![]() ![]() It's funny once you kind of know what you're going to be dealing with there isn't a huge surprise as to what you can expect. The load numbers look a lot more attractive than the CrossFire HD 5870 setup. Power draw is actually very good on the HD 5970 the number we're getting from it at load is similar to the single GPU offering and idle numbers are only slightly up. This means we've got the HD 5970 against the dual GPU bad boy from NVIDIA, the GTX 295 while also comparing the model to the HD 5870 in both singular and Crossfire configurations. ![]() Today we'll be comparing the HD 5970 against all the setups that matter. Hard Disk(s): Western Digital 300GB Velicorapter (Supplied by Western Digital)ĭrivers: ATI Catalyst 9.10, 8.663.1 Beta4 Hemlock VistaWin7 Nov6, ForceWare 191.07 Memory: 3 X 2GB Kingston Hyper X PC3-16000 2000MHz DDR CL9 (Supplied by Kingston) Motherboard(s): GIGABYTE EX58-UD5 (Supplied by GIGABYTE) ![]() Processor(s): Intel Core i7 920 3.8GHz (190MHz x 20)Ĭooling: Noctua NH-U12P (Supplied by Noctua) We've got all the same specs as the HD 5870 and feature set including DirectX 11 support. They have just simply been down clocked to combat any issues with heat.Īs for the rest of the specifications, it's nothing you haven't seen before. ![]() We don't want to say you have two HD 5850s, because the core specifications are the same as HD 5870 with 1600 shaders and 80 texture units. What you ultimately have is two HD 5870s on a single PCB that have been down clocked to HD 5850 speeds. We hope that in a later article we can see what a real overclock looks like. This isn't really much of an overclock, but its speed is above the standard. The core has jumped a whole 10MHz and the memory has been increased 40MHz QDR. With that said, Sapphire has taken the time to overclock the card. With all that said and done, let's get into the package of the Sapphire HD 5970 we have on our hands today before having a closer look at the card itself, its specifications and the power it offers us.Īs for the memory, that's dropped a fair bit as well 200MHz or 800MHz QDR which sounds a whole lot scarier. Instead, let's just embrace the power that's on offer from a card that only uses a single PCI-E slot on your motherboard. While I think they're a bit of a lazy mans model to create the fastest product on the market, I'm at the point now that there's no point fighting it. They're about a company getting on top of the soap box and shouting out at the top of their lungs, "We're the fastest".ĭual GPU cards are a bit of a mixed bag for me. The HD 5970 is ultimately what the previous X2 offerings are and what the GTX 295 to NVIDIA has been for a long time. However, the new single GPU offerings did a good job of that. This is not a new single GPU offering as the name might suggest it's instead the new dual GPU offering which one would say replaces the previous dual GPU offering from ATI. I'm not trying to take anything away from the NVIDIA series cards and their new GT 200 models that have impressed us, but come on we all love high end models.Īnyway, back on topic. One side of you says 'why am I testing a GT 200 series model when HD 5970 is sitting next to me?' the other half is telling me that you've got to take the exciting with the non exciting. I think the biggest problem is that NVIDIA are enjoying being a bit of a pain in the ass by releasing their new low end models a day before the new high end models from ATI. I've written everything from HD 5790 to HD 5970 trying to get my brain and my fingers working together and I have to give myself a tap on the back that I'm now getting it right. I was one of those people who had in my head that it was simply going to be called the HD 5870 X2 it seemed the logical name since it's what ATI has used in the past. It has taken me days to get my head around the HD 5970 name. ![]()
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