Three Factory-Overclocked, High-End Graphics Cards
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Why buy a standard model when you can get the top-of-the-line? Treat yourself to the good stuff! We take three premium graphics cards for a spin to see just what kind of optional extras you can get when purchasing a factory-tweaked non-reference board.
The most powerful graphics card available today is the Radeon HD 5970, but it's an expensive and power-hungry beast that tends to run hot (after all, it does sport two high-end GPUs on a single PCB). On top of this, the card relies on its drivers to make sure both of the graphics processors play nice together. This means that the Radeon HD 5970's performance isn't quite as consistent as a graphics card equipped with a single GPU, since you have to take CrossFire scaling into account, as transparent as the technology might be. In fact, any multi-GPU setup will perform inconsistently compared to a single card.
If you find these compromises too unpleasant to accept, or if you simply don't want to spend $600 bucks on a graphics card, you can still get serious graphics performance out of AMD’s and Nvidia's single-GPU flagships, the Radeon HD 5870 and the GeForce GTX 480. And for those of you who are looking for a little more out of your hardware than what the standard reference models provide, there are some premium factory-overclocked products available.
Today, we look at three of these premium cards to see just what benefits they offer compared to the reference models. The three cards we're looking at are Gigabyte's GV-R587SO-1GD Super Clocked, Hightech Information System’s (HIS) HD 5870 iCooler V Turbo X, and Zotac's GeForce GTX 480 AMP! Edition.
Let's see what sets these premium models apart from the pack.
Good to see sensible conclusions, bang for the buck.
Amazing how well the ATI cards are doing given their time on the market.
i am amazed by ati cards after one year on the market is still strong as hell. very good amd
I'm not liking the trend of these cards consuming more and more pci slots to be honest.
lol GTX 480 aginst the 5870
GTX 480 is looking very good and sexy
Did your lights flickered when you powered up that GTX480 ?
^^^^^
hahahahahhaah.
liked the flickered thing.
LOL
So, the conclusion is that the only good point about those factory overclocked cards are their coolers...
The graphs tell otherwise.
It's a shame the Big Green has paid off so many game developers that we'll never see a 'true' comparison between ATI & nVidia
In my previous card (HIS 4870 with a default zalman heatsink and an HIS fan) the fan failed, not so much a problem, I replaced with a better one, and that was better because while the heatsink is better (zalman one) the fan is crap (thin and very sensitive).
The HIS card in the article, the heatsink it is not superior to the references one, and if the fans are the same type than before, well...
I Like the gigabyte one, that heatpipes shines and offers superior cooling (ignore the inferior performance gain due to overclock).
The GTX 480 ... well, I don´t like physX.
Far Cry 2 is so Nvidia biased, why the hell do you use it to compare the cards? If that test disappeared the huge advantage in the conclusion graphic would get much smaller.
Why far cry 2 , crysis & dirt 2 chosen again & again knowing that nvidia performs better in these?? To show 480 much master than than 5870 ? Want an answer.
Did your lights flickered when you powered up that GTX480 ?
Did not notice, because they were busy with the benchmark...
... but their neighbor does...
At 100% fan speed, the card is noisier than a stock Radeon HD 5870. but it manages to keep the GPU cool, with temperatures under 70 degrees Fahrenheit at full load.
wow This fan must be blowing liquid-nitrogen!
Not as big of a gain with the factory oc'd 5870 cards over the 5870 reference design, certainly not enough to justify the additional cost, IMO.
No surprise that the 480 performs better than the 5870 overall, this is something that ATI stated would happen when they announced they would use dual gpu cards to compete with the high end nVidia single gpu cards.
Again with the Crysis and Far Cry benches...sheesh!
Just a heads up: on the second page, you mention that the fan keeps the card at under 70 degrees Fahrenheit on full load. I don't believe you!
these cards are both bad-ass. you cant expect a year old card to compete with that gtx 480. thumbs ups nvidia but watch out ati next gen is inbound
Next gen ATI isnt changing much, so i doubt performance will be massively increased. Maybe 15-30%, but nothing like the 4xxx series to the 5xxx series. However, their arch. change comes with 7xxx, and my money is, by the time Nvidia finishes the 4xx series, 6xxx will be out. By the time Nvidia releases 5xx (depending on if they go fast or go good), 7xxx will only be around the bend. 7xxx however is scheduled for around Q3-Q4 2011, so they have some time.