ASUS EAH5830 DirectCU Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS EAH5830 DirectCU Review - The ASUS EAH5830 DirectCU is a beast of a video card with both ASUS’ Voltage Tweak Technology and its new DirectCU GPU cooler. We will see if we can push her to ATI Radeon HD 5850 performance levels in Assassin’s Creed II, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Aliens vs. Predator, DiRT 2, and Crysis Warhead.
 
Thanks for the review guys. Would you consider it quieter than my 8800gts 512 (I know you guys don't use these, but if you happen to remember great!) Is the Directcu quieter than the 5850?
 
Interesting how the cooling solution fails like the race car thing for I think it was the 5770. Good to know to stick to reference. Even sapphire's vapor X was questionable with 5770.
 
sabrewolf732 said:
you guys should do the same with the 5850 to see if it can catch the 5870.
Click to expand...

That would be a nice review to see.

In any event, the overclocked 5830 didn't do as bad as I thought it would. I don't think the 16 ROPs can keep up with 2560x1600 at any overclock though.
 
Typos Fixed, thanks for the extra eyes, I thought I got them all. - Kyle
 
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ASUS clearly dropped the ball on this one. Why would they go to the expense of creating a new fan design that doesn't even outperform (or at least match) the reference design? And in this card's case, it will be operating with higher than normal voltages so performance matters a lot.

If they wanted quiet, they should move the air OUT of the case so it doesn't cause case fans to spin up. If they wanted effective, they should move the air OUT of the case just because that's the smart thing to do. Since they didn't, what exactly were they trying to do? Pinch pennies during the design phase maybe?

I would never recommend this card to anyone I know because of those heat issues. I hope ASUS does a better job next time...

EDIT: fixshed mah speeelung
 
^^because then they can name it "directcu", and they know people will buy things they think are made out of copper.
 
I still dont get the point of this card


the 5770 is the good budget card and the 5850 and the enthusiest line, why do they feel they need 20 different models these days?

ati and nvidia each only need 3 or 4 models to fill the majority of niche' but instead they have countless models, rehashes, or similar card all with 10-20$ price points apart...i dont get it

50-100$ entry level
150-200$ for good quality card card ie:5770 range
250-300$ range fo enthusiest ie 5850 range
and 350$ + for idiots like us whoo need the best :)
 
Has any of the direct-heatpipe heatsinks ever worked? I've seen several, and they always seem to end out falling flat onto their faces. Seems like it would be more logical to use a big chunk of copper on the die face, thus allowing that piece to gobble up some heat so the pipes can cool easier and not be subject to the direct heat of a CPU/GPU, seems in this method the liquid inside would just flash boil before it even gets to the end of the pipe and thus not be able to do its job.
 
Sounds like a bum deal overall. Any OC reviews available for that Gigabyte? That looks sweet.

Heres my question; I'm infuriated by the DP to DVI adapter thing. If I get two of these and an adapter that puts me at $700 which is the going price of the 5970. Could I get the same performance in Eyefinity?
 
misan-thrope said:
Has any of the direct-heatpipe heatsinks ever worked? I've seen several, and they always seem to end out falling flat onto their faces. Seems like it would be more logical to use a big chunk of copper on the die face, thus allowing that piece to gobble up some heat so the pipes can cool easier and not be subject to the direct heat of a CPU/GPU, seems in this method the liquid inside would just flash boil before it even gets to the end of the pipe and thus not be able to do its job.
Click to expand...

One on the GTX 480 works pretty damn well.

cooler7.jpg
 
sabrewolf732 said:
you guys should do the same with the 5850 to see if it can catch the 5870.
Click to expand...
+1 seriously from now on all custom cooling models must be benched this way there is no point in benching with stock settings we already now how good reference model are
 
Putz said:
I still dont get the point of this card


the 5770 is the good budget card and the 5850 and the enthusiest line, why do they feel they need 20 different models these days?

ati and nvidia each only need 3 or 4 models to fill the majority of niche' but instead they have countless models, rehashes, or similar card all with 10-20$ price points apart...i dont get it

50-100$ entry level
150-200$ for good quality card card ie:5770 range
250-300$ range fo enthusiest ie 5850 range
and 350$ + for idiots like us whoo need the best :)
Click to expand...

