DIY Sapphire HD5970 Toxic

[Sgt.Bilko]

Well I'm going to mix my own brand of poison.

I'm buying a used Sapphire HD5970 OC card and an Arctic Accelero EXtreme cooler.

That way I can save £300 - £400 and get very very close to the Toxic version currently retailing for close to £800.

After all that's what it is ...right a Sapphire HD5970 with an after market Arctic Accelero EXtreme cooler fitted?

I know I'll blow the warranty on my card but you do that anyway if you overclock...and we're all overclock3rs right?

Wish me luck.

I'll post my results if it works.

 

[alienware]

It might even be easier to force on the bios from the toxic if you can. Because yes, all it appears to be on the surface at least is a 5970 with the Extreme on and a custom bios.

 

[alienware]

BTW.. Please be careful when fitting that cooler. Whilst it is an amazing cooler when fitted well it can cause the death of your card.

I had a Twin Turbo which is basically a dual fanned version of the Extreme. And whilst it absolutely mullered my temps downward it came at a price. The heatsinks you need to attach on the ram come with really awful tape on them. My ramsinks fell off twice nearly causing the death of my card (artifacts) before I finally spent some more on decent thermal tape that was thicker, spongier and allowed a good strong bond.

Also, there are washers that come with it that it tells you to fit. Just be bloody careful with these as they can cause a gap between the GPU and the copper baseplate. Custom PC did a write up on third party coolers and when fitted as per the instructions the twin turbo burnt out a 5870. Just be sure to check all of your gaps and watch temps very closely for a while to make sure everything is cool beans

 

[tinytomlogan]

Alien isnt wrong, there have been some issues reported with the cooler.........

 

[Bungral]

Ummm I may be wrong but I believe the Sapphire OC has 2GB of memory while the Toxic has 4GB

 

[alienware]

Ummm I may be wrong but I believe the Sapphire OC has 2GB of memory while the Toxic has 4GB

Which will make hardly any difference at all IMO.

That does rule the bios out, but 2gb per card is complete overkill.

I'll definitely be very interested to see the results if the clocks can be achieved

 

[Sgt.Bilko]

Well I got my card and cooler and put them together. And don't they look good!

Assembly wasn't too difficult, and unlike one review I read (think it was X-bitlabs) mine didn't bend.

Started benchmarking them at the weekend and things look good.

I'll post results when I get round to making something readable.

Until now have only managed to benchmark Far Cry 2 & Crysis Warhead.

I can't get Crysis benchmark to work, and can't find benchmarks for BF-BC2 or COD Modernwarfare 1 or 2.

Would appreciate some pointers if you have benched these games.

I just can't get this big cheesy grin off my face, I'm well chuffed!

Anyway I'll update asap.

 

[alienware]

Good going man. Always great to see some one fiddling (ooer). Look forward to the benchies

 

[AMDFTW]

pics or it dit not happen

 

[Sgt.Bilko]

Well I've went and gone and done it. It took me a while but at last I found a used Sapphire HD5970. It cost £350 inc p/p on e-bay.

I got hold of an Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME 5970 for £53, put them together and I've got myself a nice piece of kit thank you very much.

Using MSI's Afterburner I overclocked it to Core clock 901MHz and memory 1350 MHz at Core Voltage 1162mV.

I tried more volts (1178) but it didn't seem to like going over 900MHz so I assumed that I had found the sweet spot.

Memory couldn't go any higher in Afterburner, it maxed out at 1350MHz.

I ran FurMark while I tweeked in Afterburner. Temps didn't get over high 70's, so I think i've got a nice stable over clock that I can use. Not just for benchmarking, but while I game.

I benchmarked Crysis Warhead And Far Cry 2. (couldn't find or get other benchmarks to work, I'm a bit of a noob )

Game/Benchmark Minimum fps Average fps Max fps

Crysis Warhead default 41 49 57

Crysis Warhead OC 49 58 68

Far Cry 2 default 64.34 97.13 162.21

Far Cry 2 OC 76.24 115.83 173.03

Unigine Heaven default 25.3 58.6 160.4

Unigine Heaven OC 28.7 70.8 194.9

System info

Mainboard : Asus P6X58D-E

Processor : Intel Core i7 930 @ 3600 MHz

CPU cooling : Corsair Hydro Series H50

Memory : Corsair Dominator 3 x 2 GB @ 1600 MHz

Storage: 2 x WD Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500 GB in raid 0

Operating System : Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

PSU : Corsair TX850W

Cabinet : AeroCool Hi-Tech 7 Pro

Monitor Type : BenQ E2200HD - 21 inches native 16:9

So for £400 I think I got pretty damn close to a Toxic out of the box, which was my goal.

