Asus eah5850

I am interested in this card, it has the highest FPS rating (Single core) for most/all games on TomsHardware: CompUSA.com | EAH5850 DIRECTCU/2DI | Asus Radeon HD 5850 DIRECTCU 1GB DDR5 PCIe

My Computer:
OS: Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz (Running @ 3.23GHz)
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q
Memory: 4GB (2GB x 2) G.Skill DDR2-1066

Per my computer specs, is this GPU considered a good pick? My motherboard supports PCI-e 2.0. I read somewhere (can't remember exactly where) that this GPU will perform very well when paired with a Phenom II. I however have a Core2Quad Q9300, will this hinder my performance? Do you think my CPU will cause a bottleneck in performance? It's a pretty good CPU from yesteryear and is currently overclocked.

I have an 8800GTS 320MB currently which has served me very well over the last 3 years and want to upgrade. When I bought it, it was mid-top of the line and a good overclocker for gaming.

I've also seen another model of this same video card with a different heatsink. Anyone know which is better? ( ASUS EAH5850/2DIS/1GD5 Graphics adapter - 1 GB - GDDR5 SDRAM )

It will certainly be a boost over your current card and your CPU won't bottleneck it.

That first link is a new model I haven't seen before so I can't attest to it's performance. (temps, noise etc)

It looks like a non-reference PCB so it would be worth checking that it still has adjustable voltage (for overclocking)

The second link (is the original and a reference model that does support voltage adjustment)

smarteyeball said:

It will certainly be a boost over your current card and your CPU won't bottleneck it.

That first link is a new model I haven't seen before so I can't attest to it's performance. (temps, noise etc)

It looks like a non-reference PCB so it would be worth checking that it still has adjustable voltage (for overclocking)

The second link (is the original and a reference model that does support voltage adjustment)

Can you please explain to me what "non-reference PCB" is? Is this something new? I've always overclocked video cards, but never knew about changing voltages on GPUs.

Can anyone else comment on this matter pleeeasee!!!!!

ATI designs the video card and then send its technical specs to manufacturers, like Asus. Asus then builds the card. Sometimes Asus will strictly adhere to ATI's technical specs, sometimes, for whatever reason, they won't.

If Asus deviates from the reference design, this is known as non-reference. Sometimes it's to increase performance, sometimes it's to decrease cost... which sometimes translates into decreased performance, but not always.

Either way, it's a good choice. In your case, a very good choice as non-referenced, for you, means better than the reference design: ASUS EAH5850 TOP: : Bundle, Test Setup - LostCircuits

Thank you for a very informative post Fumz. This helped clear things up for me!

You're welcome. :)

Yes, my apologies - but Fumz had it covered.

A lot of companies are renowned for eventually using non-reference PCB's for cost-cutting and one of the first things to go are the adjustable voltage chips. ie XFX

Not being able to adjust the voltage limits your overclock.

I ended up ordering the card in the link above, but from TigerDirect. Spent $340 on the sucker and I'm sure it is a good investment for years to come! I'll let you guys know how it works in my system when I get it!

Enjoy :)