What is the best version/type of 5850 to get?

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garry__

garry__

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Hi guys,

I'm returning my GTX260 OC'd edition and instead getting a HD5850, but I heard things about a toxic/atomic/ect versions and was wondering which would be the best to get.

So what type of HD5850 should I get?


Thanks~
 
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Yes, that's the one. Unless you're the enthusiast type that buys quite a lot of new tech and OC the cr** out of it with voltage tweaking/water cooling and suchlike, this represents a decent buy, giving you very respectable overclocks whilst keeping cool and quiet.

If you were planning on doing all that tweaking with your card, you'll find the best card for you is probably the ASUS reference card with a 3rd party cooler. IMO, the Vapor-X is the best 5850 cooler around, but...
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garry__

garry__

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For overclocking I have a fairly new gigabyte mobo, that would do the trick right?
 
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Lmeow

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The Sapphire Toxic/Vapor-X and MSI's Lightning editions with the Twin Frozr II cooler would be the best for overclocking, although I'd pick the Vapor-X out of all of them, in terms of coolest and most overclockable card.

Mind you, in terms of warranty, XFX is probably the best, with double lifetime warranty, although I'm not sure if it's voided by warranty.

AFAIK, your motherboard doesn't limit how your graphic card overclocks either, just the card's cooler itself, and the chip underneath it.
 
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Willakan

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I would advise getting the Vapor-x version for several reasons:

*According to the Sapphire FAQ on their site, the warranty covers overclocking to the limits of the Overdrive function in ATI CC, as confirmed by this link. http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/support/?cid=2&psn=000202] (under "What is Overdrive?")
You will probably want to overclock the card more than that, but this limited overclocking is covered by the warranty.

*I have contacted Sapphire support and discovered that the Vapor-x and Toxic cards are technically identical, with one (Toxic) simply having higher clocks set.

*The Vapor-X/Toxic cooler is confirmed by several reviews (sorry, no links, google 5850 Toxic reviews) to be quieter and cooler than the stock cooler by a considerably margin.

*The Vapor-X card can be found at £215 on Amazon if you're willing to wait for it to come into stock from official suppliers (currently listed as £260 from a third party)

However, the ASUS card offers easy voltage tweaking to obtain larger OC. I would still recommend the Sapphire card over that, as it does not require voltage changes to reach high clocks.
 
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garry__

garry__

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Thank you very much for the very insightful reply.

Just to confirm - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102886&nm_mc=OTC-sho6b0tCA&cm_mmc=OTC-sho6b0tCA-_-Video%20Cards-_-Sapphire%20Tech-_-14102886 - is the card you are recommending, yes?

 
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Willakan

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Yes, that's the one. Unless you're the enthusiast type that buys quite a lot of new tech and OC the cr** out of it with voltage tweaking/water cooling and suchlike, this represents a decent buy, giving you very respectable overclocks whilst keeping cool and quiet.

If you were planning on doing all that tweaking with your card, you'll find the best card for you is probably the ASUS reference card with a 3rd party cooler. IMO, the Vapor-X is the best 5850 cooler around, but as it only comes on Sapphire's non-reference card with no voltage tweaking, if you want to get a really mental OC you'll probably find that the Vapor-X card's voltage holds you back.

Regarding the Twin Frozr cooled card, the only 'review' Google dug up from the first few pages was a disgruntled forum poster complaining that Sapphire's reference 5850 overclocked better, if it was a little noisier.

Looking around the web, it would seem that the only real advantage of the Frozr is that you can tweak the voltages in software, whereas Vapor-X cooling as a whole is a lot more well known and highly regarded.

I would also give bighairyman's link a look, as the thread has a good mixture of opinions so you can make an informed decision :)

Apologies for any incoherence.

 
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HKH

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I'd just water cool any 5850 reference cards~

I have 2 in xfire, and the fan gets way too loud before I feel comfortable with the temperatures.
currently at 40% fan speed for both cards and around 75C full load..... Not bad... but could be alot better with Vapor-X I believe (and quieter)
Oh yea, I recall that u can't tweak voltage on Vapor/Toxic cards, someone correct me if I am wrong.
A good cooler but no more headroom to overclock, the hell?

But reselling them for 2 Vapor-Xs is just wasting more of my money.....
I hate when situations like this happens
 
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notty22

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I don't care to read whats there, I know for a fact that many non reference 5 series don't have software voltage capability. Go read the reviews for the Saphire 5850's at newegg. Users will confirm this. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5870_PCS_Plus/4.html
The GPU voltage is managed by a UP6213 voltage controller, which does not support I2C software voltage control.
Click to expand...
Only msi, some asus, gigabyte, some xfx support it.
edit
google UP6213 voltage controller, it talked about in various forums. Its a chip,voltage controller some boad partner uses across the 5 series line. It seems even Saphire Toxic has it, and can NOT , alter voltage.
 
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