HD5970 Reviews

[eleeter]

...but the majority of HD 5970 cards ARE very poor overclockers at their stock voltage and above.

You've tested the majority of them?

[-Sweeper_]

Diamond 5970 is in stock @ Amazon :
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Radeon...9083121&sr=8-1

Usually ships within 3 to 6 weeks.

[Monstru]

No they are NOT poor overclockers, but they don't overclock by themselves. I don't think I can count more then 2-3 reviews where the vGPU was raised beyond 1.162v with ATI's OV tool. We've seen the reviews, now let's see how they'll do in HWBot rankings (overclocker average graph is what I am looking for). Once overclockers will get their hand on them and put them to work, we'll know exactly how most of them clock...

[SKYMTL]

You've tested the majority of them?

Don't mince words.

I have three. I had four. All failed to overclock more than between 5-7%. Other sites have reported the same. Other users have reported the same. 'nuff said.

[SKYMTL]

No they are NOT poor overclockers, but they don't overclock by themselves. I don't think I can count more then 2-3 reviews where the vGPU was raised beyond 1.162v with ATI's OV tool. We've seen the reviews, now let's see how they'll do in HWBot rankings (overclocker average graph is what I am looking for). Once overclockers will get their hand on them and put them to work, we'll know exactly how most of them clock...

We are talking stock voltage here. You can pump voltage into anything to help its clocking potential. I can add jet fuel to my snowblower and it will sure as heck increase its output...until it goes kaboom.

[Piotrsama]

We are talking stock voltage here. You can pump voltage into anything to help its clocking potential.

But.... stock voltage on 5970 GPUs is lower than on the 5870, right?
You can't expect the same frequencies then.

[Vinas]

Not horrible IMO. Sure, using FurMark is unrealistic but the majority of HD 5970 cards ARE very poor overclockers at their stock voltage and above.

Quite the contrary I'm afraid. If hwbot is any indication then we can say most 5870 cards w/ stcok vcore get 950/1250, or an 11.8% and 4% overclock respectively. While that might not be spectacular, it is far from a poor OC with stock voltages IMHO.

[ajaidev]

We are talking stock voltage here. You can pump voltage into anything to help its clocking potential. I can add jet fuel to my snowblower and it will sure as heck increase its output...until it goes kaboom.

You are making the snowblower rev at 5000RPM instead of normal 4600RPM and expect the snowblower to return the same fuel consumption ??

You overclock the clock so you must at least should over-voltage the card a bit as its a high end version and not a entry or mid range.

5850 OCed with stock voltage is a good idea, but 5970 Oced on stock not so much IMO.

[SKYMTL]

But.... stock voltage on 5970 GPUs is lower than on the 5870, right?
You can't expect the same frequencies then.

I agree. What I don't agree with is how ATI marketed the card to the press and their board partners. I am taking issue with some of the statements here and other places because they basically repeat ATI's marketing slides verbatim. Slides that hold claims which are on shaky ground due to the unpredictable nature of overclocking. Simple as that.

Memory, yes it overclocks well. The cores? Not so much.

[SKYMTL]

You are making the snowblower rev at 5000RPM instead of normal 4600RPM and expect the snowblower to return the same fuel consumption ??.

No. Because its fuel consumption increase could be likened to the cards' increased power conumption and heat production.

5850 OCed with stock voltage is a good idea, but 5970 Oced on stock not so much IMO.

See my comment in the post above.

[InCredible]

Don't mince words.

I have three. I had four. All failed to overclock more than between 5-7%. Other sites have reported the same. Other users have reported the same. 'nuff said.

..just because some people don't know how to really push these cards, doesn't mean they are bad overclockers, it simply means that some people don't know what they are doing..
when the 4870x2 came out..most all review sites i saw where under 800mhz for the cores..usually 780..30mhz over stock..but when u put the card into hands of people that know what they are doing..800mhz seems like the minimum and ive seen 830(usual) to 900(xtreme)..me personally at 850core..

so ill take review sites and overclocking with a grain of salt

EDIT: i do see u understand it takes more voltage to get anything nice from the cores..but its to be expected with this card since its under clocked and volted to meet the 300w tdp

[jaredpace]

I had four. All failed to overclock more than between 5-7%.

