Neoseeker's Holiday Guide 2009 - PAGE 2

ATI HD 5970

• Review: Radeon HD 5970
• Internet Pricing: $599 - $719
• Retail Pricing: $649 at Fry's Electronics

Review Quote:

" We felt that perhaps the HD 5970 was a touch on the underclocked side. Unfortunately our guess would be that many users out there (none of us of course) will not investigate the overclocking ability of this video card, so, for those people, they'll have a HD 5970 that is only running at %80-%85 of it's safe potential clock speeds. If you get this card, you must, must overclock it. It is underclocked out of the box (to benefit power consumption). No need to push it to the limit like we did in our O/C testing, but at least add 15% to the clocks to get yourself playing games in top-gear.

On the other hand of the overclocking coin, the HD 5970 is such a powerful card offering such great performance that there isn't all that much that will really strain the video card, in the way of games, out just yet regardless. But rest assured 2010's crop of games will no doubt be taxing this video card well before Blizzard puts out there next game.

If you want top-end, no-joke performance right now, then there is only one option really: the HD 5970. "

ATI HD 5870

• Review: PowerColor Radeon HD 5870
• Internet Pricing: $379 - $672
• Retail Pricing: $399 at Fry's Electronics

Review Quote:

"While we remain skeptical that Eyefinity will be practical for more than a few of the more hardcore crowd, nonetheless it is a great development for ATI, and having that option of building a crazy resolution meta-display is a welcome new feature to add onto that growing list. That Radeon feature list sure is certainly getting long these days.

With a price tag around the $400 mark, the PowerColor HD 5870 impresses. Certainly the release of the HD 5870 puts a new tail-spin on the video card market -- you can expect prices to be dropping all over. We look forward to see what the future will bring, both from that other unmentionable company, and from the rest of the HD 5000 series line-up. But at least for now, the PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 is a top-dog on a giant pile of video cards, and if you are looking for some big firepower, you don't need to look much further."

BFG GTX 285 OCX

• Review: BFG GTX 285 OCX
• Internet Pricing: $349 - $449
• Retail Pricing: N/A

Review Quote:

"Though there was one area where the BFG GTX 285 OCX certainly shined: overclocking. The BFG factory overclock was good, but unless we just were extremely lucky with our particular GPU, the overclocking potential of the GT200b has been greatly increased by the shift to 55nm. Our BFG GTX 285 OCX overclocked to impressive levels (especially the memory), and we think it could have been pushed even further. (As a side note, perhaps BFG's water cooling model will knock some socks off.) The overclocking numbers of this card were second only perhaps to the MSI R4830, in recent memory.

While at this stage of the game the BFG GTX 285 OCX does not represent the best value out there, this card is a well built machine, featuring the world's fastest GPU, BFG's superior 24/7 tech support hotline and reputable full lifetime warranty, and no discernible shortcomings besides price. But not every battle comes down to only dollars and cents; in our books, this card is a winner."

Gigabyte GTX 260 Super Overclock

• Review: Gigabyte GTX 260 Super Overclock
• Internet Pricing: $199 - $240
• Retail Pricing: N/A

Review Quote:

"The sizable overclock on the GTX 260 Super Overclock kept the card one step ahead of the most of the GTX 260 competition. Even when the first heavily overclocked GTX 260 video cards appeared, they -- for the most part -- offered good bang for your buck, giving high-end performance for a reasonable price. Again another big-time overclocked GTX 260 has caught our eye today with the S.O.C.

Right now the S.O.C is selling for $200 USD at a popular e-tailer. This is a reasonable place for the S.O.C to be at. Let's compare it to the close competition briefly. Below the S.O.C, you have  non-overclock GTX 260's that selling for as low as around $165 -- here we feel the extra $35 would be worth it, certainly. As for the HD 4890, they are often selling around $200, but we are willing to bet the S.O.C has enough horsepower to beat those out -- it certainly took out our decently overclocked PowerColor HD 4890 in our tests."

ATI HD 4870 X2

• Review: Sapphire Radeon HD4870 X2
• Internet Pricing: $326 - $599
• Retail Pricing: N/A

Review Quote:

"For one thing there's the space. Most motherboards have the PCIe x 16 slots next to either a PCIe x 1 slot or a regular PCI slot. Installing a video card will usually block one of these slots. Installing two video cards will block two extra slots. If you're tight on PCI slots the HD 4870 X2 is definitely your best option. Two more things to take into consideration are the temperature and power usage. If you're using two HD 4870's you're adding two pieces of hardware that are going to heat up your case compared to only one Hd 4870 X2 adding heat.

As for the power usage, the HD 4870 X2 is only one PCB. It's going to require less power then Crossfired HD 4870s.  Sapphire's HD 4870 X2 was also a decent overclocker, which only makes it look even better. The HD 4870 X2 is a pretty sweet card, and if you've got the money, then I'd take it into consideration."