ATI, graphics business unit of AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), unleashed its next-generation flagship product code-named Cypress on September 23rd. Now known as the Radeon HD 5870, this new graphics card quickly became the world’s most powerful single-GPU solution, as it crushed the GeForce GTX 285. More over, at $380 US the Radeon HD 5870 is also very competitively priced, causing even more problems for Nvidia.

Unfortunately, although AMD appears to have a real winner on its hands, the company seems unable to capitalize on their rare win. For now at least, AMD has Nvidia on the back foot, with no real answer to the power or value of the Radeon HD 5870. Therefore you would expect that the Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards are selling like hot cakes, and well, they are.

The problem is, there are not enough cakes, or Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards in this case, to go around and almost all stores are out of stock. It seems gamers are lining up to buy AMD’s $380 US flagship product and they are being denied access. The situation is even worse when discussing the Radeon HD 5850, which was released just a week later.

On the 30th of September AMD continued their assault, sealing the deal with the Radeon HD 5850, which was also faster than the GeForce GTX 285 while priced at just $260 US, making it considerably cheaper. In terms of value the Radeon HD 5850 is even better than the Radeon HD 5870, and currently nothing can compete with it in the sub $300 market.

However, like its bigger brother, the Radeon HD 5850 is missing in action, and this has been the case since shortly after its release. Whatever stock retailers received for the launch quickly sold out, and that still appears to be the case, with all major retailers still displaying no stock. Despite the lack of new Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards, AMD is pressing forward, and today they are releasing the Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 graphics cards.

The Radeon HD 5770 is priced at $160 US, while the 5750 will be priced between $110 - $130, depending on the memory capacity. In terms of performance we expect that the Radeon HD 5770 will perform much like the Radeon HD 4870, and given the price tag it would simply be picking up where this graphics card left off. This also means for now the Nvidia competition will come from the GeForce GTX 260, which does cost a little more but should also deliver a little more performance...

The package bundle HIS has prepared for their Radeon HD 5770 card however is more generous than we have come to expect from graphics card manufacturers as of late. Besides the card itself, inside the box we found a CrossFireX bridge adapter, two 6-pin power cable adapters (in case your PSU does not have them), a DVI-VGA adapter, the usual quick reference manuals and a game coupon for DiRT 2. It's expected to be released sometime in December and will be the first shipping DirectX 11 title.

While the Radeon HD 5870 measures 28cm long and the Radeon HD 5850 is 24cm long, the Radon HD 5770 is just 21cm long. The Radon HD 5770 measures the same length as existing Radeon HD 4850 and 4770 graphics cards. This means that this new graphics card will fit in any case that can support a mATX motherboard.

Cooling the “Juniper XT” GPU is a fairly large aluminum heatsink, made up of 32 fins measuring 7.5cm long, 6.0cm wide, and 2.5cm tall. Connected to the base of this heatsink are two copper heatpipes which help improve efficiency. Finally, there is a 65x20mm blower fan that draws air in from within the case and pushes it out through the rear of the graphics card.

The Radeon HD 5770 features a remarkably low 18 watt idle consumption level, making it one of the most efficient graphics cards available today. When we began to game, the fan kicked in and made some noise - as you would expect. Noise levels were comparable to those of the Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce GTS 250 graphics cards, however nothing unusual here.

The use of a 40nm design has allowed ATI to be quite aggressive with the GPU core speed, clocking it at 850MHz. The GPU configuration features 800 SPUs, 40 TAUs (Texture Address Units) and 16 ROPs (Rasterization Operator Units). Interestingly this is the exact core configuration of the Radeon HD 4870 and 4890 graphics cards.

GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1200MHz on this particular model, matching the memory speed of the Radeon HD 5870. There's 1GB of memory in total spread across eight chips, which are located on the front and back side of the graphics card.

The Radeon HD 5770 can consume up to 108 watts of power when pushed hard. In order to feed the graphics card enough power, AMD has included a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector. This is the same configuration that you will find on the Radeon HD 4770.

