Radeon HD5850

[Furryappleseed]

So I finally got my HD 5850 in the mail today I didn't exactly need a vid card atm, but actually have some expendable income and didn't foresee this situation happening again until next April sooo I went for it. Had some problems with my tool-less system almost stopping me from getting it secured in the case. And then there was the 30 minutes I spent completely rewiring my system to get 2 open molex connectors, because I mistakenly thought I had 2 6-pin connectors .

I wanted to take pics but I can't find the cradle for my camera that it needs to charge so...sorry. It is the Gigabyte version, and it comes with a voucher for a free Dirt2 game. Nice surprise since it fails to mention or show the sticker on the box, while others specifically mention it and show it on the box.

Here are some reviews on it: HardOCP and Tom's Hardware. The Tom's Review is on the 5770/5750 but the 5850 is included in the tests, plus you can see more cards to compare it to.


Atm, the only game that I have noticed huge improvements is in Operation Flashpoint 2. Seems like a different game. My other games (l4d, cod4, tf2) are not that demanding and my 8800gt was able to play those on high. None of my really demanding games like Crysis or Far Cry 2 are installed so haven't really pushed it yet.

All in all it seems like a monster card. I still want to do some testing to see how my system does since most people don't have an i7@3.6 like the testers. Hopefully I can get around to that tomorrow and see if my e8400@3.6 is a bottleneck.

[{CLR} Cobalt]

Good deal man, did that Gigabyte brand come with the HUD that comes up when you load up. I got the Gigabyte 9800 GTX while I was in Thailand and it had all that come with if for the overclock.

Have an E8400 also, just runnin at 3.3 just went up 10% with that. It ran cool though. I had to customize the airflow a bit cause the way it was set up wasnt conducive to the right flow direction.

Keep us posted on the results your getting. I'm tempted to go with ATI on my build when I get home. So this card interests me a lot.

[bobytt]

5850 is a great card for its price!

[Furryappleseed]

This card has handled all that I have thrown at it. Since I can't find my crysis disk, all I have is Far Cry 2 to push it. I used the benchmark tool and compared my results to the review sites. None of them actually say which benchmark they use so I went with the default and used the same settings. Turns out my cpu, with what I hope to be the same benchmark, came out about 10 fps lower than the i7 they used . Makes me feel better about my cpu bottlenecking the system, was really worried about it.

Far Cry 2 seems like a different game. I played for some hours and didn't get that "wtf is all this traveling this game makes me do" feeling I had before. The trusty old 8800gt was just not doing it in this game .

One problem though. The Catalyst Control Center(CCC) has frozen up on me 3 times. Also it seems a bit disorganized compared to the nvidia control panel. Not a big deal but is noticeable. I have not been able to find where I can assign settings for individual games. Am I missing something or does ATI just not do this?

Either way, Great Card and I have no regrets about my first ATI purchase.

[bobytt]

ATI just released new drivers for 5800's cards

[Furryappleseed]

ATI just released new drivers for 5800's cards

I have the 9.10 drivers, there are 9.11?

[bobytt]

Well they are from today but may be a little bit different release. I think the drivers that they shipped with the card was some beta , and this is final...

[Furryappleseed]

Funny because I noticed yesterday that the date on the drivers was for today. It was only 10:00 .

And I rarely if ever use drivers from included disk. I had already downloaded the 9.9 drivers days before I got the card.

[bobytt]

Well its look you had a time machine , by the way , i am waiting for the dual 5800 to change my VGA , its says that is coming late Nov.

[Donziboy2]

Im gona wait and see what nvidia does. If i go with ATI i cant crossfire it on my nforce board.
Nice card btw, hope you enjoy it.

[juneau]

Thanks for posting this Donzi. If you can please runa few more benchmarks.

[Donziboy2]

<pokes juneau in the eye>
My 8800 gts's run just fine thank you.

The biggest thing keeping me from my "buy new stuff itch" is the fact im outa work atm.

[juneau]

<pokes juneau in the eye>
My 8800 gts's run just fine thank you.

The biggest thing keeping me from my "buy new stuff itch" is the fact im outa work atm.

Ooops.

Haven't done that it a while.