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Finally we have been able to check out the Radeon HD 5770 and HIS were kind enough to provide us with a sample just days before the official announcement from AMD. The Radeon HD 5770 is probably the most anticipated new Radeon for us, as it will deliver DirectX 11 support to the mainstream, and it does so in a graphics card that is still capable of playing games in all their glory. After all, DirectX 11 support is next to useless if you are playing games using medium/low quality settings. With the exception of Crysis, the Radeon HD 5770 was more than capable of delivering playable performance in all the games we tested using high/maximum quality in-game settings combined with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering settings enabled. In terms of performance, the Radeon HD 5770 closely matched the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards. In fact the Radeon HD 5770 is almost like an improved version of the Radeon HD 4870, and although it was a little slower in some games, it does offer improved efficiency and support for the latest technologies. As it stands the cheapest Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards can be had for about $160, so it came as little surprise when we learnt that this is the price point that the Radeon HD 5770 will be stepping in at. When compared to the GeForce GTX 260 we feel that the Radeon HD 5770 is a superior product.  Again in terms of performance the Radeon HD 5770 compares well, though for the most part the GeForce GTX 260 is a little faster. However, like the Radeon HD 4870, the GeForce GTX 260 cannot compete with the efficiency of the Radeon HD 5770, and it also lacks other features such as DirectX 11 support. In most cases the Radeon HD 5770 was just over 30% faster than the old Radeon HD 4770, while it also costs just over 30% more. AMD have worked out their pricing very well and when compared to Nvidia they have far more mainstream products on offer now. Something we found with the Radeon HD 4770 was that it worked rather well in Corssfire, well not so much that it worked well, it just made sense. More sense than most graphics cards in Corssfire mode. This was because the Radeon HD 4770 delivered amazing performance for such a cheap graphics card at the time of its release. Running two in Crossfire was a better alternative to buying a single Radeon HD 4870 for example. There we are wondering if the same is true of the Radeon HD 5770 in Crossfire. Unfortunately I was not able to complete my Crossfire testing in time for AMD’s launch today, so those results will follow. However I can tell you that a pair of Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards in Crossfire mode easily out performs a single Radeon HD 5850. For example, in Far Cry 2 at 2560x1600 they were just over 25% faster than a single Radeon HD 5850 graphics card. That margin should be enough to see the Radeon HD 5770 Corssfire configuration roughly match a single Radeon HD 5870 graphics card. The cost of two Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards would be $320, while a single Radeon HD 5870 costs $380, so this is a very interesting comparison. On a side note we can confirm that a pair of Radeon HD 5770 Corssfire graphics cards consumes roughly the same amount of power as a single Radeon HD 5870 under load. So while we are completing our first Radeon HD 5770 review on this HIS brand graphics card, there are still plenty of questions to be answered in regards to Crossfire performance. Then there is also the Radeon HD 5750, which is essentially the same product as the 5770 but it operates its core and memory at lower frequencies. The 18% reduction in core frequency meant that the Radeon HD 5750 was roughly 18% slower than the 5770. In terms of pricing the 1GB version is also roughly 18% cheaper. The Radeon HD 5750 is a product that we will examine in more detail shortly, as its overclocking potential is something we are very interested in exploring.
Reviewed By Steven Walton |
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