Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 Smile for the Camera

[erocker]

Wow, was considering Sapphire 5870 but damn thats ugly. I think ill wait till the bette rlooking cards come out.

I'm painting mine pink and drab green. It looks fine from the side anyways.

 

[PP Mguire]

You should wholesale those and sell me one =)

 

[btarunr]

Not necessarily. The HD2900XT comes with 100+ GB/s memory bandwidth, should something faster than that also have higher bandwidth...

HD 4000 series needed the 100+ GB/s memory bandwidth, evident from memory speeds enhancing performance. Same applies to HD 5850. Using the very same logic, a GeForce GTX 260 that is as fast as a HD 4870 doesn't need 111 GB/s then. And GTX 285 which is as fast as HD 4850 X2 doesn't need all that bandwidth either.

 

[lemonadesoda]

I'm painting mine pink and drab green. It looks fine from the side anyways.

Pink drag-queen edition? Might sell...

 

[Maban]

Pink drag-queen edition? Might sell...

I'd buy it.

 

[wahdangun]

or pink ponie edition XXX

 

[Velvet Wafer]

i hope this card will be out soon. the jokes start to get really lame

 

[TheMailMan78]

They could sell a "Save the TaTa's" edition GPU to raise money to fight breast cancer. One thing nerds love is some tits. Ati could sell them in sets of two. Hell I'd pay extra for that and put save the titties on my desktop.

 

[Kovoet]

LOL can't believe you guys and girls worry about the colours of the actual card.

 

[Zubasa]

Not necessarily. The HD2900XT comes with 100+ GB/s memory bandwidth, should something faster than that also have higher bandwidth...

Yet the next two generations after that had cards with less memory bandwidth, that were easily faster. Memory bandwidth doesn't need to increase with new cards. The HD5800 series might really benefit from it, or maybe ATi even removed the GDDR3 memory controller from the core, forcing GDDR5 use. If that was the case then cutting down the core was necesary. But we don't know, and that is why I'm asking.

You really should not bring out the 2900XT as an example, because we all know that ATi mispredicted that design pretty badly. It is only about as fast as a 3870 really.

I can telll you right now that the rv770 on a 4850 is quite limited by its memory bandwidth.

 

[newtekie1]

what about 3870 and 3850 - they were literally identical cards... with the same memory interface... (although I think the 3850 was 256 memory standard and the 3870 was 512)

only DX 10 series with weaker memory config was the the 4xxx series. Usually they go with a weaker (manufacturing-wise) core and cheaper construction and power cuircuitry.

No they weren't, the HD3870 used GDDR4 and the HD3850 used GDDR3.

The last time we saw identical cards was the HD2900XT and HD2900Pro, and eventually ATi changed the HD2900Pro to use a 256-bit bus instead of the 512-bit like the HD2900XT.

HD 4000 series needed the 100+ GB/s memory bandwidth, evident from memory speeds enhancing performance. Same applies to HD 5850. Using the very same logic, a GeForce GTX 260 that is as fast as a HD 4870 doesn't need 111 GB/s then. And GTX 285 which is as fast as HD 4850 X2 doesn't need all that bandwidth either.

When has memory speeds NOT enhanced performance? Never...so your logic is flawed. Yes, lowering the memory bandwidth by moving to GDDR3 would have hurt performance, so does crippling the core. The whole point of BOTH is to hinder performance. ATi has never used this strategy to hinder performance right out of the starting block. The cards don't need GDDR5 to perform well.

 

[btarunr]

When has memory speeds NOT enhanced performance? Never...so your logic is flawed. Yes, lowering the memory bandwidth by moving to GDDR3 would have hurt performance, so does crippling the core. The whole point of BOTH is to hinder performance. ATi has never used this strategy to hinder performance right out of the starting block. The cards don't need GDDR5 to perform well.

Then your argument is flawed, because you acknowledge that faster the memory the better. Today's performance GPUs need over 100 GB/s memory bandwidths to remain competitive. HD 4850 with its GDDR3 memory was competitive with G92-based GPUs, but not with NVIDIA GPUs with over 100 GB/s memory bandwidth. RV770/RV790 products with GDDR5 were. So once again, AMD could not carve a Pro SKU with GDDR3 memory, because there's no way you can end up with sufficient bandwidths on a 256-bit wide interface.

