# ASUS EAH5970 2 GB GDDR5



## W1zzard (Nov 17, 2009)

Today marks the day that AMD takes back the graphics card performance crown from NVIDIA. The new AMD Radeon HD 5970 comes with two fast Cypress GPUs on a single PCB. Using their latest power saving features, AMD achieved a very modest power consumption for this card which right now is the fastest money can buy.

*Show full review*


----------



## Apocolypse007 (Nov 18, 2009)

awesome review wizz. An amazing card, but it costs more than 3 times as much as i paid for my 4890.

It's nostalgic seeing ATI firmly on top again. They havent had a foothold like this since the 9700/9800 era.


----------



## wolf (Nov 18, 2009)

Overall a pretty good card, goes to show driver work has been done as she has posted scores above double a single 5870, cant wait for those 9.12's

and It can play crysis!, I bet that was nice to see W1z, ~75 fps @ 1920x1200 with AA, we can finally play the game 

any chance you can revisit 5870 CF with these drivers? the performance should be above and beyond this card even.

DAMN good work ATi, things are coming along nicely.


----------



## LagunaX (Nov 18, 2009)

Amazing - about the same idle watts as a 4850...but my 5870 is more than enuf for me even at stock...


----------



## RaPiDo987 (Nov 18, 2009)

Speechless....


----------



## Marineborn (Nov 18, 2009)

that is a sexy review, thanks wizz, im most likely gonna purchase one then apply a WB too it once they release one and oc the crap outta the thing, itll be sexy and overpowered. lol


----------



## Binge (Nov 18, 2009)

I thought it would OC more.  Oh well, still extremely impressive and well beyond my expectations.


----------



## dick_cheney (Nov 18, 2009)

Finally a good reason to spend my deployment money...THANKS ATI!


----------



## Jstn7477 (Nov 18, 2009)

Nice to see that it is a winner in just about every test, and really pulls its weight at higher resolutions. Crysis 2560*1600 4xAA = 46.7FPS. 

Also nice to see that it can stay in the mid 80s temperature wise. Wonder if that can be noticeably lowered with a higher fan speed.


----------



## Steevo (Nov 18, 2009)

I hail from a cold place. It was 7F last night.


This plus a waterblock for me would be awsome.


Now is there any way to get a GTA4 screenshot at max settings? And mebey a benchmark........


----------



## Imsochobo (Nov 18, 2009)

the crysis bench..

SPEECHLESS!


----------



## btarunr (Nov 18, 2009)

Moar? Sure: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5970_CrossFire/


----------



## locoty (Nov 18, 2009)

agree

we need another breathtaking games to kill the GPU


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 18, 2009)

I will answer it once and for all.  "Does it play Crysis"....."Yes Motherf---ker.  It will stomp a mud-hole in Crysis and walk it dry."


----------



## WarEagleAU (Nov 18, 2009)

This is the new beast and that is one huge card. Floored by performance, and really price isn't that bad. About what I expect the GT300 to come in (mebbe more along their dual gpu price) I can wait for prices to come down in a year. Awesome review!


----------



## wahdangun (Nov 18, 2009)

wow, it's really monster card, i can't say anymore. 


i really want to buy it, even if i must sell my soul to the devil


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 18, 2009)

wahdangun said:


> wow, it's really monster card, i can't say anymore.
> 
> 
> i really want to buy it, even if i must sell my soul to the devil



Sold, I will call Lu about that offer and his people will call your people.....and kill them....you may want to look for new people while you are dicussing this deal.


----------



## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

It smashed crysis to pieces!

Even playable at super high res.

Bout time.


----------



## wahdangun (Nov 18, 2009)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Sold, I will call Lu about that offer and his people will call your people.....and kill them....you may want to look for new people while you are dicussing this deal.




so when i can get this card from Lu


do you think i can get air conditioning in hell, it's really hot in there


----------



## eidairaman1 (Nov 18, 2009)

how about a direct comparison between the HIS and this one, see if clocks, or quality are different as of performance numbers.


----------



## LagunaX (Nov 18, 2009)

wahdangun said:


> so when i can get this card from Lu
> 
> 
> do you think i can get air conditioning in hell, it's really hot in there



304w load doesn't make it any cooler either...


----------



## dir_d (Nov 18, 2009)

Great Review


----------



## shevanel (Nov 18, 2009)

Damn. That is awesome. Need to start saving.


----------



## n0tiert (Nov 18, 2009)

Can´t wait to get my hands on one of those.....

Did i say one ?  i want 10 

kickass review m8´s 

thx !


----------



## RevengE (Nov 18, 2009)

welp I just Poped one in my pants reading this..I have been waiting for this card to come out for awhile now. I want!


