PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 LCS: The GHz Limit, Broken

Benchmark Results: 3DMark Vantage And Crysis

As always, we begin with our only synthetic benchmark, 3DMark Vantage:

The Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire easily best the stock clocks of PowerColor's Radeon HD 5870 LCS, but when it's overclocked, the tables are turned. It looks like the higher core clock of the modified BIOS bests the higher memory clock of the PowerColor-supplied BIOS, but not by a huge amount.

Crysis shows us that, even with an extreme Radeon HD 5870 overclock, this title usually prefers two Radeon HD 4890s in CrossFire. In fact, our overclock does not offer much of an advantage over the stock speeds at all.

  • tacoslave
    AMD = EPIC WIN

    oh and you too powercolor. mmmmmmmmm waterblock...
    Reply
  • CoryInJapan
    Wow...is ATI leading again...O wait they are.
    Nice to see ATI back on top. Would be nice to have that card.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    so much potential lost for shame...

    sorry for double posting but i got cut off.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    Enjoy it while it lasts ATI.

    Unless nV screws G300 up (rebranding G200) then it may be a nice time but wont last forever.

    If only they could get a damn seperate shader clock. With 1600 SPs running at 1.7GHz they could blow nV out of the water....
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    It's dissapointing to hear the memory had to be put so low...
    Though I'd love to liquid cool my i7, then add a 5870 and liquid cool that also. I got a radiator at work that can likely handle a 10 kilowatt system, add to that it's constantly cooled by sub zero temperatures (during winter atleast), with a 5 barrel resevoir, and dual 24" fans (used to cool 3000psi hydraulics).

    Even more dissapointing to see it can't keep up with it's dual 4xxx series cousin.
    Also, GPU waterblocks just look so inneficient...
    Reply
  • micky_lund
    hmmm...
    can i has one to sell? then buy dual 5850s
    Reply
  • 7amood
    WOOOOOOOW extremely low temperatures... but not worth the 500W draw.
    I think now am interested in water cooled video cards.

    but honestly, i thought the gain will be 20% at least... disappointing.
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    You made a mistake on the test and benchmark page on the Crysis Bench config. It states you tested it at low quality. This would mean at least 100-150FPS....

    Nice work but I also wish you guys tested Crysis at Very High settings.... its always great to see Crysis tested at its maximum threshhold.
    Reply
  • shubham1401
    Being a single card 5870 performs very impressively...
    And the power usage is impressive too(Only on stock).

    This is the best card for now and with a lil price dip it'll be fav. of all high end gamers.
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    I love the draw on their oc 1 gpu is greater then 2 older gen gpus draw that's just hilariously bad results. Still with the waterblock set up maybe you can afford the 1000 dollar electric bill with you're fastest possible machine. Sorry but as far as ATI venders powercolor is low on the list of ones i trust. Poor 5870 gpu wasted on excess and ya can't waste those things, hard to come by with tsmc doing jack in the yields department.
    Reply