INTRO

Having been a loyal customer of Evga/Nvidia for such a long time I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit of apprehension at the idea of purchasing an ATI card from a manufacturer that I didn’t have any personal experience with. The reviews for the 5870 and the $400 price point were too compelling to pass up, even amidst the 1st hand reports of ATI driver issues and customer dissatisfaction. Those that can get these cards stable will enjoy a vivid gaming experience, but after hanging out in the ATI forums this weekend it is apparent that there are a great many that cannot get the ATI 5800 series cards to perform reliably.

The specs on most video cards of the same model and generation are basically the same, the only real difference is the sticker the manufacturer affixes to the cooler. I chose the XFX over Asus, Sapphire, Diamond, and HIS because of their warranty. Double-Lifetime, meaning if I sell the card, the second owner also gets the warranty.

Enough with the small talk, lets look at the numbers.

PERFORMANCE

This 5870 was purchased to replace my aging, but still viable, Evga 8800GTX. The sole purpose of this new card, at least for the foreseeable future, will be to play Battlefield Bad Company 2 @ 1680×1050 with all settings on high. For now, I only have the beta to test with so these numbers were all taken using BF:BC2, Catalyst 10.1 drivers, FRAPS, and TechPowerUp’s GPU-Z.

The temp differences really surprised me, I thought the 8800GTX would have showed a closer temp, especially with having the after market cooler, but such was not the case. The 5870 (43°c/63°c) came in much cooler than my Evga (58°c/80°c).

The FPS difference was fairly significant. This is not an apples to apples comparison. The 8800gtx (48.3fps) was benched using 1680×1050 with everything at medium while the HD5870 (60.9fps) was benched at 1680×1050 with everything on high.

DRIVER ISSUES

The 5800 series cards definitely take some patience. I had to roll back drivers from 10.2 t0 10.1 and install a driver hotfix for my graphics issues to subside. Cleaning out drivers can be a real pain sometimes so I used Driver Cleaner.net to make sure I got everything erased before installing a fresh set of drivers. Even while running “stable” one can definitely see that ATI drivers are not up to par with Nvidia’s. One example of this is screen blackouts while the Catalyst control panel loads into memory.

CONCLUSION

Given the driver issues the thought did cross my mind to RMA this card for an Nvidia chip, but I think the further BC2 comes along so will the drivers for this card. I am going to reserve final judgment on this card until I’ve spent more time breaking it in. I will however be sad to see my 8800GTX go, the longevity of the 8800GTX was remarkable. On the bright side I was able to find it a loving new home up in Ohio at sk.Advanced’s house.