Gigabyte Custom 5870 grabbed..

[SlowSpyder]

I too have a non-reference model (Sapphire Vapor-X). It's unfortunate that software that can tweak voltage on reference cards doesn't work for the non-reference cards that typically have better coolers. Oh well I guess, but it is something that has to be considered when buying one of these types of cards.

 

[Leyawiin]

Now if they would just do an "ultra-durable" model for the HD 5850.

 

[ader098]

Hey Ader, does the pcb of your card look a tiny bit 'baked'? Mine does. So far I'm pretty unimpressed with the card. I don't want to deal with newegg unless I absolutely have to, so I might just sell it.

Baked? Dont think I noticed anything unusual with the pcb. Does your card downclock at idle?
As far as the fan setting is concerned, setting the fan at 60 percent
didnt produce any audible difference, 70 percent and up however did.
The idle temp is around 43c and doesnt change with fan speed. You shouldnt worry to much about idle temp anyway, load temp is more important.

So far Im also not impressed with this card, I was hoping for better temps and maybe an easy 1Ghz overclock, the latter might still be possible if voltage adjustment becomes available later on.
However are you sure you want to sell the card? I mean, you already have the fastest single gpu available now and the difference between this card and other 5870s is minimal. Sure its not perfect but how much does an extra 100Mhz or a few degrees in temps matter when playing your favorite game?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I have a Gigabyte GTX275 super clocked that comes factory OC'd to 285 speeds and I have been very happy with it. Very well put together and no heat problems whatsoever. I don't think you will go wrong with getting it, looks like a sweet card

i have the same card, it's great! the downclocking works perfectly, and it does furmark at 91C, 43% fan speed. before this, i had 2 of gigabyte's non-reference 9600gt with passive cooler in sli - again they worked great. i'm also using the p55m-ud4 and i have to say this company is on a roll.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Baked? Dont think I noticed anything unusual with the pcb. Does your card downclock at idle?
As far as the fan setting is concerned, setting the fan at 60 percent
didnt produce any audible difference, 70 percent and up however did.
The idle temp is around 43c and doesnt change with fan speed. You shouldnt worry to much about idle temp anyway, load temp is more important.

So far Im also not impressed with this card, I was hoping for better temps and maybe an easy 1Ghz overclock, the latter might still be possible if voltage adjustment becomes available later on.
However are you sure you want to sell the card? I mean, you already have the fastest single gpu available now and the difference between this card and other 5870s is minimal. Sure its not perfect but how much does an extra 100Mhz or a few degrees in temps matter when playing your favorite game?

I would sell it for the same reasons you dislike your card. 82 celcius in Furmark after a couple of minutes is insane for a card that touts itself as having superior cooling ability.

 

[43st]

It's gone up in price twice today..

 

[Dorkenstein]

Sounds about right, if it's the same website I'm thinking of.

 

[bossqueen]

I have a Gigabyte GTX275 super clocked that comes factory OC'd to 285 speeds and I have been very happy with it. Very well put together and no heat problems whatsoever. I don't think you will go wrong with getting it, looks like a sweet card

As you say, the Super overclock series is a choice when buying a new card. Does gigabyte have 5870 super overclock edition? Do you guys recommend this card?

 

[ader098]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH_5850_TOP_DirectCu
An Asus 5870 top is also being released.

http://hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=3158
Msi 5870 lightning review

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/video/gigabyte-shows-hd-5870-1gb-super-overclock/

All these cards should be released this month or shortly after. If I were you Id wait
until the dust cleared before making a decision on buying a 5800 series card.

I also found out that the non super overclock Gigabyte 5870 card has an adp4100 voltage controller, so no voltage adjustment without a hardware mod

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, I wish I had waited. I'm sure the card would be fine for someone who isn't going to push it or try to tweak it, but between the whining in games and the fan oddities, I am pretty let down. No response from Gigabyte in over 3 days. Newegg has this card marked as 'no refunds', which should have been my first clue.

 

[43st]

I went ahead and ordered one, on two factors.. a performance update to my 285 and hopefully something a bit more quiet.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Quiet, sure. I'm not digging my temperatures though.

 

[at80eighty]

you have got to be one of the most confusing people on AT

now you're worrying me because he made total sense :/

 

[Jenny Telherpes]

Got one after my 4870 died. After having the 4870, I wanted something quieter and cooler. This thing is much quieter, at 39% fan speed, it was idling at 42C. It is about as loud as my case fans maybe quieter. It was stepping down to 500Mhz gpu and 900Mhz memory in idle mode, but not anymore. I was adjusting only the fan speed in CCC Overdrive to see what it sounds like at 90%(sounds like my 4870 fan at 35%). When I went to put the fan back at lower setting I just clicked 'Defaults' button to see where it would put it, it turned off Man fan control and raised clocks up to stock 850 and 1200. It will not go back into a reduced clock now. Not after a hard restart, not after reinstalling the drivers and using Driver Sweeper. Also, idle temp on gpu went up 4 degrees. Still works great but does not lower clocks when idle. Here is some other info for anyone curious. With fan @38% its idle temps are 46C, 50C, and 46C according to gpuz0.3.9. I believe the 1st is gpu temp, 2nd is memory and 3rd is a VRM average(correct me if i'm wrong). Highest temps when playing Crysis(1900x1200 veryhigh 4xaa) were 67C, 70C, and 67C. What you guys think about this idle power mode dilemma? Driver issue? Worth worrying about?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Got one after my 4870 died. After having the 4870, I wanted something quieter and cooler. This thing is much quieter, at 39% fan speed, it was idling at 42C. It is about as loud as my case fans maybe quieter. It was stepping down to 500Mhz gpu and 900Mhz memory in idle mode, but not anymore. I was adjusting only the fan speed in CCC Overdrive to see what it sounds like at 90%(sounds like my 4870 fan at 35%). When I went to put the fan back at lower setting I just clicked 'Defaults' button to see where it would put it, it turned off Man fan control and raised clocks up to stock 850 and 1200. It will not go back into a reduced clock now. Not after a hard restart, not after reinstalling the drivers and using Driver Sweeper. Also, idle temp on gpu went up 4 degrees. Still works great but does not lower clocks when idle. Here is some other info for anyone curious. With fan @38% its idle temps are 46C, 50C, and 46C according to gpuz0.3.9. I believe the 1st is gpu temp, 2nd is memory and 3rd is a VRM average(correct me if i'm wrong). Highest temps when playing Crysis(1900x1200 veryhigh 4xaa) were 67C, 70C, and 67C. What you guys think about this idle power mode dilemma? Driver issue? Worth worrying about?

