Color me impressed

Xarick

Golden Member
May 17, 2006
1,199
1
76
I figure with all the fear and negativity I have posted about the purchase I was making I should give a general feeling now that it's all said and done. I ended up with a 5850 powercolor pcs+.
First thing I noted was how freaking long this card was. WOW!
I uninstalled, went safemode, driver cleaned and installed the drivers.
Not a single issue installing the drivers whatsoever. Pretty impressed there.
The second thing I noticed was the silence. I didn't think my 8800gts 320 was loud. Infact didn't realize I could even hear it, until I popped the pcs+ in. Now I really can't hear it. Wow.
The next thing I noted was temps. My 8800 idled at 50-54. I expected this to be a bit cooler but not 32-34C. incredible.
Next up I started playing games. I noted that the card never gets audible. I also noted temps never really got very high at all. Further I noted a lower temp in my case and on my proc while gaming (likely due to the stress being removed from it by the card). That really impressed me.
I did have a few issues with the drivers in games, but was able to remedy them all through patches.
I have tested the card and even OC it a bit and the card has worked without issue (minus a grey screen when I pushed the ram too far).
Very impressed with the hardware. I don't have any issues with the drivers.
One last thing is I find the color a little better. Not sure what has caused this, but it is deeper.
So over all pretty impressed with the 5850. For $270 bucks this is a fantastic upgrade. All my games run really fast at 1920x1080. I find myself cranking everything up.
Anyway... thanks for everyone's help!
 

luv2increase

Member
Nov 20, 2009
130
0
0
www.youtube.com
The 5850 is a fantastic card and offers a super price/performance ratio!

One thing about Cypress is that putting the VRAM anywhere higher than 1250mhz really doesn't add to the performance but just ends up possibly causing problems, especially with a high OC on the core.

Yup. The 5850 runs MUCH cooler than the 8800 and obviously a lot quieter as well. AMD/ATI did a phenomenal job creating a VERY efficient card with Cypress. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Northern and Souther Islands perform!

Enjoy your new card!
 
May 13, 2009
12,333
612
126
Sounds exactly like me. I started a thread on having a issue with my 5850 due to drivers. Turns out it was user error on my part. Just didn't know where to look since I've been using nvidia for years. Now I'm really happy with the purchase. Playing my games seems so much smoother than my gtx 280.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
Sounds exactly like me. I started one of the worst ati flame threads in recent history over having an issue with my 5850 due to drivers and a terrible attitude. Turns out it was user error on my part. Just didn't know where to look since I've been using nvidia for years. Now I'm really happy with the purchase. Playing my games seems so much smoother than my gtx 280.

Eh-hem