KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The results today reaffirm my initial feelings that XFX, along with Sapphire are leading the way with their ATI graphics card designs. XFX have released an overclocked card which not only considerably outperforms the reference design but which also runs cooler and quieter … an intoxicating mixture for an enthusiast gamer.
XFX have not yet released this card to the masses and they are initially offering it to existing customers via a rather cool reward style system. It is nice to know if you buy an XFX product then you get ‘first pickings' on the new models when they are released. Pricing has yet to be confirmed but I was told by XFX that a figure of £370 inc VAT when it hits sale in the United Kingdom will be close to the mark.
So who should buy this card? If you currently have an older card and want to move into the highest performance category then we can completely recommend the XFX Black Edition HD 5870. The design is considerably better than the reference HD 5870 and the price doesn't look to be bank breaking either as the standard XFX model is £330 in retail right now. This means you pay around £40 more for a cherry picked, overclocked card with a completely revised cooling system which omits less noise. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.
Normally I could find fault in some area, perhaps with the bundle – but once again XFX excel and they have not only a top quality DX11 game (Alien V Predator), but they have included power cables, crossfire connectors and a plethora of other deal sweeteners such as metal Black Edition case badge and custom stickers.
This is one of the most impressive HD5870's on the market right now and if you want to push it even further with manual overclocking we found a lot of headroom with our own, although as always results will vary from card to card. XFX has released an overclocked Radeon HD 5870 card that not only outperforms ATI's original reference by a significant amount, it is also much cooler and lot quieter… an intoxicating mixture for an enthusiast gamer and a serious challenge for Fermi.
KitGuru says: XFX, yet again release another “Xtremely F**king Xcellent” video card.
UPDATE: XFX have offered us 10 copies of Alien V Predator to give away soon – this competition will be announced shortly!
Please discuss this review in our forums or leave a quick comment below.
The first comment is mine. Outstanding review and the first one I’ve read till now about this great card
damn Zardon – thats a mega review. Your old site really misses you. Thanks, first of this ive seen online. Bit out of my price range but good reading!
Damn damn damn, very sexy cooler. I want
Nice to see Far Cry 2 in the mix, missed that game, might play it again. nice review guys thanks
XFX are wicked – I like them and Sapphire, although eVGA are good too. Its always good to see coolers being used by these companies who make the effort. reference coolers tend to suck ass.
Bookmarked the site, I just follow you wereever you go Z man !
It is quite expensive but when you look at the price, only £40 more than the reference one, it makes sense. some people pay more for an arctic cooling one. Great review as always Zardon, nice to see you back in action, missed your quality reviews
Shit is this site only up a week? wtf, do you not sleep? What a wicked review, been waiting for this card as I dont like saphire and have had some issues with support
Hey Zardon, nice to see you over here !!! bookmarked the site, love the layout! always know your touch !
XFX make good cards but I had one fail on me recently which was annoying. They looked after me though so cant complain I guess.
this is probably my next card, once I sell my own. Any ideas on availabilty?
XFX have always released good products and their stylish approach is always a little ‘extra’ for me, as they seem to go the extra mile. This is a nice card and I always am particularly interested in products with high quality coolers like this. Color me impressed.
It is very like the Sapphire Toxic model, as far as I can see the cooler is identical. nice job though
Who hooooooo – thanks for the review, been waiting for this for a while. very impressed with the temperatures.
I do like XFX but I tend to prefer Sapphire as they release their products earlier. I hope XFX can step up the release date, this still isnt out yet so it looses points from me.
Well you can hardly hold that again XFX Derek. Sapphire are known to be AMD’s number 1 partner. and XFX produce nvidia cards so im positive that they get punished for that too.
Well I am not saying its their fault, but there is no point having such a cool designed card if you cant buy it and Sapphire release a similar one months before it?
Yes, I know, but the point im making is that Sapphire are firmly fighting in AMDs corner, they only sell AMD cards and XFX sell both ranges. The thing is if AMD have no good ranges out at a particular time then Sapphire cant fall back on nVidia cards to sell them. XFX play both fields and therfore some penalities will always happen.
Ok, but equally so wouldnt you think that if a problem occured that Sapphire would support it better? they only make one range of card and training a team on two complete ranges would cost more and probably lead to poorer support?
Maybe, but I dont often need support for a video card. unless it dies and im well within my rights as a consumer to get it replaced ASAP. This really wont affect many people unless they need live customer support on something they dont know or are stupid.
THe more I read this the more impressed I am with performance. those temps are great too.
Are the catalyst drivers any better now than they were a year or 2 ago? it made me always want to kill myself
Ho, Nice site, like it !
mmmm, the end result seems fair, but a question. WHEN CAN I BUY THE BASTARD CARD !
For all the people prasing Sapphire, they can kiss my ass, my last card died just outside warranty and they just said “tough shit”. I can understand it i guess, but I have owned 4 sapphire cards. they can go play with emselves.
Well if its outside warranty, its outside warranty. its a little like a car part failing outside warranty, you cant expect to drive into BMW and get a new one.
Well I think the point he was making was he felt that companies should really be seen to be more helpful to customers. if something just fails outside warranty and its major I don’t see why they can’t help him someway, even with a cheap deal to cover their own costs and keep the guy sweet.
This site is biased. I WANT EVGA REVIEWS they are the best
Its only just opened a week, its hardly being biased they haven;t had the chance yet man
Opened a week? rubbish, its been here ages.
Had to post a big THANK YOU. I found this review and went to read it on my iPad thinking it wouldnt work. what a smooth experience on Apple and no bloody flash crap in the way anywhere. sent you an email, can we make paypal donations to keep this up?
@ Jeremy: You are XFX’s target audience for this product. They want to sell to existing loyal customers first. Ping [email protected] and see what they say… REMEMBER to send them a link to this review – so they know the ‘source of the goodness’ 🙂
That’s a hell of a thorough review. Pretty much covered everything I would want to know. 🙂 Glad to see attention paid to cooling.
I sure wish this thing would release for everyone else, my GTX 260 fried a few weeks ago, and I need a new card. Would love to at least have an ETA.