Topic: New bread of 5850's in the wild :) (HARDWARE) - page 2. (Read 5698 times)

Hmm, might have to upgrade. I was looking at a 6870, might just get one of these.

I believe "U" is for an IC, at least that's what I get on the 555 Timer and HEX Trigger ICs on my project in the design software.

Volterra sounds right.

Would a "U" on silkscreen indicate an IC/VRM ?

The second revision of cards they usually cheap out on some components.  Like the 5870 Vapor-X they took out the software controllable voltage chip (forgot the name.. volterra?) in revision 2, in addition to slightly modifying the PCB (different soldermask) and component layout.

The small black components with 3 feet could be voltage regulators (for smaller chips, not the GPU), but considering they have a "Q" next to them on the silkscreen, they are probably transistors. 

Right, im confusing myself here VRM's are big black things im guessing, If so, theres 4 on each. But again, the layout is slightly different. Bit of a DOH! moment there for me

Ive noticed they have 000SA and 230SA varients in there 4850 line also, so maybe it some kind of planned revision they do on all cards? Seems unusal to hold back power but it wouldnt suprise me in this day and age. I mean, release the best it can be after the next series is out is a bit....... gay

3 hours 53, Why as it ttok me 2 days of been logged in to get 4 hours, Infact, im logged in on 2 comps right now, I want double time

As Ryu mentioned, the components circled in red are SMD capacitors.

Use PCI-Ex1 to PCI-Ex16 extenders/PCI to PCI-E x16 extenders, Cablesaurous (spelling) sells them or ebay Then you just use a cheap board/processor/ram. Everythings cheap cheap except PSU and video

Ah, ill remove the cover on the ones i get tomorrow as the one i have isnt actually mine to take apart I think i may have been right first time. As i said above. Ill post a new thread in hardware with pics of both the new and old with covers off. i wanted try out them zalaman vga coolers anyways

Erm, you defo got the wrong end of the stick haha. I wasnt insulting you personally, i was meerly putting my thoughts on the whole apple situation. Fair play, you open the mac OSx etc etc. Credit to you but APPLE AS A COMPANY and where there taking the apple brand seriously cant settle well with you either Im 28, And i got no time for crap either Sorry if you feel i offended you from a comment about my PERSONAL opinions about GENERAL apple users/hardware/software. You make it so its how the equipment IS MEANT TO BE, not with apples gayness jizz all over it. I dont like been locked down and told what i can and cant do with something I HAVE PURCHASED, i.e, I OWN! Face time a new feature? I swear video chat was on phones in the year 2000 or so haha. 2010 and apple have invented it!!! RIGHT! there claims and some of there patents they ARE ACTUALLY AQUIRED in the lovly US of A is pure stupidity and ridiculas. The cost of there hardware is ridiculas. I priced a top end mac for a laugh and compared it to an equivilant PC. It was £28,000 for the mac, £7,500 for the PC. 32GB ram from Apple, £4,000+, PC, £400. This is true through most of apples 'upgrades'. UNIX is a VERY capable piece of software and its a shame its disapearing into the abyss. Linux is a decent varient of it though and ALOT more user friendly im sure you'll agree


So please, accept my appology if you thought it was directed PERSONALLY at you OSX is OSX, not UNIX, i cant do what i can do on unix on OSX

Ill post more info on this in the hardware section, although i been logged in on here for over 2 days now
 it still only says 3 hours and 30 minutes. Ill wait till it goes 4 hours and get ouyt of this section

I guess that's why you got a hostile reaction to start with... hell, I try to keep you here with some interesting info and you insult the shit out of me.

FWIW, I was the first person in the UK to make a phone call on a mk1 iPhone on a UK network... unlocked in software, was online with geohot at 2:30 in the morning or something stupid and used his beta code to overwrite the retval of the baseband status function so that the BB considered itself non-sim-locked. I'm 36 and have been coding since the age of 7. Whilst all of my iPhones are cracked and unlocked and run my own unix tools, that old really early mk1 iPhone, bought well before they came to the UK, is still working. It's a bit slow, but it's still working. Apple kit is high quality.

OS X is also real Unix. Guess what machine I used to crack that old iPhone? As in compiling geohot's dodgy source, cross compiling for ARM rather than PPC, getting the binary onto the device disguised as a startup daemon, etc.? Yes, a fucking Macintosh. A Quad G5 in fact.

I'm too old to enjoy these idiotic platform religious wars any more, but why the hell just randomly insult someone who has been friendly to you? What sort of person does that? Next time you see pics of the DefCon hacker conferences (or any of the infosec meets) - see how many proper hackers are carrying around Apple hardware. You may be surprised. They are fucking good machines and I can run OS X and Linux at the same time... and Windows too, if I absolutely have to.

Don't put down an entire platform based on the mass market that its consumer devices are aimed at. Jailbreak an iPhone and you've got a bloody capable little Unix machine. Seriously. I switched to Android (Nexus One) when I got fed up with Jobs' control freakery, and found that Android sucked as a usable unix - no decent userland and it felt as much like Linux as a wet haddock. Break into an iPhone, on the other hand, and every Linux / Unix hacker here will feel right at home.

Don't be misled by the 'easy peasy' front end. Underneath is a VERY powerful system. Why the fuck do you think I run my entire financial analytics consultancy business on Macs?


::to everyone else - apologies for the derailment of the thread - just don't like insults when unjustified...