----------



## LagunaX (Nov 18, 2009)

A week ago I thought my 5870 was the bomb...must not sell...must not sell...but my precious wants it...AARRGGHHH!!!!


----------



## n0tiert (Nov 18, 2009)

found this review :

http://www.hartware.de/review_1020_1.html

quite lower results...... @3.2GHZ


TPU:







hardware.net


----------



## tkpenalty (Nov 18, 2009)

n0tiert said:


> found this review :
> 
> http://www.hartware.de/review_1020_1.html
> 
> ...



W1zz is running his i7 920 at 3.8Ghz which alleviates the bottleneck, hence why results for virtually all cards are higher. This is really saying a lot about consumer CPUs now... GPUs are way ahead of CPUs these days.


----------



## n0tiert (Nov 18, 2009)

tkpenalty said:


> W1zz is running his i7 920 at 3.8Ghz which alleviates the bottleneck, hence why results for virtually all cards are higher. This is really saying a lot about consumer CPUs now... GPUs are way ahead of CPUs these days.



Would be great to see a full AMD/ATI Setup Result.....


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 18, 2009)

wahdangun said:


> so when i can get this card from Lu
> 
> 
> do you think i can get air conditioning in hell, it's really hot in there



Trust me, you do not want to know what you have to trade for AC in hell.

On topic note. The scale for the multi-gpu is not very good, but I imagine they should get better in 9.12 and 10.1 drivers.


----------



## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Nov 18, 2009)

omfg.


----------



## Bo_Fox (Nov 18, 2009)

Excellent review, thanks w1z and bta!


----------



## Frizz (Nov 18, 2009)

I think I e-jizzed in my e-pants with my e-peen


----------



## theorw (Nov 18, 2009)

WTF@CRYSIS FULL HD!!!!
295 OWNED...
Wonna see Nvidias card beating this one and be even close to this price...
Sure 5970 will drop to 500-480$ then so more will buy it...
Great job...On water it will do wonders!!!


----------



## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

OMG: in some games, this card met my expectations while in others it totally surpassed them ...

On power consumption, it's even lower @ idle then advertised and i find that simply incredible, not to mention that, @ full load, the consumption ain't bad @ all, IMHO.

Question: is an eyefinity bench of this card on your plans, W1zzard? Wondering @ what frame rates some of these games can be played with those incredible, over the top, resolutions ...


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

n0tiert said:


> found this review :
> 
> http://www.hartware.de/review_1020_1.html
> 
> ...



dont forget that we might have different settings, different game scenes to bench


----------



## cbupdd (Nov 18, 2009)

Oh, good review! Thanks W1zzard
Memory is the same as 5770, so can we expect it at 1500mhz?


----------



## wolf (Nov 18, 2009)

I find it a little crazy that the 5970 performs over double what a 5870 does in Crysis, given what the cards technically are, clock speeds etc....

I'm hoping its the drivers and ATi passes on the benefits to singe cards too.


----------



## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

Only in super high res, its because it has more memory.

The memory at that res quickly get filled with 1gb so it constantly has to reload the memory making it slower.

That's my basic understanding of it anyway.


----------



## ghost101 (Nov 18, 2009)

pantherx12 said:


> Only in super high res, its because it has more memory.
> 
> The memory at that res quickly get filled with 1gb so it constantly has to reload the memory making it slower.
> 
> That's my basic understanding of it anyway.



The memory should be the same. Even though its 2GB (unless this has changed for the 58xx cards), the same stuff has to be mirrored on each 1GB sets of vram. This should increase memory bandwidth, but not the memory total.


----------



## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

ghost101 said:


> The memory should be the same. Even though its 2GB (unless this has changed for the 58xx cards), the same stuff has to be mirrored on each 1GB sets of vram. This should increase memory bandwidth, but not the memory total.



Ahh I guess your right, I completely forget how dual gpu cards worked there for a second...


----------



## VulkanBros (Nov 18, 2009)

Maybe a nOOb question  -  but 
- why are allmost any ATI card running with 256 bit (or lower) memory buswidth ? 
- Why are they not running 448 or 512 bit? What is the reason for that design?
Has it to do with the speeds the memory is running or ?


----------



## amschip (Nov 18, 2009)

pantherx12 said:


> It smashed crysis to pieces!
> 
> Even playable at super high res.
> 
> Bout time.



About time for Crisis 2 lol


----------



## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

VulkanBros said:


> Maybe a nOOb question  -  but
> - why are allmost any ATI card running with 256 bit (or lower) memory buswidth ?
> - Why are they not running 448 or 512 bit? What is the reason for that design?
> Has it to do with the speeds the memory is running or ?




