With all the hoopla over the GTX 460 going on we are taking the time to look at a GPU that is not really new, but is still worthy of some headlines. Although the AMD Radeon HD5870 is fast approaching its first birthday it is no surprise that it is still a big seller. But we wondered if it is the reference GPUs that are making the 5870 fly off the shelves or if it is products like the Asus EAH5870 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat edition (which we will just call Stalker COP moving forward) This is Asus’ V2 HD5870 with a voltage tweak option for great overclocking potential. As you might have guessed the box also contains the Stalker COP game as part of the bundle. So let’s try out this bundle and see if it is worth the $500 or so you will shell out for it.
The Test System Build and Comments -Graphics Cards: Asus EAH5870 V2 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat Edition (Supplied by Asus)MSi N465GTX Twin Frozr II (Supplied by MSi)eVGA GTX480 Hydro Copper (Supplied by eVGA)ASUS EAH5850TOP DirectCU (Supplied by ASUS)AMD Radeon HD 5870 (Supplied by AMD)AMD Radeon HD 5970 (Supplied by AMD)Zotac GTX 285 AMP! Edition 1GB (flashed to stock BIOS) (Supplied by Zotac)Installing and configuring the Asus EAH5870 Stalker COP was just as simple as any other add-in GPU. Install the card, power up the system, down load and install the drivers. The reason I say download the drivers is that the ones on the DVD are out of date. Not by much, but still they are not the most current. I would also recommend grabbing the latest versions of SmartDoctor and GamerOSD while you are at it.
