XFX have undertaken a new cooler design with their Black Edition and it would be remiss of us not to thoroughly analyse the benefits the consumer will experience if they opted for the more expensive, faster model. After all none of us want a slightly faster gaming experience with more heat and noise – If you have missed our look at the Black Edition cooling system then please backtrack to page 4 of this review. We measure noise from around 12 inches from the chassis.
XFX claims of a significantly improved cooler certainly have merit and we can see the benefits reaped by the enhanced model they have implemented on the Black Edition HD5870 card. Under full load it is noticeable and we are impressed with the end result.
The cooler is also showing significant improvements when compared to the reference design, we measured temperatures 10c cooler than the ATI reference design. After taking the card apart we had a good idea this would be the case, but it is nice to see it affirmed throughout stress testing.
For some people XFX’s settings will not be enough so we manually pushed the card as far as possible and settled on results of 985 core and 1340 memory – which is a sizable increase. Overclocking to this level added 5c to the load temperatures and another 3db as the cooler compensated – which is STILL less than the reference design at the reference clocks. Extremely impressive set of results all round for the Black Edition card.
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May 13, 2010
#1
The first comment is mine. Outstanding review and the first one I’ve read till now about this great card
May 13, 2010
#2
damn Zardon – thats a mega review. Your old site really misses you. Thanks, first of this ive seen online. Bit out of my price range but good reading!
May 13, 2010
#3
Damn damn damn, very sexy cooler. I want
May 13, 2010
#4
Nice to see Far Cry 2 in the mix, missed that game, might play it again. nice review guys thanks
May 13, 2010
#5
XFX are wicked – I like them and Sapphire, although eVGA are good too. Its always good to see coolers being used by these companies who make the effort. reference coolers tend to suck ass.
May 13, 2010
#6
Bookmarked the site, I just follow you wereever you go Z man !
May 13, 2010
#7
It is quite expensive but when you look at the price, only £40 more than the reference one, it makes sense. some people pay more for an arctic cooling one. Great review as always Zardon, nice to see you back in action, missed your quality reviews
May 13, 2010
#8
Shit is this site only up a week? wtf, do you not sleep? What a wicked review, been waiting for this card as I dont like saphire and have had some issues with support
May 13, 2010
#9
Hey Zardon, nice to see you over here !!! bookmarked the site, love the layout! always know your touch !
May 13, 2010
#10
XFX make good cards but I had one fail on me recently which was annoying. They looked after me though so cant complain I guess.
this is probably my next card, once I sell my own. Any ideas on availabilty?
May 13, 2010
#11
XFX have always released good products and their stylish approach is always a little ‘extra’ for me, as they seem to go the extra mile. This is a nice card and I always am particularly interested in products with high quality coolers like this. Color me impressed.
May 13, 2010
#12
It is very like the Sapphire Toxic model, as far as I can see the cooler is identical. nice job though
May 13, 2010
#13
Who hooooooo – thanks for the review, been waiting for this for a while. very impressed with the temperatures.
May 13, 2010
#14
I do like XFX but I tend to prefer Sapphire as they release their products earlier. I hope XFX can step up the release date, this still isnt out yet so it looses points from me.
May 13, 2010
#15
Well you can hardly hold that again XFX Derek. Sapphire are known to be AMD’s number 1 partner. and XFX produce nvidia cards so im positive that they get punished for that too.
May 13, 2010
#16
Well I am not saying its their fault, but there is no point having such a cool designed card if you cant buy it and Sapphire release a similar one months before it?
May 13, 2010
#17
Yes, I know, but the point im making is that Sapphire are firmly fighting in AMDs corner, they only sell AMD cards and XFX sell both ranges. The thing is if AMD have no good ranges out at a particular time then Sapphire cant fall back on nVidia cards to sell them. XFX play both fields and therfore some penalities will always happen.
May 13, 2010
#18
Ok, but equally so wouldnt you think that if a problem occured that Sapphire would support it better? they only make one range of card and training a team on two complete ranges would cost more and probably lead to poorer support?
May 13, 2010
#19
Maybe, but I dont often need support for a video card. unless it dies and im well within my rights as a consumer to get it replaced ASAP. This really wont affect many people unless they need live customer support on something they dont know or are stupid.
May 13, 2010
#20
THe more I read this the more impressed I am with performance. those temps are great too.
May 13, 2010
#21
Are the catalyst drivers any better now than they were a year or 2 ago? it made me always want to kill myself
May 13, 2010
#22
Ho, Nice site, like it !
May 13, 2010
#23
mmmm, the end result seems fair, but a question. WHEN CAN I BUY THE BASTARD CARD !
May 13, 2010
#24
For all the people prasing Sapphire, they can kiss my ass, my last card died just outside warranty and they just said “tough shit”. I can understand it i guess, but I have owned 4 sapphire cards. they can go play with emselves.
May 13, 2010
#25
Well if its outside warranty, its outside warranty. its a little like a car part failing outside warranty, you cant expect to drive into BMW and get a new one.
May 13, 2010
#26
Well I think the point he was making was he felt that companies should really be seen to be more helpful to customers. if something just fails outside warranty and its major I don’t see why they can’t help him someway, even with a cheap deal to cover their own costs and keep the guy sweet.
May 13, 2010
#27
This site is biased. I WANT EVGA REVIEWS they are the best
May 13, 2010
#28
Its only just opened a week, its hardly being biased they haven;t had the chance yet man
May 13, 2010
#29
Opened a week? rubbish, its been here ages.
May 13, 2010
#30
Had to post a big THANK YOU. I found this review and went to read it on my iPad thinking it wouldnt work. what a smooth experience on Apple and no bloody flash crap in the way anywhere. sent you an email, can we make paypal donations to keep this up?
May 13, 2010
#31
[...] CardsXFX Radeon HD 5870 Black Edition @ KitGuruSparkle GTS 250 Green Power Low Profile @ [...]
May 13, 2010
#32
@ Jeremy: You are XFX’s target audience for this product. They want to sell to existing loyal customers first. Ping cont...@xfxforce.co.uk and see what they say… REMEMBER to send them a link to this review – so they know the ‘source of the goodness’
May 14, 2010
#33
[...] XFX HD5870 Black Edition Review @ Kitguru.net [...]
May 14, 2010
#34
[...] XFX HD5870 Black Edition Review @ Kitguru.net [...]
May 15, 2010
#35
[...] Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews HIS Radeon HD 5570 1GB Graphics Card Video Review @ eTeknix.com XFX HD5870 Black Edition Review @ Kitguru.net Asus GTX 480 1.5GB vs Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 5870 2GB @ [...]
May 16, 2010
#36
That’s a hell of a thorough review. Pretty much covered everything I would want to know.
Glad to see attention paid to cooling.
May 18, 2010
#37
[...] acclaimed Alien V Predator DX11 game with some of their video cards such as the excellent HD5870 Black Edition which we reviewed a short while [...]
May 26, 2010
#38
[...] XFX HD5870 Black Edition Review [...]
June 11, 2010
#39
I sure wish this thing would release for everyone else, my GTX 260 fried a few weeks ago, and I need a new card. Would love to at least have an ETA.
June 15, 2010
#40
[...] The ATI HD5870 video card redefined high end gaming when it was released many months ago, taking the performance crown as the fastest single core solution on the market. Even though nVidia have knocked it off the number one perch with the GTX480, many enthusiasts still prefer the HD5870 thanks to the lower power drain and cooler temperatures. This has left the market wide open for a variety of enhanced cards from many manufacturers and we recently looked at several, such as the XFX HD5870 Black Edition. [...]