Crossfire 5770's or single 5850

any reference card will work, they all look like the HIS card but with different graphics. The reference PCB is the only one you can BIOS flash to gain voltage adjustments (except for the ASUS).
Easy way to tell a reference card is they will usually have the same reference cooler. Also, if you look at pictures of the back of the card, they should look identical.

alright cool now another thing is there a big jump from the 5850 to the 5870 is it worth spending the extra $100 bucks.

I don't think it's worth it. Compare ATI Radeon HD 5850, ATI Radeon HD 5870 LINK:http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...compare,1829.html?prod[3649]=on&prod[3647]=on

it is and is not. Im super happy with my 5850. Uses less power then my 4870 and double the frame rates in furmark.

Go for the 5850.

On a side note I thought you could use MSI After burner and OC non reference cards. I know I can go way over anything CCC can offer with out flashing the bios.

so which one of these would be the best to overclock
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4102884&cm_re=ati_5850-_-14-102-884-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4150494&cm_re=ati_5850-_-14-150-494-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4161330&cm_re=ati_5850-_-14-161-330-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4125318&cm_re=ati_5850-_-14-125-318-_-Product
unless someone wants to recommend something better

none of those support voltage adjustment so non have the greatest OC potential. But the XFX one has the lifetime warranty.
This MSI does overvoltage though
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127500

ytpconquer said:

none of those support voltage adjustment so non have the greatest OC potential. But the XFX one has the lifetime warranty.
This MSI does overvoltage though
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127500

Click to expand...

so your saying the best overclocker is the msi you posted I read the reviews on that card and they are pretty bad. Should I just wait for the asus i read its a really good overclocker or am i wrong.

ok so im thinking about getting this asus card from what i read it would be the best overclocker I just dont know if its better then the msi also im buying it from zipzoomfly.com cause newegg does not have it in stock. Just wondering if its a good site got 13,000 reviews that averaged pretty good. Let me know what you think of the card.

ASUS card is good, if you find it in stock you could get that. If you are getting the card for max overclock potential, get either a reference card or one like the ASUS card that supports voltage tweaking. MSI is a good brand too though I don't know why it got bad reviews on newegg.

when i look on newegg it doesn't tell me which ones are reference thats why im haveing trouble finding the right one also the msi from what i read does overclock to well i read it on the reviews so not totally sure. I dont want to just spend the money and buy a card im not happy with you know thats why i am trying to find the right one.

well right now the only reference card in stock on newegg is the Visiontek one and that doesn't have the greatest reviews.

If it is a reference card would Visiontek be responsible, because they don't make the card.

I dunno, it SHOULD be identical in quality to all the other reference cards. Maybe they got a bad batch or something but that one definitely has some of the lowest ratings for any reference card on newegg (which are becoming harder to find).

For the OP: ytpconquer pretty much gave you a direct answer if you haven't read it. The ASUS and MSI card (and others) will allow for voltage adjustment thus potentially giving you a higher overclock than those that don't support it.

If you desire a reference card, all of them should be the same. I believe the only thing to look out for is support/warranty from that manufacturer. These reference cards will support voltage adjustment as well, while non-reference cards may have 'better' coolers than the stock, some may not support the feature to adjust voltages.

Just in case you want to see what the difference is between the reference and non-reference cards:
http://www.overclock.net/ati/705075-how-tell-ati-5xxx-reference-card.html

EDIT: As for the low ratings on the VisonTek card, it seems most of them are targeted at their poor customer service.

Just tried to compress what everyone said to a single direct post for OP, correct me if the information is wrong/misleading.