Ati 5870: Which brand?

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NukeULater

Gawd
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Sep 12, 2006
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I'm wondering what is a good brand for a Ati 5870. I'm looking at the Sapphire Vapor X and and XFX card. Which one is better?
 
XFX warranty and service greatly outweigh the Sapphire's offerings, but... My sapphire cards have always done fine for me, that's probably not the consensus of a majority of this forum though.
 
My understanding goes something like this...

XFX is king of the hill for both performance and warranty (lifetime)
VisionTek isn't making XXXBLACKULTRAOCOVER9000 edition cards, but good reference designs that overclock, with a lifetime warranty.
Asus doesn't have a lifetime warranty, but compared to the rest of the non-lifetimes, theirs is the best, easy enough to deal with, and have great reliability and performance.
Gigabyte is similar to Asus.

Everything else is either coined as unreliable, or has a horrible warranty issue.
 
XFX is the bull of the woods. Their double lifetime warranty can't be beat.
 
Spare-Flair said:
how does "double" lifetime warranty work actually?
Click to expand...
First lifetime warranty is for you. If you sell the card, the buyer gets full lifetime warranty, too. Most, if not all, other card resellers don't extend their warranties past the original owner.
 
Spare-Flair said:
how does "double" lifetime warranty work actually?
Click to expand...

Well when you register within 30 days, if/when you sell the card, I believe you transfer the warranty. I have never gotten to that point, I have just bought the cards and replaced them.
 
I got the Sapphire Vapor-X once because from the reviews I've read, it overclocks better than the others and runs cooler as well. I've had a few Sapphire cards in the past with absolutely no problems.
 
Ive been reading bad things about Visiontek in here. Do some searching in the forums.
 
NukeULater said:
I'm wondering what is a good brand for a Ati 5870. I'm looking at the Sapphire Vapor X and and XFX card. Which one is better?
Click to expand...

Last week, I grabbed 3x HD5870 Sapphires (flashed to Asus bios for higher CCC slider limits). Seem to be on overall more trouble free from user reports especially for flashing to Asus or MSI unlocked bioses and use of MSI Afterburner tool.

XFX seem good for USA folks, but very bad for Australia due to different warranty policies heh.

Starting with 2x HD5870 tests first though. Starting to push the clocks on 2x HD5870 in Vantage for Win 7 Ultimate 64bit.

100% fan speed voltages and clocks set in MSI Afterburner v1.41:
  • 975/1263 at 1.187v
  • 985/1263 at 1.212v

@985/1263 noticed that part way into Vantage bench, GPU2's fan speed drops out of 100% speed to 50% fan speed = end result GPU2 is 9C hotter at 63C peak versus GPU1 at 54C peak temps. GPU score seems a bit low ????

3Dmark Vantage = 27,045
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1665802

3dv_985_1263_27045.png


System:
 
How quiet are the stock heatsinks on the 5870's? That is one of the main reasons I am looking at the Sapphire.
 
I like the XFX overall package. Nice performance, nice warranty, pretty, pretty packaging (even though I recycle it :D ) etc. I've also had great dealings with their support.

That said, the only major difference is usually the warranty. (and maybe included accessories or software)

I haven't seen a non-reference card in the high-end for a while. (though I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong here, as I haven't done any exhaustive searches for them either for a few years) In the lower end, I see non-reference cooling solutions all the time.

Anyway, I think you'd be fine with any of the current AMD/ATI cards. I'm running a Sapphire right now, and have had zero problems. I've never dealt with their support or warranties before, so that would be the only question I have.
 
Not sure if they all have a bundle, but the XFX card comes with DiRT2, the first DX11 game. Tack on the warranty and it's a good decision.
 
The Vapor has slightly high numbers than normal card plus it may be a bit shorter which would be nice because my 285 barely fits in my old Aspire Super-X Alien case as it is.
 
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