Its DDR5 memory, 256bit is equivalent to 512 bit ddr3.


----------



## amschip (Nov 18, 2009)

VulkanBros said:


> Maybe a nOOb question  -  but
> - why are allmost any ATI card running with 256 bit (or lower) memory buswidth ?
> - Why are they not running 448 or 512 bit? What is the reason for that design?
> Has it to do with the speeds the memory is running or ?



It helps a bit but cost developer arm and a leg


----------



## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Nov 18, 2009)

amschip said:


> About time for Crisis 2 lol



would probably smash Crysis 2 even more. lol


Heck, it was treating Crysis like it was CoD4 o_0


----------



## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

amschip said:


> It helps a bit but cost developer arm and a leg



Quite the contrary. If i understand it properly, the 512 bit interface would significantly increase the die size, transistor count, the temps and, even worse: the price. the gains one would get would be overshadowed by the drawbacks, IMO.


----------



## my_name_is_earl (Nov 18, 2009)

Apocolypse007 said:


> awesome review wizz. An amazing card, but it costs more than 3 times as much as i paid for my 4890.



Well then, certainly you didn't buy it when it first came out. hd4890=310 smaker!!! Got my hd5870 awhile ago so it only cost extra 200 dead benjamin if I were to upgrade. Too bad I'm kinda broke.


----------



## amschip (Nov 18, 2009)

HTC said:


> Quite the contrary. If i understand it properly, the 512 bit interface would significantly increase the die size, transistor count, the temps and, even worse: the price. the gains one would get would be overshadowed by the drawbacks, IMO.



Thats exatly what I meant.


----------



## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

amschip said:


> Thats exatly what I meant.



In that case, i totally miss understood you


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

added more oc data with voltage increase


----------



## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> added more oc data with voltage increase



Is it me or are these OC charts (below) the same as before the voltage increase?







and






As well as the text associated with each pic.


----------



## btarunr (Nov 18, 2009)

Those charts are associated to the older overclock, not the new voltage-assisted overclock.


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

let me rerun those oc perf tests. .. new graph in a few mins


----------



## r9 (Nov 18, 2009)

"Sexy Looks" as pros .

That card delivers definitely. Bringing 295 is like bringing knife to a gun fight .


----------



## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

btarunr said:


> Those charts are associated to the older overclock, not the new voltage-assisted overclock.



I thought as much.



W1zzard said:


> let me rerun those oc perf tests. .. new graph in a few mins



If i may suggest something: please keep those there and add new ones for the voltage tweaked OC.

Why, you may ask? Because it will show the OC and temps of a "simple" OC and a more "enhanced" OC and, personally, i find that to be quite relevant info.


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

updated


----------



## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> updated



... Are the temps the same with both OCs?

From 8.7% to 20.5%: WOW indeed!!!


----------



## Dimi (Nov 18, 2009)

Very nice performance results, especially in Crysis. Not gonna buy this though, my GTX275 does everything it needs to.
Also, i can imagine the lenght of this card might be a problem for most guys, this is why i bought a roomy case that fits E-ATX mobo's. Damn cards keep getting longer.


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

HTC said:


> ... Are the temps the same with both OCs?
> 
> From 8.7% to 20.5%: WOW indeed!!!



i can't give you comparable temps because i disassembled the card and replaced the thermal paste, so it would be an unfair comparison. with oc + voltage increase and new thermal paste the card was at around 95° under load. again, please note that this is with the thermal paste replaced


----------



## poo417 (Nov 18, 2009)

Very nice review.  I am looking forward to mine arriving tomorrow.  Then need to get another couple of 24" monitors to make use of all that power!!


----------



## KainXS (Nov 18, 2009)

well at least now it can be said without a doubt ATI is the king in performance now.

its been a while since they have had a solid lead in performance.


----------



## lemonadesoda (Nov 18, 2009)

Eyefinity benchmark needed, even if "only" 3x 1280x1024


----------



## newtekie1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Wow, simply wow.  Great card.  Glad to see they finally went with one unified heatsink, it really helps balance the heat on both cores, instead of having one core 20°C cooler than the other.

Price needs to come down though, I was hoping this would come out and drive nVidia's prices on the GTX295 down, but at $600 it won't happen, the GTX295 will still sell for $500.


----------



## wolf (Nov 18, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> Price needs to come down though, I was hoping this would come out and drive nVidia's prices on the GTX295 down, but at $600 it won't happen, the GTX295 will still sell for $500.



Yeah performance per dollar is still really close with both cards, you get about the same value with either, but still, ATi has the crown fair and square now.

20% extra performance from overclocking... Nice. thats 3/4 of the FPS a GTX260 gets at that res, just from an OC.

jolly good show.

