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Product ReviewsPowercolor Radeon HD 5970 725MHZ 2GB 4GHZ GDRR5 2XDVI Display Port PCI-E Video Card
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With 2 User Reviews
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 Rating: Review Date: 07/23/10  |
Cons:
heat, size, noise when the fan spins at 45%+
Pros: very powerful, good overclocking potential |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/03/10 |
Cons: Price. While not really a weakness, you do have to pay the toll to get this level of performance right now.Power consumption. Idle power is great, only about 45w, but when you get into heavy 3d activity it jumps to pretty much 300W. And if you overclock it to 5870 speeds that number can jump to close to 400W. You absolutely NEED a quality high wattage power supply for this. It seems to run flawlessly on my Corsair TX750.Size. This card will *NOT* fit in most mid-sized cases that are a year or so older. 12"/30cm is the clearance you need. It just BARELY fits in my Antec 1200. Tight squeeze, and this is a full sized tower.
Pros: Obviously, it's extremely fast.Surprisingly, it is also very quiet. Completely inaudible at idle, and a faint whisper under load(Vantage, BC2) and great temperatures to go with it. Idle in my Antec Twelve Hundred it sits at a cool 45c, under load it tops out at 77c, which frankly is quite impressive for a dual-GPU model.Another strength of this card is performance-life. Dual GPU cards tend to last a lot longer in someone's system(performance-wise) than single GPU cards because of the level of performance they offer. Even today for example the old 9800GX2 is still considered "decent" because it's about as fast as a GTX280. So this card will probably still be "quite fast" in 2012 or so compared to the current single GPU cards of the time.Overclockability. This card has MAJOR OCing potential. You can hit 5870 speeds pretty easily, and go even further than that if you are brave enough. ATi seems to have foreseen this in advance and designed an excellent cooler because even under increased temperatures it handles it like a champ with temperatures only topping out at 80c load and 50c idle when overclocked to 850/1250. Comment:
Great card, amazing performance, quiet, awesome overclockability, but for all this you must be willing to fork over a tidy sum of cash. I can tell you that you definitely get what you pay for though. You also get Powercolor's great customer service, 2 year warranty, and Dirt 2 pack-in.I've seen a lot of people complaining that ATi's drivers are crappy, etc. I've been using nVidia for the past 4 years(8800 GTS, 8800 Ultra, GTX 260) and now that I'm back to ATi, I can tell you there is no difference. Red team drivers work just as good as green team's, so don't let that turn you away from getting the (currently) fastest card on the planet.If you've got the cash, spend it here without worry. This review was modfied by poster q 03-03-10 07:10 AM This review was modfied by poster c 03-03-10 07:34 AM This review was modfied by poster @ 03-03-10 07:30 AM |
Overall, it is a very good card. If you are looking for performance, you will not be disappointed. Although the length is kind of ridiculous, my antec 183 holds out just fine. I just have to sacrifice the middle hard drive tray to satisfy its need for space. I tried to overclock it but I gave up because it's no point to overclock this card since it is already able to perform greatly in any max settings. I got at least 15% increase and I bet it can go even further. If you got some cash to spend or just won a lottery, this card will not cease to amaze you.