Asus EAH5870 Radeon HD 5870 Review
Performance Summary: The Asus EAH5870 performed exactly as expected. Considering the fact that the card has the exact same stock GPU and memory clocks as AMD's own Radeon HD 5870, it should come as no surprise that both cards performed right in-line with each other. In light of the competition, the EAH5870--like all other 5870s--is clearly the fastest single-GPU on the market, bar none. It's only the dual-GPU powered cards that can hang with, or surpass the 5870, depending on the test.
In a sea of similar looking and performing Radeon HD 5870 cards, has Asus done enough to clearly differentiate the EAH5870 from the rest of the pack? We think so, yes. In addition to including a coupon for a copy of the recently released DX11 game Dirt 2 (which most other board partners have done as well), Asus has also thrown in a copy of their SmartDoctor utility. What makes SmartDoctor and interesting addition is that the utility gives users the ability to not only overclock their cards, but to tweak its GPU voltage as well. Stock Radeon HD 5870 cards are somewhat overclockable, but with a slight bump in GPU voltage, the Asus EAH5870 was able to hit a fully stable GPU clock of 1GHz--a full 150MHz above stock.
About the only area where the Asus EAH5870 pales in comparison to some competing offerings is with regard to its warranty. Asus covers the card for 3 years, which isn't bad. But when some others offer lifetime warranties, that are transferable upon the sale of the card, a 3 years warranty doesn't seem quite as nice.
Even still, the Asus EAH5870 is competitively priced with all other Radeon HD 5870 cards at about $400, it offers a good accessory bundle, and it's very tweaker-friendly thanks to Asus' SmartDoctor utility. Until the next wave of custom Radeon HD 5870 cards that clearly differentiate themselves from the rest hits the scene--whenever that may be--the Asus EAH5870 stands out as a solid, high-performance offering, worthy of your consideration.
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