XFX 5870 question?

[Etherton]

Got a question about this :

Why 157 MHz? Something wrong?

Rest of my system :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - G0 (@3366 MHz (8 x 421) w/ a Thermalright cooler (can't remember the name)
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DQ6
OCZ Gold 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad kit
EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 (replaced)
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache (Main)
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT 620W SLI/CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM (Storage)
Samsung SyncMaster T260 Monitor
Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit

 

[Brent_Justice]

They downclock to 157MHz to save power. They rev up to 850MHz in 3D games.

I mentioned that here at the bottom - http://hardocp.com/article/2009/09/22/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5870_video_card_review/12

 

[MirageMobile]

You could watch it when you launch a 3D app if it would "settle" your nerves.

 

[BeavermanA]

You can see the different power states at the bottom of your screenshot. I make my own profiles with atitools or rivatuner. Overclock it to the max when I play a game, and revert back to very low clocks when it closes.