Sapphire 5850 Toxic 2GB cards bought..

[Hauk]

I've been waiting for decent +1GB cards to run in multi-gpu. I'm tired of waiting for 5870 2GB, and Fermi is a major dissapointment.

Just purchased.. 5850 Toxic 2GB cards for Crossfire. I'll not brag about the price of $379 each, but at least I got free shipping. I plan to hit 875-900 and will share pics and benchies.

Beautiful cards, backplate included!

http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=940&page=1

 

[SlowSpyder]

I have the Vapor-X 5870 and really like it so far. I'm currenty at 935MHz/1250MHz. I haven't touched the memory yet, and my core hasn't reached it's limit. It's a shame I can't tweak the voltage on this, my core seems pretty stout being able to reach 935MHz and climbing with the stock voltage. At these clocks I'm sure I give Fermi a run for it's money. Your set up wil be quite stout.

Anyway, good luck with the cards.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Congrats on the new buy, although I don't see much difference between a stock reference 5850 and a Vapor-X?? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Btw, nice looking card!

**EDIT** I just noticed the Vapor carries a 2GB chip, that must justify the hike in price.

Question: Does Sapphire offer you a 1 year or 2 year warranty? In Canada, it's a mere 1 year.

 

[Hauk]

I have the Vapor-X 5870 and really like it so far. I'm currenty at 935MHz/1250MHz. I haven't touched the memory yet, and my core hasn't reached it's limit. It's a shame I can't tweak the voltage on this, my core seems pretty stout being able to reach 935MHz and climbing with the stock voltage. At these clocks I'm sure I give Fermi a run for it's money. Your set up wil be quite stout.

Anyway, good luck with the cards.

That's a great clock for stock voltage. I read somewhere that Sapphire's Vapor-X bios prevents software voltage tweaking. You've tried Afterburner with no success?

I plan to use RBE to mod the voltage at the bios level and do somewhere around 875 core. Memory is already clocked very nicely to 4500. I'm pretty excited, I've wanted a Vapor-X card for some time. Thanks..

 

[Hauk]

Congrats on the new buy, although I don't see much difference between a stock reference 5850 and a Vapor-X?? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Btw, nice looking card!

**EDIT** I just noticed the Vapor carries a 2GB chip, that must justify the hike in price.

Question: Does Sapphire offer you a 1 year or 2 year warranty? In Canada, it's a mere 1 year.

Looks like 2 years. I'll probably keep for a year. These just came out sporting 2GB. Should be a prized resell down the road. Maybe nV gets it right next time; if not ATI's on a roll. For now, these 58xx GPU's are undeniable. This will do for now!

 

[Mike_fermington]

Nice, but I thought these weren't supposed to come out until next week?

Where did you buy them?

I'll probably end up going with these too. Fermi's temperature scares me.

 

[Hauk]

Nice, but I thought these weren't supposed to come out until next week?

Where did you buy them?

I'll probably end up going with these too. Fermi's temperature scares me.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=...ess-Video-Card

 

[SlowSpyder]

That's a great clock for stock voltage. I read somewhere that Sapphire's Vapor-X bios prevents software voltage tweaking. You've tried Afterburner with no success?

I plan to use RBE to mod the voltage at the bios level and do somewhere around 875 core. Memory is already clocked very nicely to 4500. I'm pretty excited, I've wanted a Vapor-X card for some time. Thanks..

Yup, Afterburner will monitor and overclock the Sapphire non-reference parts without an issue, but you won't be able to tweak the voltage, it's just greyed out and cannot be enabled. These Sapphire non-reference parts use their own board and VRM's supposidly. So, all of the tools that are written for the reference boards just don't work on these cards.

I'm not too familiar with BIOS modding, but good luck. Be careful, from what I've gathered while searching different forums about these cards, again because of the custom design it's not likley the modded BIOS'es for the reference boards will work. It'd be shame to brick those things... but if you're successful let me know what you did.

I know the links below are for the 5870, but I'll bet the information will apply to the blue PCB 5850 as well.

http://www.overclock.net/ati/695433-sapphire-vapor-x-hd-5870-a.html

http://www.overclock.net/ati/686241-adjust-voltage-vapor-x-5870-a.html

 

[Apocalypse23]

Yup, Afterburner will monitor and overclock the Sapphire non-reference parts without an issue, but you won't be able to tweak the voltage, it's just greyed out and cannot be enabled. These Sapphire non-reference parts use their own board and VRM's supposidly. So, all of the tools that are written for the reference boards just don't work on these cards.

I'm not too familiar with BIOS modding, but good luck. Be careful, from what I've gathered while searching different forums about these cards, again because of the custom design it's not likley the modded BIOS'es for the reference boards will work. It'd be shame to brick those things... but if you're successful let me know what you did.

I know the links below are for the 5870, but I'll bet the information will apply to the blue PCB 5850 as well.

http://www.overclock.net/ati/695433-sapphire-vapor-x-hd-5870-a.html

http://www.overclock.net/ati/686241-adjust-voltage-vapor-x-5870-a.html

can he not flash the bios to something like an Asus one?

 

[SlowSpyder]

can he not flash the bios to something like an Asus one?

As far as I'm aware, no. Asus uses a reference board, the Vapor-X/Toxic cards do not. They have a different PCB, different VRMS's, different MOSFET's, etc.

These cards seem to be pretty popular despite their current overclocking limitations (I never hear my card, even at 935MHz) so I wouldn't be suprised if eventually someone creates a program or somehow modifies a current one to be able to tweak the voltages, or a custom BIOS. But as I understand it, as of now that's not an option.

*edit - But, maybe the OP knows something I don't about the BIOS'es?

