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Today we are going to show you just how well a pair of Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards in Crossfire compares to similarly priced single GPU graphics cards in modern video games such as Aliens vs. Predator, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Just Cause 2, Metro 2033 and many others. Already 8 months has passed since our original Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire article and we want to find out if anything has changed...
Shortly after the release of the Radeon HD 5770 on October 13th 2009, we took a shot at placing two of these affordable graphics cards together. The end result was impressive as we had created a configuration that was not only faster than a single Radeon HD 5850, but also cheaper. Not to mention on occasion the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration was found neck and neck with the Radeon HD 5870.
 Given that the launch of the Radeon HD 5850 nullified the single-GPU flagship Nvidia product of the time, being the GeForce GTX 285, the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration made a mockery of it. However since our last Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire performance article, Nvidia has struck back with their new Fermi graphics cards. Granted value is not a strong suit of the Fermi architecture, however the GeForce GTX 470 is within striking distance of the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration, costing just $30-$40 US more. The GeForce GTX 465 also recently launched at $280, making it $30-$40 US cheaper than the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration. That said, the GeForce GTX 465 is also much slower than the GTX 470, so we are going to concentrate on the faster GPU for this article. As it stands, a pair of Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards is only going to cost $320 US, while gamers can expect to pay slightly less for a single Radeon HD 5850 or a little bit more for a single GeForce GTX 470. By itself a single Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards is far from impressive, delivering mediocre performance in many recently released video games such as Battlefield Bad Company 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Just Cause 2 and Metro 2033 for example. Back when we first tested the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire graphics cards, most of the games we tested with saw a single card render over 30fps at 1920x1200. The games just mentioned hammer the Radeon HD 5770 and as a result average frame rates often struggled to get much above 20fps. Therefore boosting performance with a second Radeon HD 5770 has become more important than ever. |
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Richie |
Posted on: 06/15/2010 08:33 AM
I purchased a second 5770 based on the results of your first article and I have never looked back. AMD has been working well to get profiles updated for new games as well which is great to see. I can also confirm that the performance in Battlefield 2 BC is very good. |
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Davo |
Posted on: 06/15/2010 11:34 AM
I'm in love with my 5770 setup and have been ever since I got it  I really thought by now there would be something that offered slightly better value to gamers. I am glad to see there isn't just yet! |
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a dude |
Posted on: 06/15/2010 10:45 PM
I decided on a 5770 setup when I found a set of Asus Cucore's for under $280 after rebate with free shipping. If you have a crossfire capable motherboard, this is simply the most cost effective way to jump on the DX11 bandwagon. Having been a Nvidia fan for years, I feel I made the right decision. ATI image quality is far superior from what I've seen so far. Very very happy I am. My only regret is waiting and hoping Nvidia would bring something mindblowing to the table and that didn't happen this time. Nice article. |
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kenny |
Posted on: 06/15/2010 11:05 PM
Go the 5770 CF!!! Great article thanks. |
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RedSky0 |
Posted on: 06/16/2010 11:52 AM
Now all they need to do is release a 5770X2, not that they will. Somebody should have told me that Crossfire was actually going to be good value a couple of years ago ... |
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Bowser |
Posted on: 06/16/2010 12:01 PM
yeah well crossfire still scales like sh*t compared to sli but dual 5770's is the way to go. imagine if they scaled like a pair of gtx 470 cards though. that would be insane! |
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Morgan |
Posted on: 06/22/2010 11:19 PM
Would the performance values be similar for a P55 board, or would the 8X 8x, limit performance. |
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ProX |
Posted on: 06/22/2010 11:26 PM
@Morgan - No it would be the same on a P55 board. Nice article. |
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Sharpy |
Posted on: 06/24/2010 09:43 AM
wow I did not know Crossfire worked that well now. this is very interesting. nice work |
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sirfanxalot |
Posted on: 07/23/2010 05:02 AM
I am buying a new PC and was planning on going the P55 LGA1156 route with an Intel core i5-750 CPU and planning on getting the ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB (Crossfire) setup, but then I ran into a little bit of a problem: most P55 motherboards do have 2x PCIex16 slots, but the affordable ones (the reason I'm not buying an LGA 1366 + core i7-920 or such) all have the PCIex16 lanes shared, so for a Crossfire setup the bandwidth gets lowered to 2xPCIe@x8. Is it going to be worth my while to do this? How much is it going to hurt performance? (As I understand it, PCIe2 delivers twice the bandwidth of PCIe, and obviously PCIex16 delivers twice the bandwidth that PCIex8 does. So it makes no sense to me how it doesn't make a difference). Please help!? |
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ProX |
Posted on: 07/26/2010 01:07 AM
@ sirfanxalot - Dual PCIe 2.0 x8 bandwidth is fine for today's graphics cards, you will not notice any performance loss. |
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GAx |
Posted on: 09/16/2010 07:50 PM
I prefer 470 |
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Anon |
Posted on: 09/30/2010 08:12 AM
AWESOME follow up on the first article. First article was one of the MAJOR reason I set up my 5770 X2 in the first place. Was recently worried that through drivers, or maturing of the 5870/5850 that my system was no longer relevent. Well, you've proved me totally wrong and once again am confident in my build. THANKS! Legion. (Deal is even sweeter as I swung X2 for 200$ used. ) |
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ZoTHoS |
Posted on: 01/20/2011 08:42 PM
Nice i already have one XFX HD5770 XXX card and another one would be nice and now after reviewing this article it makes me want another 5770 really bad!! I really need to upgrade my PSU first as i am in dire need of one already because now i just saw this review and with the 5770 taking up over a little half of my PSU when on load... I only have an Ultra X-Finity 500w dual 12v rails S.L.I. psu and with the 5770 taking up 254 watts on load i just think dang man i really need a new psu i play games at 980/1380 35c on load its nice but when i go over 1000/1400 i start seeing restarts/bsod oh and why my temp is so low is because its about 15f-25f outside and my pc is in the window with the side panel off!! :-) cant wait to upgrade the psu and get another HD5770 for CF!!! Heres 2 pics of me playing NFS Shift with my XFX HD5770 XXX card very nice low temps and Great FPS!!! http://img26.imageshack.us/i/shift20101227151254550.jpg/ http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/2659/shift20101227151338322.jpg |
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Randy |
Posted on: 12/07/2012 10:52 PM
Just bought a second used Saphire 5770 for $75 ... the first one only cost me $80 ... thinking of trying eyefinity 6 setup ... lots of used DVI monitors around and Displayport to DVI adaptors are only $5 each now on ebay. Alternately it can be my 6 monitor extended workstation ... should be fun. |