Cypress XT 5870?

[shozzking]

I'm looking at upgrading to a 5870 but i was looking on newegg and it seems as though there are two different types of 5870's, a cypress xt and a regular one. does anyone know what the difference is? i couldnt find it on google

 

[foothead]

Same GPU.

Which ones are you considering? The best manufacturers are sapphire and ASUS.

I would get a 5850 though. The 5870 is an epic waste of money. The 5850 overclocks to the same speeds s the 5870 and will only be 5% slower.

If you have a 5770 already, 2 5770s in Xfire beats a 5870 in most cases. Worth considering.

 

[shozzking]

i sorta want a 5870 because i dont want to upgrade for a while after this and if i do then its gonna be another 5870. im selling my 5770 to my friend for $10 less than what a new one would cost. im looking at this asus one. what do you think about it?

 

[foothead]

Looks good, but save yourself $100 and get the 5850.

The difference is 5% at the same clock speeds. They can handle the 5870's BIOS, so you will not be vcore limited for sure.

1000 MHz core is almost guaranteed on models with voltage control. They are epic overclockers.

EDIT: This one looks to be the best deal on newegg.ca. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127500&cm_re=hd_5850-_-14-127-500-_-Product The cooler is made of awesome, and software voltage control is supported.

 

[shozzking]

i hate to sound like im not listening to you but i dont feel comfortable with overclocking the gpu because when i tried to OC my i7 by so much as 5Mhz on stock cooling then my computer wouldnt even get to bios and the graphics card doesnt have a clear CMOS button(which is what saved me)

 

[foothead]

You overclock the GPU via software in your OS (which comes with the video card) It will not be a problem at all. Even without overclocking, the 5850 is a better bang for your buck card.

Get the MSI one I just linked to. 1GHz core should be no problem with it.

 

[shozzking]

i'll check some benchmarks comparing the two and then think about it

im starting to lean a bit towards the 5850, thanks for your help!!

 

[foothead]

No problem!

If you want, I can try to dig up some numbers of 5850s and 5870s at the same clock speeds. It most likely will be from forum users on OCN or similar, but should give you a good idea of where they stand.

 

[shozzking]

im just wondering how much can you overclock a 5870? im really starting to think about the 5850 now. dont worry about the benchmarks, i found some and it looks like its only a couple frames difference on most games

 

[foothead]

1000/1300 is the standard.

These are both at that OC.

5850 gets 17827
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7187/vantage10001300.jpg

5870 gets 18570
http://i36.tinypic.com/24oosvc.jpg

Proof of what I have been saying. They perform even closer in-game @ same clocks.

I have seen them as high as 1450/1500, but that was on LN2 with a vmod. The highest I see on air is typically 1100 MHz core. The memory kinda depends on which chips you get, but 1350 is a pretty typical number. 1400 is not too unheard of as well.