Just a slight overclock
Sapphire and PowerColor will be among the first AIBs to launch
factory overclocked versions of AMD's Radeon HD 5870, but if you were hoping
for a massive overclock, you might be a bit disappointed.
PowerColor's AX5870 1GBD5-WMDH is clocked at 875MHz and 1250MHz for the
core an memory respectively, while Sapphire's Vapor-X Radeon HD 5870
ends up at 870MHz and 1250MHz. Basically we're looking at a slight
overclock, just 20MHz to 25MHz for the core and 50MHz on the memory
side.
However, there is a catch. Powercolor's AX5870 features a waterblock,
while the Sapphire sticks to Vapor-X air cooling. Obviously, both cards
should offer quite a bit of overclocking headroom but superior cooling
comes at a price, a rather high one.
Both cards are currently listed at around €450, which doesn't sound
like a very good deal considering the dual-gpu HD 5970 is expected to
sell for €499.
