5870 non reference card

hi guys,

ive started to order all the parts for my computer and i ordered this card

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...0MHz-1600Cores-DP-DVI-HDMI-Aliens-vs-Predator

regardless of the picture, i have received the one with the fan in the middle, have i just shot myself in the foot? i did plan to overclock, will i be able to play crysis at a decent fps.

Well, if by "did I just shoot myself in the foot" you meant you won't have software voltage control, then yes that is the case. This is not to say you can't overclock it however. The BIOS is not unlocked, and will only allow 900 on the core and either 1250 or 1300 on the memory I can't remember which. However you can bypass this by using MSI afterburner and in the MSIAfterburner.cfg file change "EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 0" to "EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1" Every card is different but before I hard modded mine I was able to get the card you have to the mid 900's with 1300 on the memory.

No he did shoot himself in the foot. All the reference cards had voltage control regardless if it was MSI or whoever. XFX uses a custom "crappy" non-reference design that doesn't allow you what so ever to change the voltage. Going from 850 to say 1ghz would definitely give you some good fps increases around 10-15% I would expect. I would trade it back and get an MSI Lightning card which screams voltage control and overclocking. Even the XFX reference supports over volting so you are out of luck. You will not be able to over volt, try that MSI Afterburner trick but sorry, you can't.

thanks for the response guys, card has been returned, just waiting for a refund from scan. now i dunno whether to wait for the 6000 series; or get this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190978

and regarding the msi lightning card its sold out

That card supports voltage using the Asus utility and even MSI Afterburner (which is the best program to use) and it does look to be reference so that would work. I am personally waiting for the 6xxx series but not necessarily getting one. When the new cards come out, the 5xxx cards will get a price drop. Here in the U.S. the MSI Lightning was $450 couple months ago, now I can get one for around $350 so prices are dropping a lot and when the new cards come out, they will even drop further down. I would suggest you wait. It's only until November-December when the new cards will be released. Don't though get a 6870 because those cards are replacing the 5770. Wanna look out for the 6950 and 6970.