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When testing video cards, it is important to use a system which would suit the target audience. For this review we are using a Intel Core i7 980x processor paired with the excellent, KitGuru award winning Asus Rampage III Extreme Motherboard – check out the review here if you missed it.
We will compare the card to the reference HD 5870 model as well as a reference HD5850 and pre-overclocked Sapphire Toxic Edition HD5850. A very small percentage of the audience (1%) use a 30 inch screen so we like to include 24 inch resolutions when possible (1920×1200). Keeping in HD5850 results is also a good indication of what people can expect if they sold a 5850 and wanted to upgrade to the higher end model.
Test System:
Powercolor HD5870 PCS+
Sapphire HD5850 Toxic 1GB Edition
AMD Reference HD5870
AMD Reference HD5850
Intel Core i7 980x
Coolit ECO A.L.C.
Asus Rampage III Extreme Motherboard
6GB Corsair DDR3 1866mhz Memory
Intel 160GB SSD Drive
Lacie 730 30 inch screen.
Western Digital Raid 0 (2×1TB Drives)
Enermax 1250W Revolution PSU
Thermaltake Armor A60 Chassis
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit – all newest patches applied
Fraps Professional
Catalyst 10.6 driver
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Resident Evil 5
Batman Arkham Asylum
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
Left 4 Dead 2
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Crysis Warhead
3dMark Vantage
UniGine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
All the latest bios updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru test all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Our minimum frame rate game graphs have three main zones. These are sampled over a specific 30 interval period of time and then mapped into a chart. These are handy reference guides to detail worst case performance of the product being reviewed.
Over 30fps is the zone most people want at all times, this means perfectly smooth frame rates with no hitching.
Between 30fps and 25fps is the KitGuru ‘Playable' zone, although some people might notice occasional stuttering in specific scenes.
Under 25fps is classed as the KitGuru ‘Danger Zone' which means that the game experience will be less than impressive. Settings and/or resolution would need lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.
Christ you review a lot of video cards man, you must be burning out. Great review.
Falls in line with what I would expect performance wise. Quite disappointed on the overclock and I think what you said in the conclusion was spot on. I would think they have brought these cards out, realised how much more they can do, updated the bios. put an extra + on the box, and are charging £10 more for the ‘extra’. Id get the PCS+ and overclock it, like in this review.
Those noise levels are remarkable, it may not be the fastest HD5870, that goes to the MSI lightning, but its the quietest. id take this one over any other performance card, just due to that.
Shame there was no GTX480 tested in this review, would be good to see performance against it.
I love the HD5870 series, best high cards on the market right now. HD5970 and GTX480 dont count, they are far too loud.
Thats an awesome board, love the noise figures, think its quieter than the GTX460 which I didnt think was possible. right?
Very impressive card this, price isnt too bad either considering a reference, loud, hot running GTX480 is £50 more.
I like the cooler, but it looks quite large, might not fit into some small chassis.
@ Stefan, there is a head to head on kitguru with the HD5870 sapphire card and a GTX480. check the review index 🙂 shows t he figures, which would be almost identical for this card too.
havent read it all yet, but I always check out the dBA pages on kitguru as I love that testing methodology you use. On this alone the powercolor card is massively impressive.
Its impressive, but most of these overclocked cards are very similar in the HD58xx range. hard to get excited anymore.
That overclock on the manual page is insane, why the hell are they selling them with such crap overclocks?
the overclock is too weak, for such a good product. the PCS++ is clearly out to fix that mistake. seems a bit sly to me.
Isnt there a rule book guide that ATI send out to their partners about not overclocking past specific speeds? I think this has something to do with it.
nah. The only rules I know are the memory speeds have to fall into guidelines, so legally they could have put the memory at 1250mhz, to give samsungs 5000mhz rating, any higher is dodgy and I think they would be open for suing.
The core, thats different, its clearly capable of 950mhz easily, even across a range of cards, and they are doing this now with the secondary PCS++ card just released. I suppose they had to charge £10 so people who bought the PCS+ werent pissed off it was the same price.
best graphics card reviews on the net. just enough useful info to help me work out what to buy. love the db testing and power consumption testing. sites that test power over a complete system load are wasting their time, I can’t tell what is the card or the system. much too difficult to work out.
I dont know, I still wouldnt touch powercolor, they seem like a mickey mouse eastern make to me.
Decent pricing really considering the product. Looks good too, shame the black cooler is a bit boring looking, more heatpipe showing would look better 🙂
Powercolor are a really good make, as far as I know most companies get these cards made in the same factory anyway. palit make most of them.
Any place selling these in canada?
MSI Lightning or this? hard choice. MSI lightning is faster, more expensive, but slightly louder. I hate noise and think id opt for this and just overclock it a bit more. views?
this is quite close against the sapphire toxic card. which is quieter?
I would assume going on the results that this is quieter than the sapphire toxic, but kitguru changed testing methods a while ago so hard to tell.
Lovely review of a very sexy product. I cant get enough of the ATI reviews on this site.
Powercolor are really good, I feel the need to defend them. I had a few of their cards in the past, as they are normally cheaper than sapphire. never had a problem, they are still working in older machine actually !
The power consumption is a little high, but the efficiency seems good, thanks to the cooling system, low noise, great performance, high overclocking options. good well done I say !
These are too expensive for me, but I like this 5870 more than the others reviewed here. why? the noise levels are class leading. I hate fan noise.
excellent review of a very good product.
Very impressed with this card. love the design and looks.
I still think the HD5850 is the best value card on the market as you can overclock most of them to reach HD5870 performance levels.
I resently bought Vertex3D 5870 (its the same company just different name in EU) and couldnt be more satisfied with the card. First thing I was worried was the heat but it seems these cards run very cool and are quiet. Performance is ofcourse the same as it has been since the launch and what PC users now lack are GAMEs that actually utilize thse amazing beasts.