EDIT: W1z I know you've done a whole heap for us in recent weeks, any chance I can pressure you to test Crysis @ high res, either 2560x1600 or 1920x1200 after the 'vcore oc' ?

some would say superfluous, I would say AWESOME.


----------



## Delta6326 (Nov 18, 2009)

Well at least my 4850's beat 5970 in the performance/dollar  

this card is a beast to bad it crashed in some test very strange, but weird stuff always happens in the computer world................ Oh no my keyboard stuck seeeeeee


----------



## newtekie1 (Nov 18, 2009)

wolf said:


> Yeah performance per dollar is still really close with both cards, you get about the same value with either, but still, ATi has the crown fair and square now.
> 
> 20% extra performance from overclocking... Nice. thats 3/4 of the FPS a GTX260 gets at that res, just from an OC.
> 
> ...



True, I just wonder what happened to ATi's "we aren't going to sell a GPU over $500" went.  I guess when you are back in the lead you can throw all that "we're in it for the consumer" BS right out the window...


----------



## ZenZimZaliben (Nov 18, 2009)

Posted on REDDIT Gaming/Hardware. Awesome Review!


----------



## wolf (Nov 18, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> True, I just wonder what happened to ATi's "we aren't going to sell a GPU over $500" went.  I guess when you are back in the lead you can throw all that "we're in it for the consumer" BS right out the window...



Just goes to show business is business and they will sell it for what they can, as oppose to dropping the price to 499 and dropping the other 58/57xx cards prices.

That's all speculation tho cos iunno if they can afford to, I got no idea.


----------



## shevanel (Nov 18, 2009)

If you wanna talk about nvidia how about say something like "top end" <-- LOL gt200 cards just  depreciated 50%..

or

gtx 295 @ $499 is a solid buy..

be truthful or sarcastic.. the facts don't lie


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Nice review, glad to see it's not a binned down chip and that the stock cooler still has OC headroom, looks like this is 2x 5870's, ut at a cheaper cost, doesn't get much better than that!


----------



## mdm-adph (Nov 18, 2009)

Man, I'm really tired of my posts disappearing, when all I'm talking about is how awesome the G300 is going to be, and what a waste of time the Hemlock is.  

Why does ATI even try?

I mean, didn't you hear?  There's totally a _picture_ of the G300 out there.  It's as good as already on the market.


----------



## wolf (Nov 18, 2009)

It was a fairly unfounded, and quite biased post, I got absolutely nothing against you and your opinion, but really I'm not surprised it was deleted at all.

I wont say any more than that.


----------



## Dimi (Nov 18, 2009)

I would like to see more "recent" games included in the benchmarks. I mean, they include Dirt 2 in the box but its not even in the benchmarks?

These i would like to see added:

Left 4 Dead 2, Dirt 2, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Anno 1404 Dawn Of Discovery, Need For Speed Shift, Command And Conquer Red Alert 3, Wolfenstein, Borderlands, Dragon Age Origins, Grand Theft Auto IV, Fifa 10, ...

Because, who on earth would buy a gpu this fast to play far cry 1, fear 1, quake 4 or prey...

Anyone else agree?


----------



## TooFast (Nov 18, 2009)

HTC said:


> Is it me or are these OC charts (below) the same as before the voltage increase?
> 
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH5970/images/perf_oc.gif
> 
> ...



thats a huge diffrence @970/1300


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Nov 18, 2009)

mdm-adph said:


> Man, I'm really tired of my posts disappearing, when all I'm talking about is how awesome the G300 is going to be, and what a waste of time the Hemlock is.
> 
> Why does ATI even try?
> 
> I mean, didn't you hear?  There's totally a _picture_ of the G300 out there.  It's as good as already on the market.



Then post on topic, the GT300 chips have absolutely zero to do with a 5970, you'll find posting on topic that your posts might actually stick around. But if you step in here looking to throw fanboy crap all over everything, they most likely will get deleted, if your waiting for the GT300 thats fine, but it's off topic, go talk about it in the Nvidia sub section.


----------



## johnnyfiive (Nov 18, 2009)

wolf said:


> Overall a pretty good card, goes to show driver work has been done as she has posted scores above double a single 5870, cant wait for those 9.12's
> 
> *and It can play crysis!, I bet that was nice to see W1z, ~75 fps @ 1920x1200 with AA, we can finally play the game*
> 
> ...


----------



## johnnyfiive (Nov 18, 2009)

Binge said:


> I thought it would OC more.  Oh well, still extremely impressive and well beyond my expectations.



Hahah, I was gonna message you on MSN binge.... way beyond my expectations too... dannnnng nice card.


