XFX 5850 OC Benchie

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nakedpeanut

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I had a little inspiration and decided to do a little bench mark session using Heaven Benchmark v2.1 on my XFX 5850 Black Edition.

The reference card is clocked at
Core: 725MHz
Memory: 1000MHz
Voltage: dunno? try google

The XFX BE Standard
Core: 765MHz
Memory: 1125MHz
Voltage: 1.087v

I initially had a few problems trying to get it to over clock.. But lets just say i had my sights set very high :whistle: haha.
So built up the clock speed and memory, from the standard 765/1125 to 890/1250 @1.16v stable in both furmark and within games. Could not get the Clock speed over 900MHz as my games would just crash although furmark seemed stable...

Did a bit of research and as i found, you usually have a trade off between Core and Memory speed. You get to a point where you cant continue to push both, you have to hold one back while pushing the other. So I decided to throttle back the memory just a little to 1150MHz and then got the core to 960MHz @1.16v. With my sights still set on 1GHz :D (told you they were high) i decided to give it another go. This time i pulled back to memory to 1125MHz and got the core to 1000MHz @1.21v.

And so the benchmarking began, just to see what performance increase you do get with a decent OC.

My system (as is in my sig)
CPU: i5 750 @ 4GHz
Mobo: Asus P7P55D
G Card: XFX 5850 BE
RAM: 2 x 2 GB DDR3 1333 Kingston @ 8-8-8-22
Operating system: Windows 7 (build 7600) 64bit

Heaven Settings:
Render: direct3d11
Mode: 1920x1200 fullscreen
Shaders: high
Textures: high
Filter: trilinear
Anisotropy: 4x
Occlusion: enabled
Refraction: enabled
Volumetric: enabled
Replication: disabled
Tessellation: normal

Nice image with Tessellation on image (fairly big at 2.4MB)

So i decided to do 3 runs at each of the OCs and take the average to compare to the reference.
Ref: 725/1000 @ 1.087v (never lower the voltage, saw no need to)
OC 1: 765/1125 @ 1.087v
OC 2: 960/1150 @ 1.161v
OC 3: 1000/1125 @1.21v

Measurements were:
Min frame rate
Max frame rate
Avg frame rate
Score
Temperature and fan speed was set using MSI afterburner as so image

Results:
Ref:
Min: 12
Max: 73.7
Avg: 28.7
Score: 721.6
51 C @ 37% Fan Speed

OC1:
Min: 13.1
Max: 75.7
Avg: 30
Score: 756
52 C @ 40% Fan Speed
Average of 5.2% improvement over reference. (8.9% improvement in Min)

OC2:
Min: 16.1
Max: 90.7
Avg: 35
Score: 883.3
55 C @ 51% Fan Speed
Average of 25.5% improvement over reference. (34% improvement in Min)

OC3:
Min: 17.1
Max: 91.47
Avg: 35.4
Score: 892.7
57 C at 57 % Fan Speed
Average of 28.4% improvement over reference. (42% improvement in Min)

Then used the above to calculate the improvement per measurement, then averaged that. So we are able to see a very nice improvement of 19% between OC1 and OC2 which is about a 25% increase in Clock speed, and a 22% improvement between OC1 and OC3 which is a 31% increase in clock speed.

Looking at the price difference between it (R3400) and a reference card(R3000) was R400 which is an increase of 13%, you get a performance increase of 5% (non OC). It remains to be seen how well a reference OC's.

So I definitely think it is worth it if OC'ing. It's a very good improvement especially when you consider the rise in min frame rates which have more of an effect on games than the max frame rates.
So anyone want to lend me a 5870 or 5970 so i can compare :D?
 
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My setup is i7 860 cpu/2 sapphire 5870's/8g 1600 ram/asus maximus 3 extreme mobo.
replied to pm.
 
