My ATI Radeon 5850 review (Gigabyte 5850OC) (custom dual fan model)

[SilverSilence]

Has anyone heard of anyone flashing the card with the non reference Asus HD5850 Bios (the one I have), then using Asus Smartdoctor to raise the voltages, set fan speeds etc, my card, even though it's not an overclocked edition has a CCC uper limit of 1200mhz on the GPU as stock and Smartdoctor allows voltage adjustment upto 1.35v. Obviously some research would need doing on the memory chips and voltage regulator.

I've tried, still doesn't work.

Let's clear something up here;

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These cards do not and will not ever have voltage control, they lack the Volterra chip which is needed to adjust voltages.
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[Tatty_Two]

I've tried, still doesn't work.

Let's clear something up here;

=====================================================================
These cards do not and will not ever have voltage control, they lack the Volterra chip which is needed to adjust voltages.
=====================================================================

My card is non reference, it does not have the Volterra chip, it does have voltage control

 

[SilverSilence]

My card is non reference, it does not have the Volterra chip, it does have voltage control

But that card specifies having voltage control, this one does not. Also, have you checked the PCB for a Volterra chip? If it doesn't have it it's bound to have some form of voltage altering chip, which the Ultra Durable cards do not have.

 

[anonemus]

@Silver -- saying never is kinda iffy in the PC world...

 

[SilverSilence]

@Silver -- saying never is kinda iffy in the PC world...

I can 100% comfortably say that this GPU will never have voltage control. the 5870 version doesn't (as shown in reviews) and I've tested multiple methods (ATT, altering BIOS, flashing to ASUS/SAPPHIRE BIOS) and none of them allow voltage control.

 

[kakarott007]

Hi. I have a Sapphire 5850 1GB reference card. I managed to get it stable at 1000 mhz core/1245 mhz memory with 1.25V. But after the 1000 mhz barrier, nothing, absolutely nothing is really stable. For example , 1005 mhz core at 1.3v or 1.35V it's not stable ). How's that possible? And another detail. Raising the voltage above 1.25V will not raise the temperatures, at least not enough to notice. The card may be limited at 1.25 volts? what do you think? I'm using Afterburner 1.5.1 and every change I make with it seems to apply. I raise the voltage and the change appears in GPU-Z. Also flashed the bios at 1.35 and 1.4V thinking it was afterburner's fault. But still not stable above 1000mhz. And no higher temperatures from 1.25V to 1.4V. So what's wrong?

 

[Tatty_Two]

But that card specifies having voltage control, this one does not. Also, have you checked the PCB for a Volterra chip? If it doesn't have it it's bound to have some form of voltage altering chip, which the Ultra Durable cards do not have.

No it does not have the Volterra, but you are right, it's obviously an Asus thing, my point being, some at least (if they choose) can get voltage adjustment without a volterra controller chip, if Asus can do it, all the other manufacturers with non reference designs could, just think how many more units they could sell if say Sapphire included with it's toxic editions guarenteed voltage tweaking with their own high quality software.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Hi. I have a Sapphire 5850 1GB reference card. I managed to get it stable at 1000 mhz core/1245 mhz memory with 1.25V. But after the 1000 mhz barrier, nothing, absolutely nothing is really stable. For example , 1005 mhz core at 1.3v or 1.35V it's not stable ). How's that possible? And another detail. Raising the voltage above 1.25V will not raise the temperatures, at least not enough to notice. The card may be limited at 1.25 volts? what do you think? I'm using Afterburner 1.5.1 and every change I make with it seems to apply. I raise the voltage and the change appears in GPU-Z. Also flashed the bios at 1.35 and 1.4V thinking it was afterburner's fault. But still not stable above 1000mhz. And no higher temperatures from 1.25V to 1.4V. So what's wrong?

It's possible because every GPU has it's ceiling, we reach it dependant on how well the chip is binned, of course with extreme cooling then 1050mhz on 1.5V might be possible!

 

[erixx]

I can 100% comfortably say that this GPU will never have voltage control. the 5870 version doesn't (as shown in reviews) and I've tested multiple methods (ATT, altering BIOS, flashing to ASUS/SAPPHIRE BIOS) and none of them allow voltage control.

ALL and every GPU have voltage control! LOL

It is just that this series has a form of voltage control that is not user friendly or user configureable!

I posted somewhere the link to the voltage controller manufacturer of the gigabyte 5850 OC, it even says automatic dynamic voltage control.

 

[SilverSilence]

ALL and every GPU have voltage control! LOL

It is just that this series has a form of voltage control that is not user friendly or user configureable!

I posted somewhere the link to the voltage controller manufacturer of the gigabyte 5850 OC, it even says automatic dynamic voltage control.

Voltage control, and automatic 2d/3d voltage adjustment are not the same thing, there's really no getting through to you people :/

 

[jonas71]

I have been questioning Gigabyte lately about the fan speed. My view, the fan is definitly louder than reference fan when idle, but probably ok when gaming. But then again, there is room for the fan to work at a reasonable low speed when idle. Does anyone agree? I said to Gigabyte, I dont expect it to be perfectly quiet but reasonbly quiet.