As with all modern Radeons, in the standard position you'll find a pair of Crossfire connectors for bridging two or more cards together. The only other connectors can be found on the I/O panel. Our AMD card featured two dual DVI connectors, a HDMI, and Display Port connection. It is worth noting that all Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards can support a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 on not one but rather three monitors (a feature ATI calls Eyefinity).

Hardware - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz) - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - ASUS GeForce GTX 260 (896MB) - ASUS GeForce 9800 GT (1GB) - ASUS GeForce 9600 GT (512MB) - HIS Radeon HD 5850 (1GB) - HIS Radeon HD 5770 (1GB) - HIS Radeon HD 5750 (1GB) - ASUS Radeon HD 4870 (512MB) - HIS Radeon HD 4850 (1GB) - HIS Radeon HD 4770 (512MB) - ASUS Radeon HD 3850 (512MB) - ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 191.03 - ATI Catalyst 9.10

According to 3Dmark Vantage the Radeon HD 5770 delivers roughly the same performance as the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards. This made the Radeon HD 5770 considerably faster than the Radeon HD 4850 and 4770 graphics cards at all three tested resolutions. At 1920x1200 the Radeon HD 5770 produced a score of 5396pts, making it just 3% slower than the GeForce GTX 260, and 38% slower than the Radeon HD 5850.

The Radeon HD 5770 scales very well in Company of Heroes, in fact this is something we have really noticed about these new Radeon graphics cards, they perform particularly well in this game. At 1920x1200 the Radeon HD 5770 was found to be 12% faster than the Radeon HD 4870, while it was just 6.5% slower than the GeForce GTX 260. This was an excellent result for the Radeon HD 5770 and it also meant that it was 30% faster than the old Radeon HD 4770.

Again the new Radeon series performs exceptionally well in Call of Duty World at War and this could be good news for those hoping to enjoy Modern Warfare 2 on the cheap. The Radeon HD 5770 averaged an impressive 66fps at 1920x1200, and 44fps at 2560x1600. This meant that at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5770 matched the GeForce GTX 260, while it was an incredible 22% faster than the Radeon HD 4870.

That said, the Radeon HD 4870 we used for testing only has a 512MB frame buffer, which hurts it at this extreme resolution. Dialing the resolution down to 1920x1200 reduced the margin to 12%, which was of course still in favor of the Radeon HD 5770, which is a tremendous result no matter how you look at it.

Crysis is, as many of you will already know, a highly demanding game and even when using the toned down medium quality settings the game can present performance problems for mainstream graphics cards. At 1920x1200 the Radeon HD 5770 averaged 34fps, making it just 1fps faster than the Radeon HD 4850, while it was 15% slower than the Radeon HD 4870 which was a little disappointing. When compared to the Radeon HD 4770 the new Radeon HD 5770 was 4fps or 13% faster.

The Radeon HD 5770 was able to deliver similar performance to that of the Radeon HD 4870 in Enemy Territory Quake Wars, with an average of 57fps at 2560x1600. This made the Radeon HD 5770 around 33% faster than the Radeon HD 4770, which is a much more respectable performance gain.

The Radeon HD 5770 is no slouch in Fallout 3 either, matching the GeForce GTX 260 at 1920x1200 and then defeating it at 2560x1600. In fact, at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5770 played second best only to the Radeon HD 5850. Impressively the Radeon HD 5770 delivered playable performance at all three tested resolutions, using maximum in-game quality settings with 4xAA/16xAF enabled!

The Radeon HD 5770 was a star in Far Cry 2, beating the Radeon HD 4870 at all three tested resolutions. The GeForce GTX 260 was only able to overtake the Radeon HD 5770 at 2560x1600, where it beat it by just 2fps. The performance at 1920x1200 was impressive, as the Radeon HD 5770 delivered 46fps with maximum in-game quality settings enabled with 2xAA.