Then used the above to calculate the improvement per measurement, then averaged that. So we are able to see a very nice improvement of 19% between OC1 and OC2 which is about a 25% increase in Clock speed, and a 22% improvement between OC1 and OC3 which is a 31% increase in clock speed.
Looking at the price difference between it (R3400) and a reference card(R3000) was R400 which is only an increase of 13%.
Click to expand...

You should compare improvements over the two settings below and see whether the price difference is worth it as the reference card can also being overclocked. I doubt you'd find the improvement to be over 13%.

The reference card is clocked at
Core: 725MHz
Memory: 1000MHz
Voltage: dunno? try google

The XFX BE Standard
Core: 765MHz
Memory: 1125MHz
Voltage: 1.087v
 
True I'd have to down clock then lol :) Will add that soon. Although my card has the voltage tweak with a slightly different designed cooling system. Although most cards can adjust voltage not all can. esp the MSI's. They bomb out over 1.14v.
We'd have to ask archer what he can get his card to. Cause i know he also doing a little OC on his (think his is reference?). Or any other guys with a reference card please post your max OC settings.
 
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Lol, was too too busy setting up my HTPC, completely forgot to OC my GPU :D will try remember tonight
 
Awe.. haha k let us know..

And updated the original post to include reference performance.
 
Hey nakedpeanut - sorry to derail a little, but I have pretty much exact same system as yours and my benchmark score on 3DMark Vantage is up to maggots, have you run 3D mark vantage? What kinda score you get?
 
no i havent, for some reason it wouldnt install.. Will give it another try soon
 
500W should be ample. Peak draw on your system comes to around 400W. Only thing to take into account is the age of your PSU. Capacitors age and so lose capacity which lowers your max poewr output. So if its older than 3 years and you've been running it 24/7 then you may be having issues
 
Can you remember what your voltages where at those speeds? and what kinda temps were you getting? And using what cooling?
:) haha lotsa Q's i know :)

I'm using just standard cooling of the card, and just scared that my VRM's frizzle. They get pretty hot in furmark (although i know it overly stresses the card)
 
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nakedpeanut said:
Can you remember what your voltages where at those speeds? and what kinda temps were you getting? And using what cooling?
:) haha lotsa Q's i know :)

I'm using just standard cooling of the card, and just scared that my VRM's frizzle. They get pretty hot in furmark (although i know it overly stresses the card)
Click to expand...

Yeah, 1.275 was the highest I went and the card didn't go over 65. I ran the fan at full tilt for benching. Stock 5850 cooling but my processor was cooled with a Zalman ZMPS9900 which I have now upgraded to a Thermalright VenomousX with 2x90CFM Coolermaster fans.
 
Ok, did some quick testing, seems like Afterburner wont let me go higher than 775/1100. Since I got a stock model I cant play with voltages. Running the furmark stability test for 2 minutes gives me:
Stock: min 22, avg 27, max 42, total 3248
OC: min 24, avg 30, max 44, total 3523
And seeing how its all cold and icy in CT temps were the same at around 65, fan speed at 29%
Not the best test, but it shows 8.5% increase in fps.
Lemme know if you want more info. Dont have 3D mark, thats why I didnt run those tests
 
Archer said:
Ok, did some quick testing, seems like Afterburner wont let me go higher than 775/1100. Since I got a stock model I cant play with voltages. Running the furmark stability test for 2 minutes gives me:
Stock: min 22, avg 27, max 42, total 3248
OC: min 24, avg 30, max 44, total 3523
And seeing how its all cold and icy in CT temps were the same at around 65, fan speed at 29%
Not the best test, but it shows 8.5% increase in fps.
Lemme know if you want more info. Dont have 3D mark, thats why I didnt run those tests
Click to expand...

Flas the card with the Asus voltage tweak bios. That will work.

Do you have the black edition? You need to set a parameter in the afterburner.cfg file

EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1
 
Nope its not a BE, and not too keen on flashing the GPU bios. Did try changing the setting in the cfg file, and managed to get up to 825/1100. Not too bad for a reference card with no voltage adjustments.
 
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