----------



## ERazer (Nov 18, 2009)

love it


----------



## speedpc (Nov 18, 2009)

The BEST Review I read, 
I see Newegg has a couple posted on there site but not in stock for $624.99 (OUCH)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0549 106793261 1067950589&name=Radeon HD 5970


----------



## OneCool (Nov 18, 2009)

Great review!
Great card!

I have one problem.

Why isnt it being reviewed in Windows 7 64bit. That is the only gaming OS in the world worth using ATM.

It damn sure isnt crap Vista 32 bit.


----------



## imperialreign (Nov 18, 2009)

Performance looks freekin awesome.  Lookin forward to packing two of these bad-asses . . . just waiting for stock to start showing up.

I'd love to see y'all throw in the CoP benchmark at DX11, too - Seeing as how CoP is harsher than CS is.


----------



## Tom20 (Nov 18, 2009)

Wow it rapes the 5870. I may get one!


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Nov 18, 2009)

johnnyfiive said:


> Hahah, I was gonna message you on MSN binge.... way beyond my expectations too... dannnnng nice card.



Kinda wondering, why was it beyond anyones expectations, that is the OC? It's the same GPU as the 5870, even flashed 5850's are seeing 950mhz on the core pretty easily. I will admit, I wasn't expecting this solid of an OC on the stock heatsink, I thought that because I figured they down clocked it for a reason, but it seems they didn't except to offer it at a better price. But I figured that with a waterblock or better air cooling it would clock just like a normal 5870 gpu.


----------



## Polarman (Nov 18, 2009)

Makes my 4890 seem so puny.

Not for everybody i guess.


----------



## Scrizz (Nov 18, 2009)

nice, I'd be happy with just one


----------



## Kantastic (Nov 18, 2009)

So let me ask... is the CPU bottlenecking the cards in CF or is it just the drivers? I'd be surprised if an i7 @ 3.8 was bottlenecking a GPU.

Would a 720BE bottleneck one card? =D


----------



## CarolinaKSU (Nov 19, 2009)

I agree.. Some new games and less 3dmark03 scores would be nice. I think some older games should hang in there simply for benchmark's sake (STALKER, Crysis, etc) but some new games in the benchmark lineup would be nice like GTA IV, C&C Red Alert 3, maybe Starcraft2 if it ever comes out.. 

Although, the yardstick would be changed and would be harder to compare newer cards to newish and "older" cards, but thus is progress..


----------



## n0tiert (Nov 19, 2009)

Man this sucks,

They cheat´n on us since i would pay € 599.- for the XFX
http://www3.atelco.de/articledetail.jsp;jsessionid=0C8A0733DE27D8EAC71139ACC219ECD2.www3?aid=29469&agid=1165&ref=105 

and as i´ve seen it on Newegg for $625
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%201305520549%20106793261%201067950589&name=Radeon%20HD%205970

that sucks Euro to Dollar

actual rate $ 1,49$ = 1€

€ 599.- =  $893,2299.-

that´s $260 Bucks more for the same thing.... 
Club3d, MSI are same priced > XFX Black Edition
no way they are nuts !


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 19, 2009)

Kantastic said:


> So let me ask... is the CPU bottlenecking the cards in CF or is it just the drivers? I'd be surprised if an i7 @ 3.8 was bottlenecking a GPU.
> 
> Would a 720BE bottleneck one card? =D



look at the graphs.. left4dead is completely bottlenecked, many games in lower resolutions too. easy to spot


----------



## Dimi (Nov 19, 2009)

WTF happend to the graphs? The 5970 doesn't look all that godlike anymore.










What is going on?


----------



## mdm-adph (Nov 19, 2009)

Dimi said:


> WTF happend to the graphs? The 5970 doesn't look all that godlike anymore.
> 
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5970_CrossFire/images/crysis_1680_1050.gif http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH5970/images/crysis_1680_1050.gif
> 
> What is going on?



Uh... the typical problems with an Nvidia-loving game not working very well with an ATI card?  

This is an old problem -- nothing new.


----------



## Dimi (Nov 19, 2009)

no, i meant that all the graphs changed overnight, yesterday the 5970 fps scores were way higher than today.


----------



## HTC (Nov 19, 2009)

Dimi said:


> no, i meant that all the graphs changed overnight, yesterday the 5970 fps scores were way higher than today.



The dude's referring to the difference between the HD 5970 and Asus HD 5970: 82.1 FPS and 53.1 FPS respectively.


----------



## wolf (Nov 19, 2009)

Well TBH the scores seem a little more realistic, odd tho....


