XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB Single Slot Review

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Just Cause 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 has quickly become known as one of the best-looking games on the market and while it doesn’t include DX11 support, it uses the full stable of DX10 features to deliver a truly awe-inspiring visual experience. For this benchmark we used the car chase scene directly following the Casino Assault level. This scene includes perfectly scripted events, some of the most GPU-strenuous effects and lasts a little less than four minutes. We chose to not use the in-game benchmarking tool due to its inaccuracy when it comes to depicting actual gameplay performance.


1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

 

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Metro 2033 (DX11)

Metro 2033 (DX11)

There has been a lot of buzz about Metro 2033 which has mostly centered on its amazing graphics coupled with absolutely brutal framerates on even the best GPUs on the market. For this test we use a walkthrough and combat scene from The Bridge level which starts at the beginning of the level and lasts for about 5 minutes of walking, running and combat. Famerates are measured with FRAPS and Advanced PhysX is turned off.


1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

 

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Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine’s Heaven benchmark is currently the de-facto standard when it comes to simple, straightforward DX11 performance estimates. While it is considered a synthetic benchmark by many, it is important to remember that no less than four games based on this engine will be released within the next year or so. In this test we will be using a standard benchmark run with and without tessellation enabled at three resolutions,


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1920 x 1200

 

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Core Temperature & Acoustics

Core Temperature & 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.

So this is what we have all been waiting for and believe it or not, there aren’t any of the sky high temperatures we have come to expect from single slot graphics cards. Other than a slightly higher than stock idle temperature, the XFX HD 5770 single slot edition is remarkably well behaved.

Low temperatures mean nothing on a card like this if it reaches its goal through a screamingly loud fan and again this card impressed. It is quite literally whisper quiet. XFX claims it is quieter than the reference version and we’re inclined to believe them.

System 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.

Power consumption is well within the norms of other HD 5770 cards and actually polls a bit below the reference card we use. This could be due to anything from components used to the usual margin of error.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

In many ways, we’ve always been fans of the HD 5770 mainly due to its pricing and performance per watt ratio. It doesn’t provide the best performance known to man but it is still able to push acceptable framerates at the resolutions most gamers use. There is no way that anyone could possibly ask for more from a sub-$200 card but now having it available in a single slot design will likely endear it to a whole new crop of potential suitors.

We wouldn’t necessarily call this a niche product but with the market as tight as it currently is, many will be scratching their heads as to the reasoning behind its design. Granted, there are no performance (in-game or cooling- wise) benefits between it and the slightly less expensive dual slot cards but it has plenty of other resounding characteristics. The real market for single slot cards is people who have limited space within their enclosure to work with and in this respect, XFX’s new HD 5770 hits the nail spot on the head. It is currently one of the most powerful single-slot cards available and it sets a new high water mark for compact performance. What impressed us the most though was its ability to pack quite a bit of cooling power into its slim yet quiet heatsink design.

The crux of the matter is whether the XFX HD 5770 single slot edition is really worth a mere $20 less than a GTX 460 768MB. If you are looking at it from a solely framerate perspective, the answer is a definite no. A stock-clocked HD 5770 simply has no chance of competing against NVIDIA’s newest $200 card in terms of raw in-game performance but XFX’s card doesn’t need GTX 460-beating performance to stand out. Not only does it consume significantly less power and produce much less heat that the GTX 460 but it is also more compact as well. ATI’s native HD audio pass-through is also more mature than NVIDIA’s current solution which when coupled with the points above makes the HD 5770 an appealing option at its price point.

The reason why we found the XFX HD 5770 single slot to be so successful is the fact that it does everything right while being backed up by one of this industry’s best warranties. Usually single slot cards are noisy little buggers or they are quiet yet literally allow the GPU’s core to melt. XFX has actually found that delicate balance between noise and cooling performance which makes this card infinitely easier to digest than its forefathers. As such, it wins our Dam Good Innovation Award.


Pros:

- Single slot height finally meets good DX11 performance
- Very good cooling performance
- Whisper quiet
- Compact size
- Double Lifetime warranty


Cons:

- No native HDMI or adaptor included
- Slightly more expensive than the reference version (before rebates)

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