To buy or not to buy a 5870 Vapor-X?

[XAleX360]

Hello, fellow AMD users.

I am at crossroads: I am going to buy a 5870, that's for sure. But the question is, 5870 Sapphire (reference) or 5870 Sapphire Vapor-X?

I read some reviews and it seems that performance wise Vapor-X gives 1-6 fps more on average, but of course the biggest gain is on temperature and noise. Honestly I do care about temperature and noise, but of course performance is the most important thing, so I'm asking if in your experience 5870 Vapor-X have more or less space for further OC than 5870 cards?Theoretically, they should have more because they are way better cooled, of course.

But I also read some guy in an older topic saying that the new revision of Vapor-X is not that well suited for OC, lacking voltage control. Is that true?

Anyway, I could get a reference card for about 315€ and a Vapor-X for about 360€ (including delivery taxes). What would you buy?

 

[FaRKle0079]

The reference card should OC better as you can modify the voltage. You can't with the Vapor-X. All the non-reference cards took away voltage control.

 

[XAleX360]

The reference card should OC better as you can modify the voltage. You can't with the Vapor-X. All the non-reference cards took away voltage control.

But the Vapor-X 1.0 should have the reference PCB, right? In that case, voltage control should be still there. I should try and get to know if this Vapor-X is 1.0 or 2.0...

Thing is, my case tends to get hot during summer and maybe some decent cooling on the GPU might help a lot; also, I really hate noisy cards, although I do know that even 5870 reference isn't that noisy compared to GTX 480 for example.

And lastly, I'm not that keen on voltage overclocking and the likes. How much does power consumption increase with voltage OC?

 

[J32P]

Hi,

As far as I know(and I now have two Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X 1GB cards), you can only OC these things up to 900c/1300m using ATI overdrive. If I try to use MSI Afterburner, it shows higher clocks available but it doesn't let you apply them.

So as far as I know, this card is great for low temps(Of course not when two are sandwiched together) but not there OC potential.

eenie meenie minie moe

But the Vapor-X 1.0 should have the reference PCB, right? In that case, voltage control should be still there.

I don't believe this to be true. Sapphire made it run cool and then blocked you from messing with it. Of course I literally just got my cards so if I'm wrong someone please correct me on this.

 

[XAleX360]

Hi,

As far as I know(and I now have two Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X 1GB cards), you can only OC these things up to 900c/1300m using ATI overdrive. If I try to use MSI Afterburner, it shows higher clocks available but it doesn't let you apply them.

So as far as I know, this card is great for low temps(Of course not when two are sandwiched together) but not there OC potential.

eenie meenie minie moe




I don't believe this to be true. Sapphire made it run cool and then blocked you from messing with it. Of course I literally just got my cards so if I'm wrong someone please correct me on this.

So you are basically telling me plainly to buy the 5870 card, right?

If I OC the reference 5870, how much hot can it actually get?

 

[membrain]

I only have 1 VaporX and it runs fine without any OC. If this is your intent then a VaporX will do, otherwise, if you are into serious OC for your system then everything I've seen on the subject says to go with a reference board.

 

[XAleX360]

I only have 1 VaporX and it runs fine without any OC. If this is your intent then a VaporX will do, otherwise, if you are into serious OC for your system then everything I've seen on the subject says to go with a reference board.

Uhm...Thing is, I read that the VaporX sends back the heat into the case unlike the reference card, is that true?I just have two small fans...80 and 120mm, for the "cooling".

 

[J32P]

Uhm...Thing is, I read that the VaporX sends back the heat into the case unlike the reference card, is that true?I just have two small fans...80 and 120mm, for the "cooling".

Yes it definitely does. Using that design cools the card very nicely. LOL

 

[membrain]

See my sig for my case and CPU HSF... plenty of ventilation so the VaporX runs quite nicely.

 

[J32P]

So you are basically telling me plainly to buy the 5870 card, right?

If I OC the reference 5870, how much hot can it actually get?

I like it but you have to make your own decision. I don't think there's a better 5870 anywhere at the moment if you don't mind not OC'ing it.

But to be honest, I don't think it needs to be OC'd either. Two of these cards push my 30" @ 2560x1600 better then great at stock clocks.

The part I don't like is the downward facing fan design sucks when you have two sandwiched together. When I exit a game, the card with the fan blocked(top card) is 30c over the card below it.

Sucks but what can I do.

 

[XAleX360]

See my sig for my case and CPU HSF... plenty of ventilation so the VaporX runs quite nicely.

Yeah, my case unfortunately is much smaller and has far worse ventilation.

So I guess I'm gonna get the reference card and be fine with that. After all, it even costs less money And has more OC potential, so it's the best choice overall.