ATI Radeon HD 5830 Graphics Card from Sapphire Examined

[ccokeman]

Not asking you to shut your trap just pointing out the obvious! LOL If power consumption is a big deal for someone they may as well use an IGP! The pay off in power consumption from people who leave their computer on for 4 to 5 hours a day may be many moons away well past the useful life of the card!

[IVIYTH0S]

Not asking you to shut your trap just pointing out the obvious! LOL If power consumption is a big deal for someone they may as well use an IGP! The pay off in power consumption from people who leave their computer on for 4 to 5 hours a day may be many moons away well past the useful life of the card!

yeah but I mean I can't really talk about power consumption (though it still concerns me) when i run a 4870x2 that folds 24/7 (if not gaming on it)

[ccokeman]

NO .....No you cant !

[IVIYTH0S]

NO .....No you cant !

I've been trying to offset it with buying dimmable CFLs and replacing EVERY incandescent in our house with a CFL (no matter what size)

just changing the outside lights saved us 195 watts, so I'd say I'm well compensated. (240watt down to 45watts)

then in our kitchen I changed out the 5 60w candelabra's with 5W dimmable CFL candelabra's so there goes a savings of 275 watts....I could go on

 

I oughta run my computer and monitor through my kill-a-watt and see how much it cranks now. I ran it once back when I had my 260 but I forget what it pulled.

[Zertz]

I've been trying to offset it with buying dimmable CFLs and replacing EVERY incandescent in our house with a CFL (no matter what size)

just changing the outside lights saved us 195 watts, so I'd say I'm well compensated. (240watt down to 45watts)

then in our kitchen I changed out the 5 60w candelabra's with 5W dimmable CFL candelabra's so there goes a savings of 275 watts....I could go on

I'm heading off topic here, but you don't save any money with CFL's and they actually pollute more

[premiumgfx]

Great review! ATI seems to be releasing a new card every week. ^_^ I think it's good to have a large product range, so they can cater to different uses and budget. As for the green team, well let's not go there.

 

Did you end up using the Modern Warfare 2 key by any chance?

[IVIYTH0S]

I'm heading off topic here, but you don't save any money with CFL's and they actually pollute more

 

http://www.cawrecycles.org/issues/lighting...n_reduction/why

Another source of mercury emissions in the environment is the illegal disposal of mercury containing fluorescent lamps. Mercury levels vary significantly by lamp manufacturer, and range from a low of 2.2 mgs to as much as 15 mgs in 12 foot tubes. But the amount in CFLs is gradually decreasing as manufacturers work on lowering levels of mercury in their products.

 

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

lolwut? If you're talking about the mercury, the newer bulbs are ultra low numbah one. Numbah 2, I know how to recycle them properly

[UnBiasedGuru]

Why on earth would the author use ATI Catalyst drivers back from September --> 8.66 RC6 drivers? ATI has the drivers made specifically for the 5830 available (8.703) which are about 5 months newer than the ones they used in this review. The other sites reviewing the 5830 all used either the 9.12 5830 (8.703) or 9.13b Preview driver!

 

I am having a hard time understanding why the authors would deliberately sabotage the benchmarks? Are they that uninformed and ignorant that they are oblivious to understanding just how exactly much more performance each driver release since the 8.66 was released has give the 5xxx series cards? For instance, the 9.13 drivers gives on average 25% - 50% better performance for all 5xxx series cards than the 9.10 RC6 driver they used from September of 2009 for this review.

 

IT IS ALMOST MARCH OF 2010 PEOPLE! WAKE UP!

[ccokeman]

Take a look at the GPUz screen on the overclocking page for the driver used. It is the driver supplied with the card and I did not have access to any "special" ATI drivers! If you are talking about the CCC page then yes that is an older driver set and is meant to be a representation of what you can find in the CCC nothing more nothing less.

[The Smith]

Why on earth would the author use ATI Catalyst drivers back from September --> 8.66 RC6 drivers? ATI has the drivers made specifically for the 5830 available (8.703) which are about 5 months newer than the ones they used in this review. The other sites reviewing the 5830 all used either the 9.12 5830 (8.703) or 9.13b Preview driver!

 

I am having a hard time understanding why the authors would deliberately sabotage the benchmarks? Are they that uninformed and ignorant that they are oblivious to understanding just how exactly much more performance each driver release since the 8.66 was released has give the 5xxx series cards? For instance, the 9.13 drivers gives on average 25% - 50% better performance for all 5xxx series cards than the 9.10 RC6 driver they used from September of 2009 for this review.

 

IT IS ALMOST MARCH OF 2010 PEOPLE! WAKE UP!

FYI there are no Catalyst 9.13 drivers. The first number is for the year and second number is for the month. WAKE UP! This means after Dec. 2009 release is the 10.1 release.

[_TheAlexO]

only thing im confused about is why the card was tested using Call of Duty World at War instead of Modern Warfare 2 since it was bundled with it? or am i missing something?

Edited February 28, 2010 by ShallowBay

[Zertz]

only thing im confused about is why the card was tested using Call of Duty World at War instead of Modern Warfare 2 since it was bundled with it? or am i missing something?

Because all the other cards were tested with WaW and MW2 is not part of our benchmark suite, at least not yet!