 

[newtekie1]

Then your argument is flawed, because you acknowledge that faster the memory the better. Today's performance GPUs need over 100 GB/s memory bandwidths to remain competitive. HD 4850 with its GDDR3 memory was competitive with G92-based GPUs, but not with NVIDIA GPUs with over 100 GB/s memory bandwidth. RV770/RV790 products with GDDR5 were. So once again, AMD could not carve a Pro SKU with GDDR3 memory, because there's no way you can end up with sufficient bandwidths on a 256-bit wide interface.

I disagree, the HD4850 wasn't just crippled because of memory, it was clocked a far bit lower on the core/shader clock also. That drastically affected performance. The HD4870/4890 had issued competing with nVidia's GPUs with over 100 GB/s, and it had plenty of memory bandwidth. The over 100MHz downclock on the HD4850 was more of a performance factor than the GDDR3 memory bandwidth.

I don't believe that a HD5850 with GDDR3 would perform that much worse than the incarnation we are seeing here.

 

[wahdangun]

but i really don't care what ever strategy ati use as long as it perform good and have reasonable price(HD 5850), i will buy it.

 

[pantherx12]

Shitty cards but for an example of memory giving a performance boost.

HD4350 - HD550 only difference is memory type and you get quite a nice boost.

 

[Mistral]

newtekie1, as much as I love the way you manage to contradict yourself, I'm starting to wander what exactly is the point of your last few posts...

Sure faster/wider memory is nicer, sure clocking higher the core makes it faster. Also sure is that the people at DAAMIT who designed the cards have at least a vague idea what to do in order to hit the market segments they need to. And this is what it's all about.

 

[lemode]

I tend to stay away from Gigabyte, Sparkle, PNY, MSI, and Sapphire graphic cards only because every gamer I’ve ever been friends with has had issues with these manufactures.

I’ve bought ASUS, HIS, EVGA, BFG, XFX and haven’t had a problem with any.

 

[dr emulator (madmax)]

arguing with the news editor is a big :shadedshu
i just hope it lasts more than five minuets
as i want a card with good performance and longevity

 

[a_ump]

newteckie's origional point or question makes sense to me and i'd have to say you cant say yes or no with what we know. But what stated with 40nm yield issues makes sense. I'm sure there had to be some defective RV770 core when they started manufacturing, yet they didn't use those at the start for a crippled HD 4850 with same memory subsystem like they're doing with the HD 5850. Instead i'd assume they kept the defective RV770's cores for when they released the HD 4830. There's nothing wrong with speculation or curiosity.

Yet HD 5850 looks better than the HD 5870, but meh i'll probly take the sticker off, never now might lower core temp by 1 degree

 

[p_o_s_pc]

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1241346
--
Also, For those of you who said the gal on the cooler was sexy... welll....... what about this girl...
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d20/Flyordie07/Rage3D/PB132570.jpg

she isn't bad. I like the one on the 5850 better

 

[F430]

WOW

 

[grunt_408]

lol @ wizzard mon is GPU-Z working with 5xxx series yet ? I am confused...
Is this real? Is the one above real wtf? CPU scores look a little squwiff

 

[kylzer]

Well i know the GPUZ is fake or modded somehow in f430s pic

im sure there both fake tbh.

EDIT wait?

thats a HD4890 lol

 

[grunt_408]

Well i know the GPUZ is fake or modded somehow in f430s pic

im sure there both fake tbh.

EDIT wait?

thats a HD4890 lol

I know about the 4890,
I was curious about the 5xxx GPU-Z screeny and posted up 4890 results for comparison.
I remember reading here on TPU that Wiz has not yet released a version of GPU-Z supporting the 5xxx series cards.

P.S I see your sig is fake too

Going back on topic now though them cards do look great . I wonder why the vent on the back is so small?

 

[kylzer]

I know about the 4890,
I was curious about the 5xxx GPU-Z screeny and posted up 4890 results for comparison.
I remember reading here on TPU that Wiz has not yet released a version of GPU-Z supporting the 5xxx series cards.

P.S I see your sig is fake too

Yeah i thought he said that too

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1552086&postcount=716

and yes ^_^ premature i guess