ati 5850 upgrade to 5870

So just wanted to ask if it is a noticeable upgrade? currently have the 5850 and been wondering if i can have the 5870 in mx15 and would it be worth the upgrade? Saw something on dells homepage that the 5870 may not work in mx15 because of the required Watts, and that there might be heating issues?

So basically what i'm wondering, is if it would be possible to get the 5870 for my mx15, and would it make a difference, and how big of a difference

And if I would buy the 5870, how hard is it to change gpu in a mx15? Never done anything like that before, not even on a desktop. Total newbie when it comes to this, is there anyway to cool the mx15 down if u have overheating issues?

Thanks!

 

Their will be negligible difference. You can overclock your 5850 to far greater levels than the 5870. Honestly no member on this forums would in their right minds think about the upgrade. The 5850 is a beast when overclocked. Most 5850 benchmarks on this forums far outmatch the 5870 ones in the other forums.

 

Agreed, there's no point in going 5870 if you already have a 5850, unless you can get one for free

 

They're actually the same card, just with different voltage settings.

 

Oh ok. Newbie it was.. well When it comes to overclocking i can't get over 750/1000 without having blackscreens or shutdowns. Just touching the memory clock often results in blackscreen and blue lines all over. Any clue on why? Heat or voltage issues? Just guessing..

Thanks for all the answers!

 

What software are you using to over clock? and what temps are you getting?

 

amd clock tools to oc.

how far are you upping the memory???

 

ye i've got the amd gpu clock tool, tried 750/1050 again just an hour ago. works for a couple of seconds. Then the screen turns black or grey :/ works good if i up the core to 720/730 and have memory at fixed at 1000. if i try it at 750 and play games, the screen goes black for a couple of second, and it looks like the game tabs in and out. Then it starts working again. And it can happen whenever playing.

Don't know what's the problem really..

Never had any problems with temp either really. Can't even check the temp atm since the comp freezes if i up the memory too high. But with 740/1000 the highest i've had is around 78 max.

 

looks like you may need to up the voltage on the card. only way to do that is the flash the card.

 

Hard to do? Any risks?

 

setting up the flashing usb is the hardest part the flashing is easy. yes there are risk, you risk bricking your card if done incorrectly. if you really want to do it then i can point you in the right direction.

 

yeah i have the same issues but my max is 750/1050, mem on 1100 causes black screens in seconds even after i upped my volts to 1.05 (GPUZ/RBE/ATI WINFLASH) so i flashed to 700/1000/1.05 which is good for me i dont really bench alot mostly game. i used to be able to go 775/1100/1.00 and temps ran fine might max mem at 85 but on my second test after about 45 mins it gave me a black screen and that was the end of that.,,, lol

 

even at 1.15v my memory maxed out around 1135-1150 depending on drivers.

 

That's insane, both my current card and my 5870 won't pass OCCT at 1080.

 

hahaha you shouls check out the benchmark thread. the 5850 pulls some really insane numbers. i think my max clocks were 990/1135 for my best bench and that didn't even get me first place!!!!

 

I guess it was a good thing that Dell wouldn't sell me the 5870 since the 5850 seems to be a better card.

Does anyone know why the downclocked card can overclock higher than it's "Big" brother?

 

they are essentially the same card. the 5850 is just down clocked. the high oc is just luck of the draw, some can oc insanely high with no problems and some can't.
the highest recorded gpu bench was with an dell 5870.

 

InAP,

Can you point me towards a guide to flash my 5850's bios?

Thanks!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/558597-5850-flash-guide.html

 

eh not really guys, my 5850 clock cant go as high as some of these people so it's really luck of the draw the clock in my sig is stable enough but it is 125 core over 5870 so i'm not complaining