discussion XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 Review

[SKYMTL]

Crysis: Warhead (DX9)

Crysis: Warhead (DX9)

To benchmark Warhead, we recorded a 5 minute timedemo on the Ice level which included ranged and hand to hand combat. The sequence was then played back using the Crysis Benchmarking Tool from HOC

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

Once again we are seeing performance that is close to that of a GTX 260 216 but what really stands out is the minimum framerates. In that sense, the HD 5770 1GB draws just about even with the 896MB NVIDIA card except at high resolutions with AA enabled where the additional shading power of the 260 can come into play.

 

[SKYMTL]

Crysis: Warhead (DX10)

Crysis: Warhead (DX10)

To benchmark Warhead, we recorded a 5 minute timedemo on the Ice level which included ranged and hand to hand combat. The sequence was then played back using the Crysis Benchmarking Tool from HOC

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

In Crysis DX9 we mentioned that the additional shading power of the GTX 260 216 was able to come into play at high resolutions but in DX10 it seems the larger framebuffer of the HD 5770 allows it to nearly draw even with the 260 at high res. It is also apparent that the GTS 250 1GB simply lacks the horsepower to keep up with this new ATI card.

 

[SKYMTL]

Dawn of War II

Dawn of War II

Even though Dawn of War II has its own in-game benchmarking tool, we decided not to use it. Instead, we played through approximately 10 minutes of the final Sapce Marine mission “Last Stand” while recording framerates with FRAPS. With a massive amount of enemies rushing your position and additional troops deployed on your side, this mission features some of the largest battles in the single player game. In addition, since the Tyranid swarms appear at regular intervals, this mission is also perfect for comparison testing.

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

Dawn of War II is an interesting example of how NVIDIA’s The Way It’s Meant To Be Played program doesn’t necessarily translate into better performance. Here the HD 5770 1GB is once again able to perform within about 10% of a GTX 260 216 while offering significantly better performance than the HD 5750 1GB or GTS 250 1GB.

 

[SKYMTL]

Fallout 3

Fallout 3

For these Fallout 3 benchmarks we decided to use one of the more graphically intensive portions of the game: a gameplay session which starts at the exit from Vault 101, through Springvale, over a small hill towards Washington and then back towards Megaton. Within this session two ants were fought near Springvale. All in all, the gameplay time is about 6 minutes.

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

The performance of the HD 5770 1GB in Fallout 3 is just stunning for a card that costs under $200. Not only does it soundly beat the GTX 260 216 until it is black and blue but the difference in minimum framerates is really something to behold.

 

[SKYMTL]

Far Cry 2 (DX9)

Far Cry 2 (DX9)

Even though Far Cry 2 has its own built-in benchmarking tool with some flythroughs and “action scenes”, we decided to record our own timedemo consisting of about 7 minutes of game time. It involves everything from run-and-gun fights to fire effects. The built-in benchmarking too was then set up to replay the timedemo and record framerates

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

Once again, the HD 5770 1GB provides some eye-opening performance and beats the GTX 260 216 in every test and even comes close to the HD 4890 in a few instances. However, the minimum framerates tell a bit different story.

 

[SKYMTL]

Far Cry 2 (DX10)

Far Cry 2 (DX10)

Even though Far Cry 2 has its own built-in benchmarking tool with some flythroughs and “action scenes”, we decided to record our own timedemo consisting of about 7 minutes of game time. It involves everything from run-and-gun fights to fire effects. The built-in benchmarking too was then set up to replay the timedemo and record framerates

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

Far Cry DX10 provides much the same results as the DX9 version but this time the superior rendering power of the GTX 260 216 comes into play whenever AA is turned on. On the flip side of the coin, the GTS 250 1GB is thoroughly beat again and again...except when it comes to minimum framerates with AA enabled. When that happens, the HD 5770 really suffers at the hands of the NVIDIA cards. Well, it seems we have yet another justification for including the minimum framerates in our charts.

 

[SKYMTL]

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

For benching Left 4 Dead, we used a pre-recorded 5 minute timedemo taken on the No Mercy campaign during The Rooftop Finale mission. Framerates were captured with FRAPS.

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

In other benchmarks the HD 5770 provides performance very similar to that of the GTX 260 216 but here the NVIDIA card is able to pull away with the show. Meanwhile, the HD 5770 1GB sits firmly between the 260 and the GTS 250 1GB.

 

[SKYMTL]

Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX9)

Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX9)

Even though HawX has a built-in benchmarking tool, we found that it did not provide accurate enough results needed to reflect what actual in-game performance would be. Thus, we played through the first 6 minutes of a mission and recorded the results with FRAPS.

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

Much like Dawn of War II has become the breeding ground for ATI performance, NVIDIA has taken over HawX in a big way. Even though every card in the charts gets acceptable performance all the way up to the highest resolution, the HD 5770 polls in the bottom half of the cards tested in every benchmark here.

 

[SKYMTL]

Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX10 / 10.1)

Tom Clancy’s Hawx (DX10 / 10.1)

Even though HawX has a built-in benchmarking tool, we found that it did not provide accurate enough results needed to reflect what actual in-game performance would be. Thus, we played through the first 6 minutes of a mission and recorded the results with FRAPS. All ATI cards have DX10.1 enabled.

1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

HawX DX10 provides some interesting results with the HD 5770’s 1GB framebuffer really coming into play as the resolution increases. Even though there won’t be many people using this card on a 30” screen, it is still good to know that in certain cases, 1GB does matter.

 

[SKYMTL]

Heat & Acoustics / Power Consumption

Heat & Acoustics

For all temperature testing, the cards were placed on an open test bench with a single 120mm 1200RPM fan placed ~8” away from the heatsink. The ambient temperature was kept at a constant 22°C (+/- 0.5°C). If the ambient temperatures rose above 23°C at any time throughout the test, all benchmarking was stopped. For this test we use the 3DMark Batch Size test at it highest triangle count with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled and looped it for one hour to determine the peak load temperature as measured by GPU-Z.

For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Vista desktop for 15 minutes and recorded the peak temperature.

Low temperatures are what we have come to expect from ATI’s 40nm cards and the HD 5770 is no different. Even though its peak temperature is close to that of the HD 4890, it should be stated that the 4000-series card is also noisy as hell when under load. Meanwhile, the HD 5770 is quiet as a mouse throughout its load range.

Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 30 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption. We have also included several other tests as well.

Please note that after extensive testing, we have found that simply plugging in a power meter to a wall outlet or UPS will NOT give you accurate power consumption numbers due to slight changes in the input voltage. Thus we use a Tripp-Lite 1800W line conditioner between the 120V outlet and the power meter.

The power consumption numbers shown by this card are nothing short of incredible. Even though it takes the GTS 250 1GB to the cleaner’s in the majority of the benchmarks, the HD 5770 consumes nearly 50W less when under full load. If this coupled with downright amazing idle power consumption doesn’t convince you that ATI is doing something right with the 40nm manufacturing process, we don’t know what will.