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 19, 2009)

due to all the interwebzdrama i found out that crysis used "high" instead of "very high". i put up a note yesterday evening and rebenched them today, just a few hours ago, then put up the revised graphs


----------



## imperialreign (Nov 19, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> due to all the interwebzdrama i found out that crysis used "high" instead of "very high". i put up a note yesterday evening and rebenched them today, just a few hours ago, then put up the revised graphs



Still impressive numbers for what it is.

As to the crossfire - I'm guessing the majority of the issue is within the drivers, ATM.  That and lower screen res.  For some reason, that's always been Crossfire's biggest weakness - it's not that helpful at all with lower resolutions.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 19, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> due to all the interwebzdrama i found out that crysis used "high" instead of "very high". i put up a note yesterday evening and rebenched them today, just a few hours ago, then put up the revised graphs



Thanks for sorting that out W1zzard.

Now I'm just glad I didn't give in to my itch to buy the 295 or the 5870 and upgrade my psu for one of them...

I _have to_ get this card.






I re-mapped my _future_ upgrades on this card.....

1) I buy one 5970.
2) I (have to buy) an adequate PSU but now I'll go for one which can support 2 of them....
3) When I find my 4.2Ghz E8400 performing crappy (p'haps within a year, or 2 or 3...), I'll buy a CF mobo and an i7 (or what'd be on the market then), and DDR3...
4) And I'll have a spare pci-e slot to go crossfire if I really feel I want to max out my rig... 

So for now I just gotta think on the best PSU to support 2 of these magnificent wonders...


----------



## Dimi (Nov 19, 2009)

The numbers are nice, no doubt, but i am quite sure that nvidia will beat them soon.

I don't care though because i don't need another card for like 2 years.


----------



## imperialreign (Nov 19, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> So for now I just gotta think on the best PSU to support 2 of these magnificent wonders...
> 
> http://rlv.zcache.com/swoon_card-p137374428705273350t5j5_210.jpg



I'll say this much . . . a 900W can power my current rig specs with no issues


----------



## douglatins (Nov 19, 2009)

This rating is too high considering the many disadvantages u posted.


----------



## W1zzard (Nov 19, 2009)

douglatins said:


> This rating is too high considering the many disadvantages u posted.



that's why we post everything you need to know to come to your own rating. thanks for reading the text and not only looking at the single number


----------



## ArmoredCavalry (Nov 19, 2009)

Nice review (as always). About the performance I was expecting. Not interested in buying, just looked out of curiosity. 

One thing that did surprise me was how well it performed in Far Cry 2 compared with other cards. 0_o


----------



## Sir_Real (Nov 19, 2009)

I see overclockers.co.uk had HD5970 2GB in stock today. To late they sold out already ! 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/news.php#2233

£539 though  That card is total overkill for the current crop of pc games.


----------



## n0tiert (Nov 19, 2009)

In Stock !

Sapphire HD5970 OC

http://www.alternate.de/html/product/Grafikkarten_ATI_Radeon_HD5000/Sapphire/HD5970_OC/384869/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Grafik&l2=PCIe-Karten+ATI&l3=Radeon+HD5000

to bad i´m burned out atm


----------



## mdm-adph (Nov 19, 2009)

imperialreign said:


> I'll say this much . . . a 900W can power my current rig specs with no issues



Is that your real 3dm06 score in your stats?


----------



## dr emulator (madmax) (Nov 19, 2009)

i might just order 1 or 2 to annoy everyone with and add it's/there picture to my sig muahaha


----------



## imperialreign (Nov 19, 2009)

mdm-adph said:


> Is that your real 3dm06 score in your stats?



with my current setup?  No.  I'm just too lazy to update it 

That's from ages ago . . . just a sec . . .

My last 3m06 run that I've submitted (May 17, 09):
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2320/3m06.jpg

Last Vantage score I've submitted (Jul 06, 09):
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4645/vantagek.jpg

Could probably score higher with both, if I was up to some more tweaking.  All those were done with stock clocks, where-as my score listed in my specs was accomplished with 2 4870s, IIRC - and my last 3m06 run was with 2 4870s.


----------



## poo417 (Nov 20, 2009)

imperialreign said:


> Performance looks freekin awesome.  Lookin forward to packing two of these bad-asses . . . just waiting for stock to start showing up.
> 
> I'd love to see y'all throw in the CoP benchmark at DX11, too - Seeing as how CoP is harsher than CS is.