 

[SunnyD]

The only thing that scares me about the Vapor-X design is that the fan is further back and doesn't push as much air over the VRMs. What air is does push will exhaust from the gaps at the front of the card and into the case, rather than being streamed over the GPU and out the back. This makes for a cooler GPU, but not so sure about the VRMs.

Other than that, at least the fan is bigger, ergo quieter.

 

[Hauk]

As far as I'm aware, no. Asus uses a reference board, the Vapor-X/Toxic cards do not. They have a different PCB, different VRMS's, different MOSFET's, etc.

These cards seem to be pretty popular despite their current overclocking limitations (I never hear my card, even at 935MHz) so I wouldn't be suprised if eventually someone creates a program or somehow modifies a current one to be able to tweak the voltages, or a custom BIOS. But as I understand it, as of now that's not an option.

*edit - But, maybe the OP knows something I don't about the BIOS'es?

Well actually, the OP didn't do his homework! These Vapor-X cards very likely feature the same locked voltage controller as your 5870 Vapor-X. I thought it was only software restricted, but it appears RBE can't mod it either.

Below is a 5870 Vapor-X bios opened in RBE. The register function is greyed out so no voltage tweaking. A fully programable controller like the Volterra on reference boards is required:

Bummer, I wanted to oc these things to at least 5870 speeds. I cancelled my order. Guess I'm back to waiting. Great cards, but I was looking to tap them out a bit. Thanks for bringing this up...

 

[SlowSpyder]

Glad you were able to find this out before you had a very expensive couple of parts that make you unhappy and/or brick the cards and are out a lot of money.

But, I probably would have still gotten them. My 5870 overclocks well, I'm willing to bet even on the stock voltage the 5850's would as well. And two of them even at stock clocks would run just about anything I would think.

Lastly, I saw a thread somewhere but cannot find it now. Someone said that Sapphire bumps the voltage just a bit over reference. So even though it isn't adjustable there already is a minor bump. I wish I could find it...

 

[solofly]

Two words, lucky dog!

Next time I buy I'll make sure each of my cards is equipped with at least 2gb of vram...

 

[Crittias]

I'm not at all interested in further overclocking, so I decided to order one of these cards for my rig. Very excited. Thanks to the OP for the link to ewiz!

 

[Hauk]

I'm not at all interested in further overclocking, so I decided to order one of these cards for my rig. Very excited. Thanks to the OP for the link to ewiz!

You're welcome. It'll be a great card, the overclocking thing isn't a big deal, I'd just prefer to have it there than not. There's been a lot of discussion about paying a premium for extra memory.

I feel confident I've hit the buffer ceiling with several games, not just one. A powerful gpu allows one to max game details. Add AF and crank AA to 4x or higher and you're chewing into 1GB quite fast. I like 4x AA but often ran 2x AA, even with 285 Tri-Sli and 5870 CF. That much power allowed me to max everything. But with 4x AA, things got choppy, esp in games that offer advanced detail level adjustments.

So, my 2 cents, don't feel bad about paying a premium for 2GB. Bechmarks are only a snapshot. Actual gameplay, the smoothness of moving from one scene to the next, that's what matters. It may not be easily measured, but gpus this powerful need large frame buffers to accomodate all the detail settings they can handle.

 

[SunnyD]

Hopefully you also at least used Bing and they had their 15%/$15 coupon on top of it.

 

[Mike_fermington]

Any word on when the 2gb 5870 models are gonna hit? I think that would be my best bet considering I don't want to overclock.

 

[alyarb]

you'd be dumb not to overclock. no there isn't an idiot's tool for babies that will hold your hand through the process, but it is as simple as adjusting a clickable slider from within the catalyst driver. finding a safe/stable maximum with tolerable 2D/3D fan speeds is the only difficulty, and it's not difficult, it's just a time consuming chore that's in the card's best interest. if you want a 20% faster card it's worth your while to spend an hour or two reading about overclocking.

 

[Mike_fermington]

I'd rather have a 20% faster 5870 than 20% faster 5850 anyway.

I'll ask again. Any word on when the 2gb 5870 models are gonna hit?

 

[Ares202]

The only problem with overclocking 58xx chips is that you have to flash the BIOS to get any decent overclocks (5850 is locked to 775/1125) and you lose your power saving clocks when you do that

 

[alyarb]

they are going to let you choose your 2D clocks in the 10.4 driver, or at least fix the ratio. most sites have run that story. if they had any sense they would raise the limit to 1100 MHz as well.

 

[Skott]

They say the extra GB of RAM is more helpful on higher res than lower res gaming. Do we have an idea on what that higher res is? I haven't heard so thats why I'm asking.

 

[alyarb]

it's all relative because lots of things will use video RAM and having more RAM will allow you to do these things without taking performance away from your basic geometry and shading work. the main focus is on the dozens of AA and filtering techniques that are naturally becoming automatic with dx11 games, but running something like crysis at 1920 or higher, with AA/AF and a third party's super-duper-ultra high config with maxed draw distance and so forth, you will see the additional memory being used, especially on custom maps that can use several gigs of system RAM. most games don't need 2GB today but there are exceptions.

 

[Hauk]

I'd rather have a 20% faster 5870 than 20% faster 5850 anyway.

I'll ask again. Any word on when the 2gb 5870 models are gonna hit?

Not sure, no firm date announced. They've had them ready since November I'd guess as they announced them back then with full board pics. My guess is by April 12th. There will be the reference cards probably shy of $500, an Asus Matrix, and Sapphire Vapor-X, prolly a bit more.

Would be nice to see a price drop putting 2GB cards at $450, but with Fermi being the hot hog that it is, ATI demand is likely going to be even higher. You know, those people like myself who were waiting are ready to buy now..