5850: Reference vs Custom

[sonic_boom]

I've been looking to get a 5850 for a while now, but since I've been trying to get one at under $300 my purchase keeps on getting delayed. (Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places I dunno)

Anyways, these days it looks like most of them for sale are ones with custom cooling and from everything I'm reading it seems that those do not overclock as well due to most if not all of them not being able to overvolt. Will that make a huge difference? Will these cards maybe be able to overvolt better in the future with an update or something? Should I go out of my way and possibly pay more to get a reference card?

 

[OvrClkr]

yea I have dual sound cards =)

The board is finicky if I remove the top card. Something that has to do with the 64bit drivers..

Check out these temps after a quick BC2 session :

Maxed out the OC in Doctor (amazing temps) :

Amazing how I got it to 1.2v and still get a ridiculous idle :

Room currently at 71F [:lectrocrew:6]

 

[shadow187]

Now get that core to 975, and we're talkin'!

Amazing temps..55c...

 

[OvrClkr]

here you go =)

4 min BC2 run :

going to run kombuster now..

 

[GoZFast]

Wow, I want one of those!! lol Maybe 2 please xD

Impressive temps, 61 Max 975Mhz wow

Try setting the fan to 60% manually.

 

[OvrClkr]

@ 850/1150 1.163v 51c MAX (ambient @ 70F)

 

[GoZFast]

1.63?? I think you meant 1.13 or 1.16v xD

 

[wolfram23]

Right now I have my Sapphire 5850 OCed to 1.174V, 875/1225. I have had it up to about 1250 which made a few more frames but I can't keep it stable. I'm using MSI Afterburner, quite a good app imo. It hasn't gone over 78C with 40% fan (to keep it fairly quiet).

From the testing I've done with different settings, a high clock isn't going to do anything if the memory can't keep up. After about 850 I only was seeing a noticeably FPS increase from memory but the memory seems to also destabilize it faster. I'll run a few tests and then on the 3rd or 4th at the same settings it crashes (like a 1250 mem).

Any tips? I've raised the volts up to 1200 even 1225 but it still crashed - maybe even faster! lol. Can't really say for certain I think I've pretty much hit the limit of this card tho.

 

[GoZFast]

Thats the lowest OC on a 5850 Iv heard lol Anyway, reviews get 925@1.22v. Try 1.26-1.28v and 1.35v as long as temps are <90, fanspeed let it at 70%, and for the ram at 1225 is perfect I guess.

Hers the how to: http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/overclocking-the-radeon-hd-5850/

 

[OvrClkr]

1.63?? I think you meant 1.13 or 1.16v xD

yes Sir, msg edited

 

[OvrClkr]

After 2nd bench (1.210v) :

the high fps went higher while the lows went lower..hmmmmm

 

[shadow187]

You did decrease mem by 30. :?

 

[GoZFast]

Ya, Thats what I am seeing, the second run , you have the ram at 1220 Vs 1250 in the 1st run.

 

[OvrClkr]

ooops... well anyways here is a run at 1000/1275 :

the score was more or less the same compared to 1000/1250Mhz so IMO that is as far is it will go until a new bios is out...

 

[GoZFast]

Wow 1.24v only for 1 Ghz Is that Furemark stable?

48% Max Fan with 1 Ghz? Thats low lol

 

[EXT64]

I like using OCCT's GPU stress tester, but in Error check mode. With it I discovered that although some of my high OCes were stable, they were not accurate (errors).

 

[GoZFast]

Furemark + GPUz running showing everything. If that doesnt fail, No game will fail lol

 

[wolfram23]

Hmm I found I was getting greyscreen if I went much over 1225 mem speed. I tested as high as 1250 but it just greyscreend sooner. I put the voltage up to 1.3V just to make sure that wasn't the problem, and temps never got into 80s, but yea after a couple tests it would greyscreen. Right now I have it at 950/1220 I think. I was using MSI Kombuster with MSI Afterburner. I played Crysis after I got it somewhat stable on Kombuster and after about 20 mins it crashed so I lowered the gpu speed a bit and then it was fine for about 45mins but ended up crashing again. I don't know how you got it so high and stable... Is there mobo settings you changed? I tried upping the PCI voltage amplitude thing from 800mV to 1000mV and it seemed to add a little stability but maybe not. Otherwise I heard a little more VTT voltage can help but I'm not sure, I upped it by .1 and .2 but I still had greyscreens when testing so I just put it back to normal.

 

[OvrClkr]

Wow 1.24v only for 1 Ghz Is that Furemark stable?

48% Max Fan with 1 Ghz? Thats low lol

This aint easy.. I have to use AB for the OC and Doctor for the voltage. Kombustor is stable @ 1000/1245, anything over 1050/1275 is unstable. I still need to update the Bios on my board as well.

The fan curve has been fixed and now temps stay in the 57/58c arena at LOAD :

 

[Truhls]

Hey OvrClkr, ill be ordering a 5850 here on the 3rd/5th and i originally was going to the that same asus card, but decided for the gigabyte dual fan one. I had planned on overclocking, would you recommend the asus one over it? Im not sure if you can overvolt the gigabyte so hmm.

 

[OvrClkr]

Nope, the gigabyte model does not have voltage support. Get the MSI or ASUS if you want to mess with the voltages.

In my opinion the DirectCU is the best bang for buck right now at 319.99$.

Look at my idle temps w/ room temp @ 70F :

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv199/OvrClkr/CuCore_idle_mildOC.png

 

[Truhls]

Nope, the gigabyte model does not have voltage support. Get the MSI or ASUS if you want to mess with the voltages.

In my opinion the CuCore is the best bang for buck right now at 319.99$.

Look at my idle temps w/ room temp @ 70F :

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv199/OvrClkr/CuCore_idle_mildOC.png

Sweet, thanks glad i decided to ask