Really? It was higher but I did that test with 4x AA on.

DaRule, nice OC, but really, ya need a better OC-ing utility. Those cards can be capable of 950-1000 on the core (core clock = shader clock on ATI GPU's). That's why they're so popular, you can OC to HD5870 performance w/o paying more for an HD5870. Granted an HD5870 can OC even further and starts out at pretty high clocks, but those HD5850's are serious bang for the buck cards. I'll show ya'all what I'm upgrading to here early next week. Till' then I'll leave ya in suspense.

But, nice clocks using CCC, but to letcha know, the OC feature in CCC is purposely limited by A LOT, get MSI Afterburner, you can adjust voltages (most likely), and clock wayyy further, plus it has a version of Furmark built-in for stress testing:

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/overview.htm

Made by the same guy that created Rivatuner and EVGA Precision, the shitty part that Zyonic and I found out was that Afterburner doesn't have the Screenshot feature that Precision does...which I learned to appreciate. Hopefully a future version will, but till' then, I'll just go back to my trusty FRAPS.

Some people flash Asus or another brand's bios to the card if voltage control isn't possible and it's a reference design, as the Asus is a reference design with the feature enabled and voltage control of course can mean the difference between a stable OC and not, granted flash your card at your own risk, but if ya brick it, the RMA service won't care because if they test it and it won't post, it's junk to them too. Flashing a vid card is cake, but not generally necessary. Just know that those 5850's are capable of well over 800 on the core generally, and usually a 2-300+ on the memory. So when ya need it, it's there, as long as you don't mind the leafblower noise from the OE cooler...though if ya do, Arctic Cooling has a solution for that as-well. So the options are lining up quite nicely! Now, as long as ATI's drivers are solid, I'm good. From what I've read there's still some issues with Windows 7 and the HD58xx cards, but they're getting it more narrowed down, and some of it is due to..you guessed it, overclocking. But hey that's the whole point of not getting top-end stuff, clock the mid-range shit so you can save some freaking money. But I'm stoked to get my new addition, though I'll be sad to hand off my trusty 260, though it's going to good hands, and it clocks very well, voltage controllable, and with the massive 3x92mm AC Extreme GTX cooler you really gotta work it this time of year to push 50C, maybe see 60C in the summer if the room is 80F...it's been a good card. But it's replacement should be a beast that will last, and if it doesn't, xfx has an outstanding double-lifetime warranty (double = transferable). Cheers!

Think I'll start playing around with this tomorrow over some coffee.

I got dibs on Kursah's old shit ! whatcha got, whatcha got ?

nada! lol. Steely has my old GTX260...been running an HD5870 for a while now...haven't even OC'd it...just changed the fan speed, and let it be. Smokes through all of my games. Hopefully it stays that way for a good while too.

that's cool, steely is worth the take.