ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

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ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Value conscious gamers are always looking to get the most bang for their buck. With vendors now offering overclocked 5000 series variants, we take a look at the EAH5850 DirectCU TOP offering from ASUS. With an overclock out of the box and full voltage control that is backed by a 3-year warranty, this promises to be a great card!

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When it comes to performance there was no doubt that the ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 video card was faster than a reference designed ATI Radeon HD 5850. In all of our game tests we saw a slight performance increase thanks to the 40MHz GPU speed boost and 125MHz memory boost. With the new Direct CU cooler and increased performance, this card is a decent value at $339.99 plus $1.99 shipping. However, what really sells this card is how well it overclocks! This thing is an absolute monster, reaching 1000MHz GPU core and 1200MHz memory. While these are not record breaking clocks, the fact that the bundled cooler is easily able to cope with the additional heat and do so at low noise levels. When you add in that ASUS gives you a utility to up the voltage and still backs it up with a 3-year warranty, it's really easy to overlook the $20 price difference between a reference ATI Radeon HD 5850 and the ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP.
Article Title: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1273/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $339.99 at Newegg
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Bwall
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Re: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by Bwall »

This card was great! I hope you all enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed testing it. Questions and comments are welcome as always.
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Re: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by lacrossetown »

Great review =D>
im probly not going to overclock right away but i realy do think its worth that extra 40
from the other card that was 300 !!!
probly in a year or so when some new high demanding games come out all probly overclock it then....

anyways thx for the great review!!! :) :prayer:

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Re: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by geokilla »

Bwall wrote:This card was great! I hope you all enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed testing it. Questions and comments are welcome as always.
Excellent review. Definitely better than what NVIDIA's GTX 470.

Anyways I got a question bout MSI Afterburner. Why is it that Afterburner has the Vcore grayed out?
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Re: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by Bwall »

geokilla wrote:
Bwall wrote:This card was great! I hope you all enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed testing it. Questions and comments are welcome as always.
Excellent review. Definitely better than what NVIDIA's GTX 470.

Anyways I got a question bout MSI Afterburner. Why is it that Afterburner has the Vcore grayed out?
This ASUS card has a custom PCB and therefore custom power circuitry. Afterburner is not able to read the Vcore on this card.
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Re: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by Profitcare »

It is not absolutley good review. WHERE IS VRM TEMPERATURES???
I very suprised that nobody asked this question. VRM temperature the most important parameter using non referense card. Moreover this card has incriased power consumption.
I thin is was so easy to use GPU-Z to show GPU and VRM temperarures.
Dear friends if somebody already uses this card please post GPU-Z results with VRM temperatures.
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Re: ASUS Radeon HD EAH5850 DirectCU TOP Video Card Review

Post by Yamakasi »

Bwall wrote:This ASUS card has a custom PCB and therefore custom power circuitry. Afterburner is not able to read the Vcore on this card.
There is a way to change Vcore via MSI Afterburner. GPU voltage is managed by a uP6208 voltage controller. Same voltage controller MSI used in custom design MSI N275GTX Lightning series and custom design MSI N260GTX Lightning series. all you need to enable VRM detection - add the following text to your hardware profile file
(.\Profiles\ VEN_1002&DEV_6899&SUBSYS_034E1043&REV_00&BUS_1&DEV_0&FN_0.cfg):

[Settings]
uP6208_Detection = 1

for this information many thanks to Unwinder
Profitcare wrote:It is not absolutley good review. WHERE IS VRM TEMPERATURES???
I very suprised that nobody asked this question. VRM temperature the most important parameter using non referense card. Moreover this card has incriased power consumption.
I thin is was so easy to use GPU-Z to show GPU and VRM temperarures.
Dear friends if somebody already uses this card please post GPU-Z results with VRM temperatures.
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