I believe it. ~780mhz @ 1.09v, ~850mhz @ 1.16v, and ~1000mhz @ ~1.3v with air cooling.

Can't wait to see Shamino run one at ~1400mhz

[[XC] Lead Head]

We are talking stock voltage here. You can pump voltage into anything to help its clocking potential. I can add jet fuel to my snowblower and it will sure as heck increase its output...until it goes kaboom.

Jet Fuel is nearly the same as Diesel fuel. Chances are your snow blower wont even run at all

[cowie]

No they are NOT poor overclockers, but they don't overclock by themselves. I don't think I can count more then 2-3 reviews where the vGPU was raised beyond 1.162v with ATI's OV tool. We've seen the reviews, now let's see how they'll do in HWBot rankings (overclocker average graph is what I am looking for). Once overclockers will get their hand on them and put them to work, we'll know exactly how most of them clock...

the cards are not very good clockers out of the box is fair enuff to say thuo,also was the card that you were showing ss of off the shelf(store bruoght)?

[Eastcoasthandle]

Core voltage increases were needed for the x1800, x1900 and x1950 in order to overclock them. Therefore, it should be no surprise if we have to still do that now. Unless some have forgotten we had to actually do that? Some of you act like this is new or something

[Manicdan]

a low voltage cpu also sucks at overclocking, but somehow anyone who gets one knows to first up the voltage to normal levels before OCing. why is this seeming like such a harder concept?

[Monstru]

was the card that you were showing ss of off the shelf(store bruoght)?

Yeah, I bought it along with the other 2000 people that enjoyed ATI's huge stock dump just before the launch =))

And yes, you are right, they are not very good clockers out of the box, they are average clockers for the high-end segment. But that is one thing, and "they are not good clockers" period is a totally different thing. Overclocking in general is a completely different thing.

We are talking stock voltage here. You can pump voltage into anything to help its clocking potential. I can add jet fuel to my snowblower and it will sure as heck increase its output...until it goes kaboom.

The voltage scaling and the negative temperature scaling are the ground stones of overclocking. You seem to have the feeling that every chip scales with voltage in the same way, and you keep repeating that. I don't even think I have to adress this ideea...

Ok, let's put it in like this - for daily-use, average IT-educated buyers (which is the vast majority of them) you are right, HD 5970 is not a bright overclocker, with it's stock voltage and all that. But since this is XtremeSystems, not mildly-stock-volts-systems, and overclocking usually means something a little bit different here, try to be more specific when you adress issues like overclocking.

[cowie]

i dont think anyone is saying that they dont clock when volt modded.

bah duel cored cards you know what to expect anyway.

thanks monstru for reply

btw
my comment was torward eastcoasthandle

[Chickenfeed]

Put these puppies on water! Until then I'm reserving judgement on their clocking abilities because face it, the stock cooler isn't up to the task to master 2 R870 cores at high clocks ( using stock cooling, I could burn one up in the Vantage feature tests I assure you ) Are the EK blocks shipping yet by the way?

[Monstru]

cowie - I know, we posted at the same time

chickenfeed - this is the funniest part. This is the only high-end cared where I reached the maximum voltage that is possible to adjust by software, on air, and I still have scaling Of course, this is not for daily use, I am talking for benching and such. Anyway, this week I'll make some time to vmod the card and put it under some LN2, to see exactly how bad it clocks.

[gumballguy]

How does one just decide to vmod the card?

Is it the same on all different models of cards or just easy to trace out what you need to do by looking at the board?

[STEvil]

Depends on the card.

if the tech documents are available for the VREGs then its pretty easy. If not then you get out the probes..

[SKYMTL]

i dont think anyone is saying that they dont clock when volt modded.

Bingo.

The card was marketed as having a large amount of overclocking potential AT STOCK VOLTS. However, it does not overclock well at STOCK VOLTAGE. Is this so hard to understand? No one is saying that with additional voltage input, the clock speeds will still be bogged down.

If anyone recorded ATI's presentation, fast forward to ~minute 40 and listen. I can't remember which slide they were presenting at the time.

[W1zzard]

[wez]

Heh, I like the standing red, and knocked down green king in the slide Never noticed it before