The Radeon HD 5770 continued to perform well in Left 4 Dead, almost matching the performance of the GeForce GTX 260. Although the Radeon HD 5770 was only slightly slower than the GeForce GTX 260 at each resolution, it was also slightly faster than the Radeon HD 4870, which is obviously a great result. This also meant that at 1920x1200 the Radeon HD 5770 was 25% faster than the Radeon HD 4770.

The Resident Evil 5 performance trends were similar to those of Left 4 Dead, and that could have something to do with the zombies, though we are not sure. In any case the Radeon HD 5770 roughly matched the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards, delivering similar performance at all three tested resolutions. At 2560x1600 for example the Radeon HD 5770 was just 1fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870, and 2fps slower than the GeForce GTX 260. This made the Radeon HD 5770 an impressive 38% faster than the old Radeon HD 4770.

The Radeon HD 5770 closely matched the performance of the Radeon HD 4870 in Street Fighter IV, as it was just 1fps slower at 1920x1200 and 2fps at 2560x1600. Furthermore, the Radeon HD 5770 was not a great deal slower than the GeForce GTX 260, losing by a 6% margin at 2560x1600. At this extreme resolution using maximum in-game quality settings with 4xAA, the Radeon HD 5770 was able to average 74fps!

The Radeon HD 5770 performed well in S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, beating the Radeon HD 4870 by a 13% margin at 1920x1200. Furthermore, it was just 5% slower than the GeForce GTX 260 at the same resolution.

When testing with The Last Remnant the Radeon HD 5770 is at a definite disadvantage when compared to the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards at 1680x1050. As the resolution scales up this becomes less of an issue for the Radeon HD 5770, and by the time we hit 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5770 is just 4fps slower than he Radeon HD 4870 and 9fps slower than the GeForce GTX 260. Even so, with an average of 40fps at this extreme resolution, the Radeon HD 5770 was 49% faster than the old Radeon HD 4770.

At 2560x1600 in Unreal Tournament 3 the Radeon HD 5770 averaged 43fps, making it just 7% slower than the GeForceGTX 260, while it was 5% faster than the Radeon HD 4870. Furthermore, when compared to the old Radeon HD 4770 the Radeon HD 5770 was a whopping 72% faster! That said, this huge margin was more likely due to the memory capacity advantage of the Radeon HD 5770, and this is confirmed at 1920x1200 where it is just 33% faster.

When testing with World in Conflict Soviet Assault we again find that the Radeon HD 5770 is slightly slower than the GeForce GTX 260. At 1920x1200 it trailed by 4fps, and at 2560x1600 just 3fps separated the two. The Radeon HD 5770 did remain faster than the Radeon HD 4870, beating it by just a single frame at 2560x1600.

Finishing up the benchmark phase we have Wolfenstein, and here the Radeon HD 5770 does lag behind both the GeForce GTX 260 and the Radeon HD 4870. At 1920x1200 the Radeon HD 5770 was 4fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870, and a whopping 20fps slower than the GeForce GTX 260. Then at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5770 was just 2fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870 and 9fps slower than the GeForce GTX 260.

The power consumption levels were about what we were expecting, though the idle result of the Radeon HD 5770 was a little higher. That said, with a load consumption level of 284 watts, the Radeon HD 5770 uses considerably less power than the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards. The Radeon HD 5770 requires around 15% less power than the GeForce GTX 260 when gaming, which is impressive.

The dual slot cooler of the Radeon HD 5770 made little noise even when under load and despite this we recorded a stress temperature of just 74 degrees, which is quite low in the world of graphics cards. The idle temperature of 47 degrees was average, with many GPU’s operating cooler at idle, though it as far from a bad result.

Resident Evil 5 saw decent performance gains, with the Radeon HD 5770 rendering an additional 4fps at 2560x1600 which boosted performance by roughly 9%. This small performance gain effectively allowed the Radeon HD 5770 to leap frog the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards.

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.

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Reviewed By Steven Walton