The point of the 5830 is to sell chips that otherwise would be waste. A fully good chips goes into a 5870/5970, a not-so bad chip goes into the 5850, and any chips that have to disable more clusters is made into a 5830. It's a need due to TSMC's manufacturing woes.
 
Putz said:
I still dont get the point of this card


the 5770 is the good budget card and the 5850 and the enthusiest line, why do they feel they need 20 different models these days?

ati and nvidia each only need 3 or 4 models to fill the majority of niche' but instead they have countless models, rehashes, or similar card all with 10-20$ price points apart...i dont get it

50-100$ entry level
150-200$ for good quality card card ie:5770 range
250-300$ range fo enthusiest ie 5850 range
and 350$ + for idiots like us whoo need the best :)
Click to expand...

As I understand it if a card passes certain tests it gets the the 5870 tag if it doesnt it gets the 5850 if it passes even fewer its get the 5830 tag.

Remember

Ti4800, Ti4600, Ti4400, Ti4200. An expansive lineup captures more buyers.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
The point of the 5830 is to sell chips that otherwise would be waste. A fully good chips goes into a 5870/5970, a not-so bad chip goes into the 5850, and any chips that have to disable more clusters is made into a 5830. It's a need due to TSMC's manufacturing woes.
Click to expand...

true i guess, its just irritating when people ask what card and theres a different model for every 10-20$ price jump, but that would make sense, the once that dont get binned for good cards go into the catch all 5830 lol
 
Right now, it's nice to have more options since we can't hardly get these at MSRP. ($259 IIRC on 5850) :rolleyes:

I'm still waiting.
 
piscian18 said:
As I understand it if a card passes certain tests it gets the the 5870 tag if it doesnt it gets the 5850 if it passes even fewer its get the 5830 tag.

Remember

Ti4800, Ti4600, Ti4400, Ti4200. An expansive lineup captures more buyers.
Click to expand...

Which is awesome for consumers because with later revisions, the lower end card becomes the best bang for your buck overclocking to near high-end models (hello ti4200).
 
Putz said:
DId you guys apply that paste?


or was that reference? if its refernce +1 for NVIDIA not using the Grey shit applied with a putty knife anymore.

Glad to see some serious OEM heatsinks finally , now if they could bring the heat down a bit, we can overclock them more and take it right back up... but with more speed lol.
Click to expand...


That is a picture of a GTX 480 cooler. Picture of the 5830 heatsink on page 1.
 
Asus would have had a winner on their hands with the EAH5830 DirectCU if they would of put a decent HSF on it. Oh well, win some, lose some.

Thanks for the review, [H]. Always appreciate the work that goes into each. :)
 
Putz said:
yes did the 480 come with that paste installed?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I misunderstood.

We only have a couple of GTX 480 cards and we have not broken any of them down from their stock setups yet. If we hose them, we put ourselves in a bind and it also makes the card no good for further heat testing of the stock variety.
 
eric66 said:
+1 seriously from now on all custom cooling models must be benched this way there is no point in benching with stock settings we already now how good reference model are
Click to expand...

I tend to agree, you'll see future evaluations of custom cards with special features comparing this way more in the future. We definitely aim to keep our evaluations relevant and interesting.
 
AceGoober said:
Asus would have had a winner on their hands with the EAH5830 DirectCU if they would of put a decent HSF on it. Oh well, win some, lose some.

Thanks for the review, [H]. Always appreciate the work that goes into each. :)
Click to expand...

Yep, the card has potential, I think at 1GHz GPU frequency it could contend quite well with HD 5850, for a cheaper price, but it seems to be held back IMO with that heatsink. Oh well, as we stated, I'm sure there are some hardware enthusiasts out there that will trick this card out and really take advantage of Voltage Tweak. I wish it supported Memory Voltage Tweaking though, however, no passive heatsinks = ouch.
 
Any custom 5850 reviews coming up? For most part it seems reference 5850's are going the way of the dodo.
 
Dreaz said:
Which is awesome for consumers because with later revisions, the lower end card becomes the best bang for your buck overclocking to near high-end models (hello ti4200).
Click to expand...

My first gaming card :D
 
What version of smartdoctor did you use? Amazing you got it to work right(?), for me its been a pain to work with. Not keeping settings, crashing windows, slider bar not in increments.
 