E-mail Gigabyte support, see if anyone else is complaining about the same issue? They might use a custom bios (I think they typically do with factory overclocked cards).

 

[Dorkenstein]

Sounds like I'm not the only one with issues on this card. Still no reply from Gigabyte. According to their little support page, my message hasn't even been read yet.

 

[ader098]

I think its a bios issue, I took a look at the bios using RBE and found only two modes one for boot and another (cant remember the mode name right know) under clock info, both set at stock clocks. It should have extra modes for 2d clocks and such like other 5800 cards, here is a link of power modes/clock info of a different 5800 card:

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/154/5

 

[colin_mc]

Dear 5870UD users.
You were writing that this card doesn't go into idle state. But is it possible to manually set low settings (157/300 like in reference card)?
In MSI Afterburner 1.5 on this card it's not allowed to change voltage at all (like on Vapor-x)?
About the loudness, do you have the comparison to the reference card? For me in stress (like Bad Company 2) Powercolor (standard one) is definitely too loud. In idle it's definitely ok (but only in idle).
Is there a difference in noise, when changing the fan rotation speed?Is it possible to change revs in MSI AB?
Thank you in advance for your answers.

P.S. I've just put my PC HD5870 on auction I'll take my chances with GB or not - if you'll definitely advise not to do it (by answering my questions).

 

[Jenny Telherpes]

This card is cool and quiet. With fan at 38% it is not noticeable over the case fans and hard drives. At 90-100% the fan is about as loud as my ATI 4870's big red blower fan that I kept at 35% (45% when gaming). Even at 38% this card is idling at 46C. I have kept gpuz on and logging temps, the highest temp on the core so far is 68C while I was playing Crysis for about an hr. The VRM's look like they are covered with an aluminum block and stay pretty cool. It hit 62c when I was running the Windows experience assessment but it crashed when it got to the wmv decoding part of test. It has not crashed while playing a game using 10.2 driver. I have only played 2 games with it so far, Crysis and Far Cry 2. No stuttering now with Far cry 2 and plays smooth with everything max. The card is perfect except for the idle state problem. I noticed that when I put the gpu at 900Mhz it would reduce to 850Mhz when idle, so some form of idle mode is at work. There is no coil whine on mine, if thats the noise that others are reporting. I have decided not to worry about this minor problem, everything else in my case is overclocked so saving a little power is of little concern now. I will keep an eye out for an explanation and solution to this problem just in case it leads to some other unexpected problem. I have not tried to overclock beyond what Overdrive allows so I cannot say if you could hit the coveted 1Ghz on the core. Probably have to volt mod it anyways on this card.

 

[PUN]

i personally prefer the exhaust coolers. It keeps my CPU, chipset, mem and all other compenent's temp down by few degrees at least.

 

[HurleyBird]

I would sell it for the same reasons you dislike your card. 82 celcius in Furmark after a couple of minutes is insane for a card that touts itself as having superior cooling ability.

Obviously you've never stress tested with furmark....

 

[Dorkenstein]

I'm getting pretty worried now.

I just tried to refresh the Windows Experience Index in Windows 7 with this card. The card whined very loud during the video tests, and then the GPU spiked to 84% usage when I got to video decoding and the test failed, the screen went white as well as the color of my desktop (blue) and the driver also stopped responding with a rundll32 error.

That cannot be normal. I really wish I hadn't bought this card.

 

[colin_mc]

@Dorkenstein. Maybe it's a matter of drivers? What Catalyst are you using?
Furmark makes my reference Powercolor HD5870 go up 85 degrees, with fan @37%, which sounds like a hairdryer (it's definitely too loud for me), so 82 degrees when the noise is not too big - would be ok with me. And even in Bad Company the 70 degrees were reached, and 30% fan (about 2000rpm) were on (not good for my silent PC).


@PUN - well, I had GTX275 with mod (plastic removed and 120mm put on) and temperatures without the exhaust cooler were just fine. I have good airflow in my case (HAF922), so the temperatures of CPU (cooler by Noctua NH-D14), chipset , MEM (low voltage DDR3, 1.35V) are not issue.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Catalyst 10.2

 

[colin_mc]

Hmm, strange. Are there any issues in games, or only this Win7 system "benchmark"?
And what about the noise? Do you have comparison to the reference one at 30% (which is already too loud for me at this revs)?
And as far as I can see - in MSI Afterburner, the clocks can't be lower than 640/900 :-( So, my genious plan to have it manually set at the same clocks in idle as refence one - can be a failure...

BTW - my current look at the system...