Help: Recommended HD 5870 for overclocking

[Napoleon]

Hi Everyone,

It's been some years since my last computer build, and I'm looking to choose a Radeon HD 5870 for my upcoming core i7 single GPU system.

I'm most likely going to watercool the GPU after a few months of use, if not immediately.

I was looking at the Gigabyte super OC and thought I read it had better on card power regulation, but don't know if it's worth the extra 100.

Ideally there's some sleeper 5870 I don't know about that oc's pretty well, i'm shooting for 1Ghz/5Ghz with a reasonable voltage. I don't know how these cards handle voltage these days.

Thanks and I appreciate any input and recommendations you can give me about the Radeon 5000 series! My price range is 350-500.

 

[Puer Aeternus]

As far as I know....the reference card is the best for overclocking/Modding. I read an article in Maximum PC a ways back how to volt mod the card and update the bios to get a really good OC...its gonna take some extra cooling, but you said water cooling so you are set. ive not read anything recently so someone may correct me.

 

[Nhut Pham]

Reference card is definitely the way to go, especially since most water blocks are made for them.

Reference cards get guranteed software voltage control as well.

 

[Napoleon]

can you buy the reference card from regular vendors like newegg?

I'm looking at the this card GV587UD-1GD

is this the same as the the GV-R587UD-1GD ? Looks pretty sick.