You need to include power consumption as a factor over time. Considering that the OC 5830 is gonna be more expensive given the current market.
 
Hey guys, you reviewed the OC ability of this card, pushed it up to 1Ghz, but you forgot very important information : Power and Temps !!
I want to know if it consumes 100 more watts by going to 1Ghz ;)
Keep up the good work ... till the end of the article :p
 
Enduring_Warrior said:
You need to include power consumption as a factor over time. Considering that the OC 5830 is gonna be more expensive given the current market.
Click to expand...

And how do you purpose they do that? Power bills are different everywhere and everyone uses these cards differently. Beyond that, your microwave is more likely to have an effect on your power bill than a video card.
 
misan-thrope said:
Has any of the direct-heatpipe heatsinks ever worked? ... seems in this method the liquid inside would just flash boil before it even gets to the end of the pipe and thus not be able to do its job.
Click to expand...
The behaviour depends on what liquid is used. The card manufacturer has to use heatpipes with a liquid suitable for the temperatures wanted.

Putz said:
I still dont get the point of this card.
Click to expand...
As noted in previous posts, the main thing is to sell "failed" GPUs.
It's still the wrong price though, and the power consumption is too high for my taste.

Supertag said:
... the overclocked 5830 didn't do as bad as I thought it would.
Click to expand...
Ditto! Since the GPU essentially is factory overclocked from the start I was surprised to see how much more you were able to push it.

DeftonesXP said:
... but you forgot very important information : Power and Temps!
I want to know if it consumes 100 more watts by going to 1Ghz ;)
Click to expand...
That was my reflection too. Since the entire article is centred on overclocking it's strange not to see the power and temperature readings when overclocked.

Then again... I have some problems figuring out the final purpose of this evaluation.
- Can we overclock a 5830 to the performance of a 5858? Could be interesting as a curiosum, but it's of little point for me as a consumer.
If I want the performance of a 5850, I buy a 5850. If I like to overclock I will overclock whatever card I have, so then it's better to compare the overclockability of 5830 vs 5850.
 
Olle P said:
...Then again... I have some problems figuring out the final purpose of this evaluation.
- Can we overclock a 5830 to the performance of a 5858? Could be interesting as a curiosum, but it's of little point for me as a consumer.
If I want the performance of a 5850, I buy a 5850. If I like to overclock I will overclock whatever card I have, so then it's better to compare the overclockability of 5830 vs 5850.
Click to expand...

This IS [H[ardOCP, where overclocking is the focus on computers. How could buying a cheaper card and getting it to perform on par with a more expensive card not be relevant to consumers? That's what most people do here, OC their CPU's and GPU's, all so they can buy a cheaper part that will perform similar or better than a more expensive part.

People want the speed of an Intel EE chip. So they buy a mainstream chip, OC it, and save $800. ;)
 
maddude0025 said:
How could buying a cheaper card and getting it to perform on par with a more expensive card not be relevant to consumers? That's what most people do here, OC their CPU's and GPU's, all so they can buy a cheaper part that will perform similar or better than a more expensive part.
Click to expand...
Then the comparison should of course be an overclocked 5830 to an overclocked 5850. If overclocking is the thing, then there's not much use testing them in their stock settings...
 
Damn when I saw the card's name the first thing I thought was "DirectCompute" which is a pretty exciting tech, oh well.
 
While this sounds like a good reason to have a less than perfect chip, it doesn't seem to likely. AMD somehow managed to produce almost all 5870s for the initial shipment, and somehow is making less perfect chips as TMSC fixes its yields.

More likely they just want the market segmentation. Intel is the master of this (I don't think I've ever bought a chip from intel that wasn't crippled in some way), and makes economic sense when the competition can't compete well enough in that segment, and it costs too much to make a separate line for the less good chips.
 
How much space is there between the main heatsink and the memory? Is there enough room to mount aftermarket low profile heatsinks (http://www.enzotechnology.com/bcc9.htm)? I was looking at getting the 5850 version but now I'm not so sure, although most online reviews seem to have actually had bare copper touching the gpu on the 5850. I was also thinking that I would remove the shroud and fan completely and mount the two 80mm Nexus Real Silent pwm fans that I already added to my GTX 260, I'm sure that would help with temps (my GTX 260 runs 11C cooler at game loads).
 
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