Here in Denmark I would have to shell out £1000 for a Toxic, so I can and do feel pleased with this result.

After all £600 isn't to be sniffed at, now is it.

Sorry AMDFTW, no pics, I don't know how to get them on here. Files are too big and I'm too stupid to work out how to. My nice little fps graph didn't copy over either, so I apploogise for the shoddy work.

 

[alienware]

 

[kilobravo]

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/fmup/

Well I've went and gone and done it. It took me a while but at last I found a used Sapphire HD5970. It cost £350 inc p/p on e-bay.

I got hold of an Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME 5970 for £53, put them together and I've got myself a nice piece of kit thank you very much.

Using MSI's Afterburner I overclocked it to Core clock 901MHz and memory 1350 MHz at Core Voltage 1162mV.

I tried more volts (1178) but it didn't seem to like going over 900MHz so I assumed that I had found the sweet spot.

Memory couldn't go any higher in Afterburner, it maxed out at 1350MHz.

I ran FurMark while I tweeked in Afterburner. Temps didn't get over high 70's, so I think i've got a nice stable over clock that I can use. Not just for benchmarking, but while I game.

I benchmarked Crysis Warhead And Far Cry 2. (couldn't find or get other benchmarks to work, I'm a bit of a noob )

Game/Benchmark Minimum fps Average fps Max fps

Crysis Warhead default 41 49 57

Crysis Warhead OC 49 58 68

Far Cry 2 default 64.34 97.13 162.21

Far Cry 2 OC 76.24 115.83 173.03

Unigine Heaven default 25.3 58.6 160.4

Unigine Heaven OC 28.7 70.8 194.9

System info

Mainboard : Asus P6X58D-E

Processor : Intel Core i7 930 @ 3600 MHz

CPU cooling : Corsair Hydro Series H50

Memory : Corsair Dominator 3 x 2 GB @ 1600 MHz

Storage: 2 x WD Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500 GB in raid 0

Operating System : Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

PSU : Corsair TX850W

Cabinet : AeroCool Hi-Tech 7 Pro

Monitor Type : BenQ E2200HD - 21 inches native 16:9

So for £400 I think I got pretty damn close to a Toxic out of the box, which was my goal.

Here in Denmark I would have to shell out £1000 for a Toxic, so I can and do feel pleased with this result.

After all £600 isn't to be sniffed at, now is it.

Sorry AMDFTW, no pics, I don't know how to get them on here. Files are too big and I'm too stupid to work out how to. My nice little fps graph didn't copy over either, so I apploogise for the shoddy work.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/fmup/

Alien isnt wrong, there have been some issues reported with the cooler.........

Unigine

Heaven Benchmark v2.1

FPS: 68.9

Scores: 1736

Min FPS: 40.3

Max FPS: 190.0

Hardware

Binary: Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1500 Release May 21 2010

Operating system: Windows 7 (build 7600) 64bit

CPU model: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor

CPU flags: 3210MHz MMX+ 3DNow!+ SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSE4A HTT

GPU model: ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series 8.771.0.0 CrossFireX 2048Mb

Settings

Render: direct3d11

Mode: 1920x1080 fullscreen

Shaders: high

Textures: high

Filter: trilinear

Anisotropy: 4x

Occlusion: enabled

Refraction: enabled

Volumetric: enabled

Replication: disabled

Tessellation: normal

Unigine Corp. © 2005-2010

Using MSI afterburner ver. 2.0.0

core voltage:1299mV

core clock: 1.000mhz

memory clock:1.300mhz

 

[tinytomlogan]

Might help if you actually write something in reply dude, give us a hint at what you are trying to say

BTW I merged your posts, please dont double, tripple and quad post again just hit the edit button

 

[AMDFTW]

'cough' there not pics 'cough'

EDIT-how many machines do you have,cos them are different specs to the ones you originaly posted

i7 930 and phenom 2 1090t

 

[Sgt.Bilko]

Quote tinytimlogan "Might help if you actually write something in reply dude, give us a hint at what you are trying to say" and

"BTW I merged your posts, please dont double, tripple and quad post again just hit the edit button"

Yeah...about that, I don't know what that's all about. I think you're getting me mixed up with kilobravo. I don't know what his post is about either.

This thread is pretty much dead, as I could'nt find out how to post pics, and there was'nt much help in the posts.

With the advent of the 6000 series from AMD it's not so interesting anymore. I've still got the card but run it at stock, there's still no need to OC it.

It runs quiet as a mouse and cool as a cucumber. Never gets over 66 celcius.

Thanks to those of you who posted, that means you too Tim, and keep on gaming!

 

[DrBoomstick]

Hope this works for you mate, could be epic, but you will need to be careful