Comments on: Powercolor HD 5870 PCS+ Review

By: lars

lars — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:08:57 +0000

I resently bought Vertex3D 5870 (its the same company just different name in EU) and couldnt be more satisfied with the card. First thing I was worried was the heat but it seems these cards run very cool and are quiet. Performance is ofcourse the same as it has been since the launch and what PC users now lack are GAMEs that actually utilize thse amazing beasts.

By: When bobby met berty

When bobby met berty — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:48:48 +0000

I still think the HD5850 is the best value card on the market as you can overclock most of them to reach HD5870 performance levels.

By: Rockstar lover

Rockstar lover — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:48:06 +0000

Very impressed with this card. love the design and looks.

By: dbdb

dbdb — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:47:16 +0000

excellent review of a very good product.

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:45:57 +0000

These are too expensive for me, but I like this 5870 more than the others reviewed here. why? the noise levels are class leading. I hate fan noise.

By: Davey

Davey — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:45:16 +0000

The power consumption is a little high, but the efficiency seems good, thanks to the cooling system, low noise, great performance, high overclocking options. good well done I say !

By: Fraline

Fraline — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:44:34 +0000

Powercolor are really good, I feel the need to defend them. I had a few of their cards in the past, as they are normally cheaper than sapphire. never had a problem, they are still working in older machine actually !

By: hairy beast

hairy beast — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:42:52 +0000

Lovely review of a very sexy product. I cant get enough of the ATI reviews on this site.

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:42:13 +0000

I would assume going on the results that this is quieter than the sapphire toxic, but kitguru changed testing methods a while ago so hard to tell.

By: gareth cringle

gareth cringle — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:41:22 +0000

this is quite close against the sapphire toxic card. which is quieter?

By: dark knight

dark knight — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:40:47 +0000

MSI Lightning or this? hard choice. MSI lightning is faster, more expensive, but slightly louder. I hate noise and think id opt for this and just overclock it a bit more. views?

By: hank the tank

hank the tank — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:39:54 +0000

Any place selling these in canada?

By: Luke Trent

Luke Trent — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:39:17 +0000

Powercolor are a really good make, as far as I know most companies get these cards made in the same factory anyway. palit make most of them.

By: Frank Smith

Frank Smith — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:38:29 +0000

Decent pricing really considering the product. Looks good too, shame the black cooler is a bit boring looking, more heatpipe showing would look better

By: Cecil

Cecil — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:37:24 +0000

I dont know, I still wouldnt touch powercolor, they seem like a mickey mouse eastern make to me.

By: Samuel Perk

Samuel Perk — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:36:44 +0000

best graphics card reviews on the net. just enough useful info to help me work out what to buy. love the db testing and power consumption testing. sites that test power over a complete system load are wasting their time, I can’t tell what is the card or the system. much too difficult to work out.

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:35:20 +0000

nah. The only rules I know are the memory speeds have to fall into guidelines, so legally they could have put the memory at 1250mhz, to give samsungs 5000mhz rating, any higher is dodgy and I think they would be open for suing.

The core, thats different, its clearly capable of 950mhz easily, even across a range of cards, and they are doing this now with the secondary PCS++ card just released. I suppose they had to charge £10 so people who bought the PCS+ werent pissed off it was the same price.

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:33:47 +0000

Isnt there a rule book guide that ATI send out to their partners about not overclocking past specific speeds? I think this has something to do with it.

By: Francois lebon

Francois lebon — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:33:04 +0000

the overclock is too weak, for such a good product. the PCS++ is clearly out to fix that mistake. seems a bit sly to me.

By: Jeo

Jeo — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:32:30 +0000

That overclock on the manual page is insane, why the hell are they selling them with such crap overclocks?

By: Trev Mang

Trev Mang — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:31:55 +0000

Its impressive, but most of these overclocked cards are very similar in the HD58xx range. hard to get excited anymore.

By: Flo

Flo — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:30:40 +0000

havent read it all yet, but I always check out the dBA pages on kitguru as I love that testing methodology you use. On this alone the powercolor card is massively impressive.

By: dilbert

dilbert — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:29:46 +0000

@ Stefan, there is a head to head on kitguru with the HD5870 sapphire card and a GTX480. check the review index shows t he figures, which would be almost identical for this card too.

By: derek

derek — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:28:51 +0000

I like the cooler, but it looks quite large, might not fit into some small chassis.

By: fluffychicken

fluffychicken — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:25:21 +0000

Very impressive card this, price isnt too bad either considering a reference, loud, hot running GTX480 is £50 more.

By: AMD4EVER

AMD4EVER — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:24:15 +0000

Thats an awesome board, love the noise figures, think its quieter than the GTX460 which I didnt think was possible. right?

By: Tri Color

Tri Color — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:22:55 +0000

I love the HD5870 series, best high cards on the market right now. HD5970 and GTX480 dont count, they are far too loud.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:22:16 +0000

Shame there was no GTX480 tested in this review, would be good to see performance against it.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:21:44 +0000

Those noise levels are remarkable, it may not be the fastest HD5870, that goes to the MSI lightning, but its the quietest. id take this one over any other performance card, just due to that.

By: Eric K

Eric K — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:21:00 +0000

Falls in line with what I would expect performance wise. Quite disappointed on the overclock and I think what you said in the conclusion was spot on. I would think they have brought these cards out, realised how much more they can do, updated the bios. put an extra + on the box, and are charging £10 more for the ‘extra’. Id get the PCS+ and overclock it, like in this review.