PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 PCS+
Performance Summary: PowerColor's Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ and Radeon HD 5850 PCS+ cards performed very well throughout our entire battery of benchmarks. Due to their increased core and memory clocks frequencies, both cards were measurably faster than their stock, reference design-based counterparts. The differences were most pronounced in 3DMark Vantage, L4D 2, and H.A.W.X., but PowerColor's cards were faster in every game / application we tested, at every resolution.
Although the additional performance offered by PowerColor's Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ and Radeon HD 5850 PCS+ isn't earth shattering in any way, these cards are clearly better than stock, reference models in our opinion. Their factory overclocks result in performance gains, however small, across the board, PowerColor's PCS+ cooler does an excellent job of keeping the cards cool while at the same time remaining very quiet, and a full version, DX11 game (Dirt 2) is included. All good news from where we're standing.
Over and above what we've already mentioned, the PowerColor Radeon HD 5800 series PCS+ cards are also competitively priced. In fact, the PowerColor Radeon HD 5850 PCS+ is currently the least expensive Radeon HD 5850 card available on Newegg.com, with a price of $299. The PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ is a little harder to find, but if you do it is only $15 - $20 more expensive than a stock, reference Radeon HD 5870. If you're looking for a quiet, high performance graphics card, that paltry premium is well worth paying for the PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 PCS+.
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