Had a quick look last night.  I have patched the game to the new patch.  Everything turned to the max @1920 x 1200 and in fraps was still getting between 70 - 100 fps.  I am still not convinced it is running dx11 though.  I am sure I have seen somewhere on interwebby the render should be dx11 and not just highest lighting method.  All being said this card is bloody funny fast.  Loaded up crysis washead just to see what it was like.  EVERYTHING ON FULL and it is like butter.  There did seem to be the odd hiccup but for basically beta drivers I will not complain too much.  I did notice on our couple of hours in borderlands there seems to be a few textures missing/ worng.  My only problem is the fan sounds as though it maybe fubar'd.  It sounds like it is a worn fan.  I am hoping it settles down.  Other than that vey impressed.


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 21, 2009)

It's a _behemoth_ of a card!

It weighs as much as a small laptop -- 1.2kg (2.65lbs?)

Here's how it'd look on the average mobo...
(nope, it's not my picture!)






I got one question - if it goes straight into the HDD cage, will it fit from the width?
I need to know this.


----------



## pantherx12 (Nov 21, 2009)

They need to start making PCI slots deeper in order to help support these massive cards better.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 21, 2009)

pantherx12 said:


> They need to start making PCI slots deeper in order to help support these massive cards better.



They need to make these cards smaller.  I honestly thing they are wasting a lot of space on PCB for some reason or other.


----------



## grunt_408 (Nov 21, 2009)

Great review as always Wiz. I dont think I will be getting one of them too pricey for me.


----------



## OneCool (Nov 22, 2009)

Still no answer as to why it was reviewed in Vista 32bit not Win7 64bit. :shadedshu


oh-well its not like im going to buy so 

Thats alot of diapers


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 22, 2009)

OneCool said:


> Still no answer as to why it was reviewed in Vista 32bit not Win7 64bit. :shadedshu
> 
> 
> oh-well its not like im going to buy so
> ...



the main point here is the compare the card to other cards on the market.  Many of the cards still listed on the performance charts for the current stock of test games and software were tested before Win7 was available and at that time, the 64-bit Vista was a buggy mess.

Also consider performance as a whole.  It is easy to say, "Well I have a 64-bit Win7 computer so my numbers should be better.  Great".  While going in the other direction, say tested on 64-bit and you have 32-bit, would be difficult because the relative performance drop is varied and unpredictable.  Testing in 32-bit Vista (the slowest of the 3 most common OS's being used for gaming) ensure the test results will be "at least this" for all involved.

Finally, some testing software is still not designed for 64-bit OS and while it will install it negatively affects the outcome.  Using that software in native 32-bit avoids these issues.

But I do not work here, so I am speculating.


----------



## Lionheart (Nov 22, 2009)

I want so bad, Im lucky too cause my case design, you have to flip the MB on a 90 degree angle, and it works so much better than the normal design with the side view, I want one so bad!!!


----------



## Easo (Nov 23, 2009)

I cant believe my eyes!!!


----------



## dr emulator (madmax) (Nov 23, 2009)

pantherx12 said:


> They need to start making PCI slots deeper in order to help support these massive cards better.



actually that is a good point my case has a little plastic clip (picture 4 down on a ratchet mechanism here) which will support the weight of my agp hd3850 ( when i get round to cutting it and making it fit )
maybe case manufacturers need to implement them into newer cases in the future but with 2clips one at the front and one at the back


----------



## Black Panther (Nov 23, 2009)

Let's drool:
(not my pc)


----------



## EnergyFX (Nov 26, 2009)

As an nVidia fanboi I give a respectful nod to you ATI creeps.  This thing swallowed the 295 and farted out green abstract confetti.  ATI built a monster and, judging by the benchmarks, it performs like a dream!  

Fanboi or not... it is improtant for ATI to be on top again in order to keep nVidia on their toes.  As consumers we need these two companies to keep edging the other out performance-wise.  The more they bunny hop each other, the more phenomenal our computers get.  Go competition!


----------



## vagxtr (Dec 2, 2009)

Something murky is going on there. For some reason bjorn3d didnt include 5870 in their test of scalability h2h w/ 5770 CFX

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1741&pageID=8068

It scores for some reason virtually the same as 5970 2GB

otoh, it's totally uncool to see how two similar cards, same generation, manufacturer and architecture like GTX285 & GTX280 favors newer one with almost 2x performance gain. Not even to point out how all older cards, before COH4 release, have similar performance drop. So does the manufacturers optimize their newer ASIC for specific games or what??





Overall it's great generic review but it would be interesting to see something more original, that someone else deliberately missed to show us. Does really HD5770 CFX also outperforms one HD5870 and how does HD5870 scales up with 5970 and 5970 OCed @850MHz.

And for first time tech preview like this one lowest FPS would be also great to show in the graphs along with max FPS, cause this maxFPS often deliberately leads us to wrong conclusions.


