ASUS HD 5870 Overclocks to 1035/1290 MHz on Air, Aces 3DMark Vantage in CrossFireX

[Bo_Fox]

Here is what four AMD Cypress GPUs can achieve with some careful overclocking, without needing any third-party cooling. Renowned overclocker Kinc sent us details of his latest achievement using four ASUS Radeon HD 5870 1 GB cards installed in a 4-way CrossFireX setup, all overclocked, and cooled by AMD's reference cooler, taking a shot at 3DMark Vantage (Extreme Preset). The four cards returned a score of X26,332 points, with an average frame-rate of 79.49 fps in GT1, and 74.83 fps in GT2.

To begin with the cards were overclocked to 1035/1290 MHz, up from reference speeds of 850/1200 MHz (core/memory). This was supported by raising the vGPU to 1.330V using GPUTool, from 1.015V. The platform to drive this feat comprised of an Intel Core i7 965 XE processor, cooled by Intel's reference (boxed) cooler, clocked at 4257 MHz. To seat them all was an ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer motherboard. The feat serves as a prelude to what the future holds in two "Hemlock" accelerators, which make use of two Radeon HD 5870 GPUs each.

[url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/09-10-01/85a_thm.png[/URL]

Wow, what an impressive "show-off" of what a stock-cooled setup could do!!!

Well, few questions..

The stock voltage is supposed to be just a little over 1.1v, right? 1.015v is much lower than what I've heard!

What were the max temps of the GPU's? I'll take the liberty of assuming that all of the fans ran at 100% speed.

Last question: Did he have to try more than 4 cards to "cherry-pick" the good overclockers? If he never got any more than 4 cards to begin with, and just overclocked all of them to 1+ GHz speeds using stock coolers, then I surely would be enlightened with those Asus cards!

 

[aCid888*]

And the 9800GX2 does not beat a 280.

Stock clocked 280 vs GX2 and the 280 is about 2% faster....the Zotac AMP! 280 (nicely clocked) here on TPU Reviews is only 8% ahead of the GX2.

Once you start to unleash the power of the two 8800GTS' you will see some stellar frame rates from the GX2.

 

[Bo_Fox]

3 more questions:

What was the ambient temp?

Was the case closed or open?

How much of an airflow was there over the cards (e.g., a huge fan blowing right on top of those cards from an AC vent)?

Please excuse my skepticism. It's just that when there are not additional details to brag about, those details are usually not bragged about for a reason.

 

[aCid888*]

Do a google search like I did and you will come up with the thread this came from????

LINK: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=235744

 

[PP Mguire]

Stock clocked 280 vs GX2 and the 280 is about 2% faster....the Zotac AMP! 280 (nicely clocked) here on TPU Reviews is only 8% ahead of the GX2.

Once you start to unleash the power of the two 8800GTS' you will see some stellar frame rates from the GX2.

You can easily say the same about a 280. Clock it up a bit and your back to square one against the 9800GX2.

And in games (where it matters) scaling issues hold the 9800GX2 which is why i say it does not beat a 280.

 

[aCid888*]

The only game that matters to me in the 280 review is CoD4...in that, the stock-clocked GX2 scales very well indeed and tops the Amp! GTX280 at any resolution.


Couple that with the fact my GX2 didn't cost me that much and I'm on for a winner either way.....there is no doubt the 280 is a solid card though.

 

[Black Hades]

Well call me a skeptic but I have a theory that this card once drivers are sufficiently mature wont see a general improvement in performance more than say 15%.

The 4xxx series was quite a leap forward for them and a risk and it took time till they more efficiently tapped into it's power, I think the 5xxx series is mostly built on what they learned from the previous generation and and scaled/perfected so less driver pioneering will take place. We'll see.

Just an educated guess.

EDIT: Yes I know DX11 and tessellation and a few other things.. that's another story! We'll see once the games using that technology roll.

 

[Hayder_Master]

X 26000 wow it is about p 60000