Radeon HD 5870

[Petros]

Preliminary thoughts (I only had about 15 minutes with it so far on my lunch lol...more tonight):
Super quiet - I just removed an Asus 4890 that was fairly quiet, but I can barely hear this thing.
Solid feel
Ran Red Faction Guerrilla without a hitch, turned everything all the way up including AA and it still runs a lot smoother than my 4890. I had a special save that is in a graphically intense area that never felt choppy with the new card. The fan didn't kick up, or didn't spin loudly enough to notice versus ambient noise.

I'll try Crysis/Crysis warhead, TF2, Batman: AA, Resident Evil 5, and maybe SF4 tonight. No motion blur on Crysis, though. Don't care for that effect much.

Can anyone think of any other graphically intense system rocking games that would be good to try?

 

[Not Bman]

The new SHIFT is a good test, see if you can run it at full, stable at 60FPS, then I will be impressed.

 

[Petros]

The new SHIFT is a good test, see if you can run it at full, stable at 60FPS, then I will be impressed.

Will do! I'm off work in just an hour and a half!

Eh, I'm off to bed. Need for Speed shift got done downloading, but I'm tired. Tried GTA IV, which finally runs at a playable framerate! I also need to reinstall the bloom-reducing mod.

 

[epk]

the guys at guru3d reviewed the 5850... for 260$ is one hell of a card! nvidia guys better get ready

you got the 5870 petros? if so, sweet!
mm.. try crysis..

bman, what problem are u having with shift? i have the same card as you and it flies! even maxed out (but no AA)

 

[Not Bman]

Basically it does max 39FPS, which if you ask me ain't awesome. But randomly it will choke and do 5-15FPS and I have to shut it down.

 

[epk]

really? thats weird... what resolution are u playing at?

 

[Petros]

Ran Crysis with everything turned up (can't get the motion blur to stop though, it ignores what I do in the game settings for some reason). DX10 running fraps, I'm seeing 35-45 FPS on "Very High". Dropping to "High" gives me 40-60 FPS.

All my games are played 1680x1050 with 8xAA and 16xAF when available.

 

[epk]

those are pretty good results for a game like crysis
have u tried directx 9 maxed out? (with the cfgs)... it'll prolly run at ~50 or something

 

[Not Bman]

Yea great results, I am happy to hear that.

And my settings were 1680x1050 as well with my 8800GT

 

[Petros]

Here's a collection of NFS screenshots I took in Fraps for you. Usually hangs around 50-60 FPS, but it has wild jumps and dips too. I should probably look into my background processes. One screenshot shows my in-game settings.

2shared - download NFS.7z

Also, from SF4 here's everything maxed

Here's my processor usage during that benchmark too. Looks like this game will be a good pure GPU benchmark for a while!

 

[Sazar]

Basically it does max 39FPS, which if you ask me ain't awesome. But randomly it will choke and do 5-15FPS and I have to shut it down.

The demo or the full game?

 

[Not Bman]

The demo or the full game?

Full game.

 

[Not Bman]

Here's a collection of NFS screenshots I took in Fraps for you. Usually hangs around 50-60 FPS, but it has wild jumps and dips too. I should probably look into my background processes. One screenshot shows my in-game settings.

2shared - download NFS.7z

Also, from SF4 here's everything maxed

Here's my processor usage during that benchmark too. Looks like this game will be a good pure GPU benchmark for a while!

Thanks, great stuff!

 

[Sazar]

Full game.

Do you have the full, legit game? Or is this pirated?

 

[Not Bman]

Do you have the full, legit game? Or is this pirated?

Normally not pirated, but happens to be this one is. Yet, how would a pirated version have an issue like that. I have done that a million times in the past?

 

[Not Bman]

Just saw someone reviewing the 5870 and said they got Crysis running at 30FPS at 1920x1200, with full AA and everything. That is amazing!

 

[rotjong]

The 5870 does look impressive. The power consumption is a tad higher at load (~30 watts) than the 4870 but while idle the consumption is way lower so this should help with the temps of the card when it's really not being used.

The reference 4870 design is shorter than the 5870 but had the power connectors on the end of the card. This wasted a good 1/2 to 1 inch of space with the connectors attached. The 5870 has moved the connectors to the side and is 10.5 inches long.

The drivers for the 5870 are still not official. I have two friends who purchased the XFX 5870. One had previously owned a 4870 and the other owned a 4850. Both are pleased with the 5870. I'm waiting on the 2 GB version of the 5870.

 

[Not Bman]

Yea by the time I can afford it, I will probably get the 2G version. Awesome

 

[rotjong]

Another nice thing about the 5870 is they have added a metal backplate which gives the card some more rigidity. They've improved the cooling over that of the 4870 and the resulting hardware is likely heavier. The backplate should help with both dissipating heat and keeping the card stiffer.

One friend replaced his 4850 in a small case with the 5870. The 4850 had not vented directly out the back of the case and this lead to case temp issues. I used to not like 2 slot solutions but with all the current cards and the heat they produce I won't buy a card that isn't a 2 slot solution and vents directly out the back of the card. The 5870 does such a good job of directly venting its own heat that my friend is removing a case fan to quiet the system down since he uses it for both HTPC and gaming use. At load the card might be a little hotter than the 4870 but otherwise it should be cooler.

Even the 5750 and 5770 look promising with performance on par with the 4870 and 4890 cards.

 

[Not Bman]

Just read a few things on the GT300, either it's going to be HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE BEST CARD EVER< EVER EVER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or it's going to suck. Of course no strong details are known yet. It shouldn't be long though, so that is a good thing.