[i7bigrig]

I've seen that both of these cards have about the same maximum overclock on the core and memory ~ 1ghz core and 1.3 memory. So my question is does the 5850 come closer to the 5870 when both cards reach their maximum overclock? Or does the 5870 still maintain its performance advantage of ~20% when both cards are stock clocked?

Would anybody with both cards care to do some testing?

 

[DesertRat]

I'd imagine that due to the extra shaders that when both cards are OC'd to their maxes the 5870 would still come out on top. The 5850 might well still be the more economical choice however.

 

[Blameless]

The gap narrows when OCed.

That said, in my experience, 1GHz is likely not a viable 24/7 clock for most 5850s. I've had two die on me at well under that because of VRM/cooling issues and most reports of 1GHz+ tend not to be tested too well.