ASUS Radeon HD 5850 1GB DirectCu TOP Review

[SKYMTL]

Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine’s Heaven benchmark is currently the de-facto standard when it comes to simple, straightforward DX11 performance estimates. While it is considered a synthetic benchmark by many, it is important to remember that no less than four games based on this engine will be released within the next year or so. In this test we will be using a standard benchmark run with and without tessellation enabled at three resolutions,


1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

 

[SKYMTL]

8x MSAA Testing (BF: BC2 / DiRT 2)

8x MSAA Testing (BF: BC2 / DiRT 2)

In this section we take a number of games we have tested previously in this review and bring things to the next level by pushing the in-game MSAA up to 8x. All other methodologies remain the same.

BattleField: Bad Company 2 (DX11)

Note that 8x MSAA is enabled via the game’s config file for the NVIDIA cards since it is not a selectable option within the game menu

DIRT 2 (DX11)

 

[SKYMTL]

8x MSAA Testing (Far Cry 2 / Just Cause 2)

8x MSAA Testing (Far Cry 2 / Just Cause 2)

In this section we take a number of games we have tested previously in this review and bring things to the next level by pushing the in-game MSAA up to 8x. All other methodologies remain the same.

Far Cry 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 (DX10)

 

[SKYMTL]

Core Temperature & Acoustics / Power Consumption

Core Temperature & Acoustics

For all temperature testing, the cards were placed on an open test bench with a single 120mm 1200RPM fan placed ~8” away from the heatsink. The ambient temperature was kept at a constant 22°C (+/- 0.5°C). If the ambient temperatures rose above 23°C at any time throughout the test, all benchmarking was stopped. For this test we use the 3DMark Batch Size test at it highest triangle count with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled and looped it for one hour to determine the peak load temperature as measured by GPU-Z.

For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Vista desktop for 15 minutes and recorded the peak temperature.

ASUS seems to have really hit the nail on the head with the DirectCU heatsink design since not only does it keep the core extremely cool but it is also whisper quiet. Throughout testing, its fan never increased its noise above the other 120mm units we use in our test system.

System Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 30 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption. We have also included several other tests as well.

Please note that after extensive testing, we have found that simply plugging in a power meter to a wall outlet or UPS will NOT give you accurate power consumption numbers due to slight changes in the input voltage. Thus we use a Tripp-Lite 1800W line conditioner between the 120V outlet and the power meter.

When you overclock a graphics card, power consumption is usually increased and the TOP follows this trend. However, the increase in power needs is more than acceptable in our books.

 

[SKYMTL]

Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

ASUS includes their SmartDoctor software with this card and while it isn’t exactly our favorite GPU tuning software, it makes the HD 5850 TOP absolutely fly. This is because it is able to increase the core voltage up to 1.35V and let us tell you, the increase in core speeds is astounding.


Final Clock Speeds

Graphics Clock (1.35V): 977Mhz
Memory Clock: 5084Mhz (QDR)

 

[SKYMTL]

Conclusion

Conclusion

It is great to see ATI’s board partners still releasing products which breathe new life into the HD 5800-series. By now, the HD 5850 really should be showing its age and yet here it is in overclocked form breathing down the neck of the GTX 470 which was introduced only a few months ago.

We have an impressive amount of praise for ASUS’ efforts with the HD 5850 TOP DirectCu and it all revolves around the significant improvements they have made to what will likely be remembered as one of the price / performance leaders of its generation. The clock speeds –particularly the memory- of this card have been pushed to levels that really do make a difference at some resolutions and IQ settings while the heatsink design can only be described as awe-inspiring. However, just remember that overclocked memory will only benefit performance in some games while the low core overclock proves to be a hindrance in others.

One question which has likely been foremost in your mind is whether or not this card is really worth as much as a GTX 470. The answer to this is a bit ambiguous since every potential buyer will likely have their own set of wants and needs when it comes to choosing a graphics card. For those who want good all-round performance and near-silent operation don’t need to look any further than the ASUS HD 5850 TOP DirectCu but there is still no denying the fact that it gets manhandled by the GTX 470 quite often. The jump to a GTX 470 however also comes with higher power consumption and an astronomical increase in heat production.

When we reviewed the HD 5770 Super Overclock from Gigabyte, we came down on its lack of clock speed increases like a ton of bricks. ASUS on the other hand has shown us the way things should be done when it comes to pre-overclocked, custom cooled graphics cards. The TOP DirectCu showed us meaningful real-world performance increases and its heatsink did exactly what was promised: it provided excellent temperatures at low decibel levels.

Overall performance isn’t everything and through its use of higher clock speeds, excellent temperatures and higher efficiency we believe the ASUS HD 5850 TOP is more appealing than most of the GTX 470 cards currently available. As such, it rightfully receives our Dam Good Award.


Pros:

- Great performance
- Extremely quiet
- High performance heatsink
- Voltage adjustments allow for incredible overclocks
- Efficient compared to the competition


Cons:

- Beaten by the GTX 460 1GB in some games

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...0-1gb-directcu-top-review-comment-thread.html​