. It should be perfectly stable on any 5800 series card unless your card has a bad batch of memory chips. That being said, my 5850's will not run 1300 as I've seen some 5870's running which may be where the 3 phase power management on the 5850 compared to the 4 phase on the 5870 makes a difference.

[phsinc1]

That's excatly what my 5850's take to reach that speed so that's very normal.

Keep in mind that mine are in crossfire which means they both have to achieve the same exact speed at the same voltage in order maintain stability.

My voltages are as follows:

850/1250 - 1.125v

900/1250 - 1.174v

950/1250 - 1.225v

1000/1250 - 1.274v

That exactly what I can do

The memory is rated to run at 1250 so I see no reason not to run it that speed. It should be perfectly stable on any 5800 series card unless your card has a bad batch of memory chips. That being said, my 5850's will not run 1300 as I've seen some 5870's running which may be where the 3 phase power management on the 5850 compared to the 4 phase on the 5870 makes a difference.

Well, I tried 1250 and it gave me increase 100 points over the 1150 and sometimes 50 points , I think memory OC has minimal effect on the performance