----------



## TooFast (Dec 2, 2009)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Then post on topic, the GT300 chips have absolutely zero to do with a 5970, you'll find posting on topic that your posts might actually stick around. But if you step in here looking to throw fanboy crap all over everything, they most likely will get deleted, if your waiting for the GT300 thats fine, but it's off topic, go talk about it in the Nvidia sub section.




gt300 wont be here till april......and btw nvidia sacrifices image quality for fps


----------



## Imsochobo (Dec 2, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> True, I just wonder what happened to ATi's "we aren't going to sell a GPU over $500" went.  I guess when you are back in the lead you can throw all that "we're in it for the consumer" BS right out the window...



This is commented somewhere by amd.

They didnt say we aint gonna sell videocards that doesnt cost 500 $
We aint making 500$ gpu's.

Just kidding, but the reason is mostly :

The price cannot be lower than the price of 2x 5850 put together.
And the 5850 price cannot go lower cause of:

Demand.
TSMC

And thats basicly for the whole lineup. they cud be sold cheaper i guess.
I wonder if ati really had been selling the cards cheaper if the production was better(higher gains)


----------



## eidairaman1 (Dec 2, 2009)

EnergyFX said:


> As an nVidia fanboi I give a respectful nod to you ATI creeps.  This thing swallowed the 295 and farted out green abstract confetti.  ATI built a monster and, judging by the benchmarks, it performs like a dream!
> 
> Fanboi or not... it is improtant for ATI to be on top again in order to keep nVidia on their toes.  As consumers we need these two companies to keep edging the other out performance-wise.  The more they bunny hop each other, the more phenomenal our computers get.  Go competition!



finally someone else that makes sense


----------



## Bo_Fox (Dec 2, 2009)

vagxtr said:


> Something murky is going on there. For some reason bjorn3d didnt include 5870 in their test of scalability h2h w/ 5770 CFX
> 
> http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1741&pageID=8068
> 
> ...



Good..  it's great that we can think for ourselves and decide if something makes sense or not.  Obviously, that chart does not make sense, as you pointed out.


----------



## Bo_Fox (Dec 2, 2009)

*Microstuttering still present on 5970 cards?*

(regarding Dirt 2's performance)

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...DX-11-Update-Radeon-HD-5970-results/Practice/



> But the micro stuttering of the dual GPU card is strong and 50 frames per second on the 5970 feel about as fast as 30 fps on the 5870.



If that's the case, then I'm still happy to be a retired SLI veteran, having experienced this horrible problem with 2x 7900GTX's in SLI where Test Drive Unlimited at 40 fps felt like 23 fps.  My 8800GTX chugged along at 45 fps which felt like 45fps.


----------



## EnergyFX (Dec 4, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> finally someone else that makes sense



Sh!t... I got sig quoted for that??!!  :shadedshu  Nevermind!! I take it all back!  lol

Of all the smartass comments I've made on this forum... me giving props to ATI becomes my debut sig quote.  Time for me to go play in traffic!


----------



## eidairaman1 (Dec 4, 2009)

its fact you are giving credit where it is actually due. Get so many here who bash the parts that come out when they are actually performing well.


----------



## Lionheart (Dec 15, 2009)

Hey guys, I just got my XFX HD5970 Black Edition 2day, its all installed, got the drivers for it but there is no fan control in ATI Overdrive, WTF, gonna look around about this.


----------



## ulcer44@gmail.com (Jun 10, 2010)

i haven't read all the posts on this thread so this may have been answered already...

are all 5970's the same?  i haven't purchased one because a friend has the sapphire unit and he is unable to raise the voltage or overclock. the asus utility doesn't recognize his card, and other similar utilities for these mods don't work properly like the asus utilty does on an asus 5970.  i know that different vendors of other model cards design in/out features and components that make them unique and i am wondering if the asus' tweakability is not standard for all brands...?

the asus is more expensive than some so i only want to buy it if it offers an advantage.

thanks in advance for any info!


----------



## DannibusX (Jun 10, 2010)

ulcer44@gmail.com said:


> i haven't read all the posts on this thread so this may have been answered already...
> 
> are all 5970's the same?  i haven't purchased one because a friend has the sapphire unit and he is unable to raise the voltage or overclock. the asus utility doesn't recognize his card, and other similar utilities for these mods don't work properly like the asus utilty does on an asus 5970.  i know that different vendors of other model cards design in/out features and components that make them unique and i am wondering if the asus' tweakability is not standard for all brands...?
> 
> ...



It's likely he has a non-reference 5970, which usually don't allow for voltage control.


----------



## ulcer44@gmail.com (Jun 11, 2010)

thanks for the reply, thats what i figured it was.

my search continues, i just learned the xfx black edition doesn't allow fan control without a bios tweak of some kind.  does the asus allow fan control anyone know?


----------

