With the much anticipated release of the 5xxx series a success on many levels, the ATI crowd has much to celebrate. The new 5 series cards put ATI back on top of the video card market. They can now boast about the amazing DX11 compatibility and the Eyefinity technology introduced with the higher end 5 series cards. The 5770 is in the middle of the pack for the new generation of cards, with the 5970 in the lead and the 5450 bringing up the rear. All in all, ATI has to be loving the massive success these cards have brought them. With talks of a new 2 GB version for the 5 series coming in the near future, ATI has set an extremely high standard for Nvidia to try and match.

Packaging:

The 5770:

Specifications:

Features:

• ATI Eyefinity
• Advanced GDDR5 Memory Technology
• 40nm Process Technology
• ATI Stream Technology
• ATI Avivo HD (DVD/HD-DVD/Blue-ray Playback)
• ATI CrossFireX™ Multi-GPU Technology
• PCI-Express 2.0
• Dual-Link DVI
• HDMI
• DisplayPort
• Microsoft DirectX® 11
• OpenGL® 3.1 and 3.2
• Shader Model 5.0
• ATI Catalyst Control Center™
• Accelerated Video Transcoding
• Dolby® TrueHD and DTSHD Master Audio™ Support
• Anti-aliasing features
• Multi-sample anti-aliasing (2, 4 or 8 samples per pixel)
• Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing (CFAA) for superior quality
• Adaptive super-sampling and multi-sampling
• Gamma correct
• Super AA (ATI CrossFireX™configurations only)
• All anti-aliasing features compatible with HDR rendering
• Physics processing support
• ATI PowerPlay™
• Windows® 7 support

Test System:

Overclocking:

When starting the overclocking, a few things came up, so we decided to let the Auto-Tune function in CCC make the recommended overclock while we were gone. Little did we know that it takes its sweet time in doing this. About five hours later it was finally done. We took the settings that Auto-Tune gave us and tried to push it even higher.  We thought maybe the program would be geared toward the safe side.  However, come to find out, it gave us max overclocking results. Without flashing the BIOS, or anything like that, we hit the ceiling with the clocks posted above.  We ended up with a really nice 13% and 20% overclock on the GPU clock and memory clock, respectively. This is not bad at all, especially for the average user who would like a little more muscle in games. Especially considering the fact that you can use the Auto-Tune function and get max settings; anyone can now overclock their cards like a pro.

Synthetic Benchmarks:

3DMark01

3DMark03

3DMark05

3DMark06

FurMark: AA8x

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Unigine Heaven: DX11, HIGH, Tesselation-Enabled, AA8x, AA8x

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Game Benchmarks: *All details set to HIGH*

Batman Arkham Asylum: AA-8x AF-16x.

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Bad Company 2 – AA8x AF16x

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Company of Heroes – AA-enabled  AF-NA

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Call of Juarez-  AA-4x DX10

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Far Cry 2 –  AA-8x AF-NA DX10

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FUEL:  AA-8x AF-16x

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Tom Clancy’s HAWX – DX10 AA8x

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Just Cause 2: AA-8x AF-16x

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Modern Warfare 2: AA4x AF-NA

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:  AA-4x DX11

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CPU @ Stock // GPU @ Stock

CPU – Stock GPU – 960-1435

CPU-4.1 GPU-stock

CPU-4.1 GPU- 960-1435

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CPU @ Stock // GPU @ Stock

CPU-Stock GPU- 960-1435

CPU-4.1 GPU-stock

CPU-4.1 GPU- 960-1435

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CPU @ Stock // GPU @ Stock

CPU-Stock GPU- 960-1435

CPU-4.1 GPU-stock

CPU-4.1 GPU- 960-1435

Team Fortress 2: AA8x AF16x

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Torchlight:

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World In Conflict:

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Power Consumption:

Notice in the test below that this is total power consumption. We tried our best to make the load as much as possible on the video card and nothing else. We ran FurMark at the highest settings our system would allow. We think FurMark would give us the most reasonable readings on GPU load and how much wattage it puts out without stressing other components in the system too much.

With the tests above, you can see just how much wattage you can expect to use during gaming/benchmarking. This should help you with your PSU buying needs and the uncertainties that it always brings about. You can now refer to the chart above and make a better decision on how many watts your PSU needs to be. The chart will also give you an idea of what to expect from the much loved energy bill you get every month. Even with the card taking the system up to 277w while overclocked, this is still a very reasonable number for most people. It has definitely improved over the power hungry ATI/Nvidia cards of old.

Temperature Testing:

Testing Conditions:

• Ambient Room Temp: 24C
• Ambient checked before and after tests
• Card set at test settings for 15 minutes to get idle temperature

Video Card @ Stock

Video Card @ 960/1435

After finishing the tests, we notice one major difference. The 5 series card temperatures are leaps and bounds ahead of the old 4 series! Finally, ATI got the temperatures under control and these cards can no longer be used as a substitute to fry up some eggs. With the vast improvement in heat dissipation, once again, it is a viable option to run crossfire and not have your room feeling like a sauna after a few hours of gaming.

Fan Noise Level:

We did not have a decibel meter handy at the time of testing. However, you really don’t need one because there is a definite line where you will start to notice the fan. We have found this line to be in the range of 53%-58%.  You will notice, without a doubt, that the fan is moving air. When you crank up the fan to 100%, the real noise is let loose! There is no way a normal person can sit in the same room for an extended period of time at this speed. It drove us crazy while we messed with it for a few tests, and that was only for about 10 minutes. Maybe some people like the sound of a jet engine coming from their case? We could certainly do without it, so suffice to say you will not want to leave the fan running at 100% for long periods of time.

Final Thoughts:

Also be sure to check out TestFreaks for more reviews on the Sapphire Radeon HD5770 1GB.