A superlative overclocker from ASUS.
ATI's 5xxx series of cards have powered through the whole range of builds over the past few months, bringing us everything from the low-end 5450 card to the ultra-high-end 5970, for prices under fifty bucks to well over a thousand. For some though, there has to be a line drawn somewhere between price and performance, but since we're Atomic we can't draw that line too far down - which is where the 5830 steps in.
Based around the same RV870 core that the entire range is built upon, the 5830 boasts a complement of 1120 shader units, less than the 5870's 1600 units but more than the 5770's 800. Clock speeds are actually quite high, at a stock of 800MHz, while the 1GB of GDDR5 memory keeps the same speedy 256-bit memory bus that the more powerful cards also have. Manufactured on the same 40nm process as the entire range, power needs at idle are a slim 25W, though load is a surprising 175W. The source of this extra heat generation is of course the power-guzzling cores being run at the higher clockspeed, burning through electrons faster than a bunker-busting missile slices through a bowl of jelly.
To curb this extra heat, ASUS has whacked its custom DirectCU heatsink on the card. This, as the name suggests, boasts copper heatpipes that are machined flat to form a smooth surface that mounts against the RV870 core, sucking away the heat more efficiently than in other designs. These heat-filled tubes mate with a series of aluminium fins buried underneath a black plastic shroud, spreading the heat across a larger surface area where the large fan can push it away quickly. Sadly it doesn't exhaust out the rear of the case, though the venting does give a small amount of airflow. Idle temperatures were pretty nice, hitting 37 degrees with a decent 56.7dBA of noise generated. Load was 69 degrees at a loud 61.9dBA, with the higher power usage of this card bumping the temps up compared to the reference 5850 cooler.
ASUS has put an awesome amount of effort into the presentation of the card otherwise, with a cool black support bar across the top of the PCB matched by an excellent black coating that gives it a really expensive feel. The ends of the PCB are also slightly rounded, and there are no rough edges at all; functionally useless, but it does make the card feel really neat. Crossfire is a definite possibility via two nipples at the top of the card, while power needs are supplied via two connectors; one 6-pin and one 8-pin.
Performance in games was pretty good, with Crysis almost smoothly playable and GRID more than capable, matched by a nice 3DMark Vantage score. Heaven returned 15fps on our ultra-high settings, so while DX11 definitely stresses this tech it'll go great guns at lower settings. Unfortunately, there is no game included in the bundle.
Since ASUS went to the trouble of whacking on a better cooler, we went to the trouble of pushing it to within an inch of its life. Bumping up clockspeeds, we pushed harder than a chicken laying a watermelon-sized egg until we finished at our final speeds - 1000MHz on the core, representing a 200MHz increase! We also managed to bump up the memory speeds by ten per cent to 1100MHz, netting us a 3DMark Vantage score of P15980. This is impressive; and is only 900-odd points away from the performance of a 5870. With that in mind, the 5830 DirectCU is a great choice for the overclocker, though it commands a price premium over a faster-at-stock 5850.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012