Here is a link to a surface mount (SMD) capacitor: http://www.wholesale-electrical-electronics.com/p-smd-capacitor-1812-250v-474k-976533.html

And the actual image:

What mother board are you using to get 4 cards on?  Im looking at putting a 4 card rig together but the motherboard is as pricy as a decnt card!

Can't easily say your username but I *really* appreciate your input. My first 'dedicated bitcoin' card was the last Sapphire 5850 I found at a local PC World. It has 5 heatpipes and is built like the 5870.

Mine is the one in the hardware comparison wiki running 408 MH/s. No voltage mods, no messing around other than the aticonfig command under Linux. Oh yeah, it's not in a box and there's a big fan blowing on it too But other than that, normal.

This, I understand, is the 'reference' design or the 'old' design you refer to, with 12 VRMs.


I've just ordered 3 of the cards you mention - Sapphire 5850 'EXTREME' - these don't appear to have the same number of heatpipes, a shorter card, smaller fan, etc. However the 24 VRMs? If you are right, and these new 'Extreme' cards are just as overclockable as the old-school cards... then I'm in for a treat!!!

FWIW I bought them from overclockers.co.uk for £120 each. Compared to the cheapest 5870 I could find (£220), this is a bargain. Even if I can't get a reliable 400 MH/s from each card, I'm still happy.


The 'newbie' thing is irritating since it splinters really useful information between the 'in-crowd' forums and this 'free-for-all' newbie forum. But I'm a serious Mac hacker and I'm keen to help out with the current problems with compiling jwasm and the Ufasoft CPU miner... Mac Pro workstations have pretty hefty CPUs and without the ability to overclock their GPUs, I may even be able to get 20-30 MH/s out of my 8-core Mac Pro - nothing compared to my thrown-together Linux boxes but it's all fuel for the fire, eh?

Please don't quit the forum yet - see if you can get 400 MH/s out of your Extreme card - use the phatk kernel with the latest mod, slam the memory clock down to 275 and put the core up to 999 - see what you get on standard voltage. I can sustain this with lots of fan in a very hot room, so it'd be a good starting point before my Extreme cards arrive tomorrow...

The 5830's did look good cards to me to but the 5850 is by far the best value. Catfish got my shop They were 120 l when i brought 6, THe old revision. My friend got one before the £120 deal finished and his was this new revision. They were £135 after until about mid day yesterday when they went back down to £120 (seemingly for good) and the 5830 & 5870 have gone off there listings. I think a previous post might be right, Theres 4 VRMs, on both :/ But theres defo different power layout on them which is making a huge difference. I've had return 2 of the 6 i got origionally as they dont work with diablo or pheonix when in a 4 card system, stopping the other 2 extra cards working also. Very strange but i returned them and picking up new ones tomorrow now as they've tested for faults and found them suprisingly. The cards still work per say except for phoenix and diablo so im happy they were able to find a fault. Hopefully 2 new revision ones I'm guessing if you ordered them within last 2-3 days, there new revision

All my 6 cards do at least 1000/300 (or over) @ 1.2Volts or less, except one which as to be put to 1.183V @ 995/300. It wont do 1000 no matter what All them cards are well over 400mhash mate. There 410-420 using the phatK with update. ANd modified instructions. Workload 256, Fastloops, BFI_INT, Agression 13. This new revision is 420mhash all day long at 1015/300. Just unbelieveably at stock voltage I use PC also so have way better graphics drivers. Im using the old 10.4 drivers with the 2.1 stream software. Stream 2.2 onwards isnt as fast for mining, It gets an extra 10 or so mhash Also, going below 300 on my memory clock bombs my mhash. as does increasing it. 300 seems to be the sweet spot for me

If you look at my first pic, you see 4 instances of phoenix, 400/412/412/412 mhash, thats the origional (old ref cards). Diablo is running in the last pic with the new ref card so it shows all 4 cards in one mhash. But in phoenix it pulls 420mhash with the extra clock All at 1.088Volts is VERY impressive. Thats 40% overclock approaching!!!

Shapphire have caught my eye for a few years, as HTC have in phones (been open and all ) Cant believe your using mac, Mac's are for sheeple, the brain dead and not so tech savvy There proving that with the way there taking the company these days. Dumbed down for all Suppose there cattering for a big segment of people though these day....... God for bid they think for themselves Back to shapphire, There DEFINITLY the best boards out there and id say the coming future. Making trixx was also a good sign of them supporting people like me and thee. I havent had so much fun with computers since the 90's for the simple fact that theres no need to push your hardware these days........ UNTIL NOW

The sapphire 5830 extremes worked wonders for me too. The 2L version, latest apparently. Got them up to about 315mhash. Go sapphire!

Im on about shapphire xtreme, specifically even more so, revision number

I've just ordered one of these, not sure what manufacturer it is..

I'll post here when I get it.

I wonder if it's only Sapphire cards.?

and to be honest, the abuse ive had so far from trying to help is unreal. Stick to buying your £500 (EDIT: £620 sorry!!!!) 6990 hogs and beasts throwing your money away. No skin off my nose. Ill beat that with 2 cards worth alot LOT LESS! nearly £400 less haha

they really need to shiv the **** out of this forum, its awful. My $0.02

English aint my strong point mate. Neither do i care much. More hands on, as you can see........

bread.... breed

cause.... course

You should work on the correct word choice in my opinion.