discussion XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 Review

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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

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Another impressive set of results here with the HD 5850 bridging the gap between the GTX 285 and the much more powerful HD 5870. It seems to us that if Crysis is your game, you might want to look into getting the HD 5870 as it provides much better performance than its smaller brother.

 

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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

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The DX10 version of Crysis fares just as well on the HD 5850 with some impressive performance results versus the competition. Even the large gap between it and the HD 5870 we saw in Crysis DX9 diminishes by leaps and bounds.

 

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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.

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Amazingly, the HD 5850 cleans up in what was originally an NVIDIA-centric game with once again very impressive framerates. It sticks close to the HD 5870 through the lower resolutions but once the system hits 2560 x 1600, the gap widens.

 

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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.

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It seems that at lower, more CPU-bound resolutions and detail settings, there is very little difference between the top cards. What shocked us was how close the HD 4890 came to matching the performance of the HD 5850. In most cases there was less than a 10% difference between the two. Nonetheless, ATI was still able to have their card steer clear of the GTX 285.

 

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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

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Things aren’t even close between the GTX 285 and the HD 5850 in Far Cry 2; the ATI card just walks all over NVIDIA’s flagship single chip card and doesn’t look back as the resolution increases. Indeed, the HD 5850’s performance is closer to that of the HD 5870 than that of the GTX 285 which is impressive considering its price.

 

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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

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DX10 settings do little to diminish the HD 5850’s performance. Once again, the GTX 285 is pushed into the position of an also-ran that doesn’t even warranty a mention but it seems that the higher clock speeds and additional SPs of the HD 5870 allow it to pull further away from the HD 5850 than in the DX9 test.

 

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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.

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Valve’s Source engine may be one of the elder statesman in the industry, but it is still able to push a GPU extremely well. The HD 5850’s performance ended up right where we would have expected but the real story here is with the minimum framerates. These proved to be a bit of a disappointment especially at higher resolutions with AA enabled.

 

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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.

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Even at its highest settings, HawX’s DX9 mode proves to be an absolute cake-walk for every card we have listed in this review. From a pure numbers perspective, the HD 5850 pushes some disappointing numbers in relation to the NVIDIA cards but against the HD 4890 and HD 5870 it does very well.

 

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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.

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The difference between the DX9 and DX10 / 10.1 settings is like night and day with all of the cards struggling to put up acceptable framerates at higher resolutions. Much like we are used to in this game, the HD 5850 struggles to post competitive minimum numbers particularly when AA is enabled even with the optimizations in DX10.1 working for it. Things begin to look better as the resolution increases.

 

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Extreme IQ Settings Testing

Extreme IQ Settings Testing

In this section we take a number of games we have tested previously in this review and bring things to the next level with additional AA and / or higher detail settings. All other methodologies remain the same.

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When someone purchases a card that costs $300 and above, they expect it to play at the highest detail settings possible and it looks like the HD 5850 pushes things to a new level in this regard. It simply demolishes the GTX 285 in three of the four tests we ran in average framerates but once again the minimum performance tells a different tale. In Far Cry 2, it suffered a severe beating at the hands of the GTX 285 and it wasn’t too far ahead of the NVIDIA card in Left 4 Dead either. I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but both of these shortfalls reeked of driver issues rather which are limiting the potential of ATI cards.