I was told the fan specificatin is 33db@2500 rpm and 43db@max speed. But 33db for minimum speed? isnt it silly and ridiculus? That is almost the maximum fan speed of many high end VGA coolers. I dont mind 33db when gaming, but if i hear it at 33db all day long, all i want to do is to smash the card. So I raised my above concern again and they told me that is the specification and cannot be changed because lowering fan speed could burn the card, which i dont really fucking think so.

If the fan speed can be adjusted to 2000rpm, it will be a lot quieter, and what the temp will be? go up from 41 to 45? I dont see that is an issue. But anyway, it seemed they just wanted me to piss off. I think we are done here guys, Gigabyte will never adjust the fan speed. And this is probably the last time I buy a card with a aftermarket cooler because at the end of the day I found reference fan is always the best solution to balance noise level and heat.

Has anyone got any different answers from Gigabyte, please let everyone know.

Yes I got a answer frm support a few weeks ago telling it will be fixed in a later bios update, well after your post it more sounds that they want us to keep the card long enough to void the possibility to go back to shop witht the card and they will point at their spec say we did nothing wrong - except they advertice this 14% more silent then a reference cooler

Well after all the card at least deliver in games, my wife not complaine to much, BUT it disturbs me - after the normal tweaking with fans, bios flash and using Gigabytes tweak program to reduce energy have I lowerd the idle temp a lot on all parts and all fans are silent in idle - except the GIGABYTE VGA fan - the only fan I can here and its load and seems totaly unaware that its temps going down --- good job gigabyte

 

[erixx]

Voltage control, and automatic 2d/3d voltage adjustment are not the same thing, there's really no getting through to you people :/

My dear! This is like Hard disc drives: they do have speed control, there's just no control by the user.

When you say 'voltage control' do you mean scalable voltage regulators, or integrated voltage regulators or integrated and multiphase switching voltage regulators?

 

[anonemus]

Guys, when in 2D mode under WinXP, I experience several page tearing issues with my Gigabyte 5850OC card. Anyone have the same problem?

 

[DarknRahl]

Guys, when in 2D mode under WinXP, I experience several page tearing issues with my Gigabyte 5850OC card. Anyone have the same problem?

Fraid not. I got everything working sweet with bios 5 and afterburner.

 

[SilverSilence]

Need more info on your setup mate, are you running two monitors?

 

[anonemus]

I use the latest f5 bios and it only happens in XP. I'm now booted into 7 (have dual-OS) and there is no issue.

I'm just using 1 monitor, Silver.

I do notice that under Win7 my 2D draw is 500/1000 whereas in XP, its 150/500 (or something). Maybe this is the reason why?

 

[SilverSilence]

I use the latest f5 bios and it only happens in XP. I'm now booted into 7 (have dual-OS) and there is no issue.

I'm just using 1 monitor, Silver.

I do notice that under Win7 my 2D draw is 500/1000 whereas in XP, its 150/500 (or something). Maybe this is the reason why?

If you haven't already, update to Catalyst 10.5 and see if that helps, it raises the 2D clocks to get rid of flickering in certain systems. Although, with a single monitor you shouldn't have any issues running 157/300, I don't use XP so can't really help out too much there.

 

[anonemus]

I'm using 10.5 on both XP and 7, Silver. Thanks for the concern. I guess I should use 7 more and more, and XP less and less.

 

[DarknRahl]

I use windows 7 and to get the draw down to 157/300 in 2d mode I set the 'default' speeds in 2d mode in Afterburner which tricks CCC into putting it down to 157/300 in 2d mode.

 

[anonemus]

I'll try your workaround later when I get back home. But doesn't Win7 use 3D when in desktop mode?

 

[DarknRahl]

Doesn't appear so. My card is definitely running on the low settings when in windaz.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Heres the fix for the 2D clock issue.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=117633

 

[anonemus]

Thanks for link, MailMan! Interesting read. I actually didn't try the fixes suggested here anymore as after I installed the latest DX9 (June 2010), the problem went away

 

[seanlimys]

looks like gigabyte just released f7 and f11 bios..pretty much surprised...

now at ccc you can have the slider a little more to overclock..now up to 920 / 1200

surprisingly, f11 cannot be flashed..i wonder what is the difference between these two bios

 

[anonemus]

Thanks, sean!

Which one to update to--F7 or F11?

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354&dl=1#bios

Edit: the answer

Why won't my VGA card updata to the latest version BIOS?
GIGABYTE's graphics cards have different BIOS versions for one model. For example, VGA BIOS version F1 to F9 will be one series and BIOS version F10 to F19 will be the other series. So in theory, if your VGA card's current BIOS version is F3, and you see version F4/F10 available on the website, your VGA card will need to be updated to F4 and not F10.

http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/197/index.htm