[Review] Sapphire Radeon HD5770 1GB PCI-E

5 CommentsBy The Duke on April 4, 2010

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:

Output:

2 x Dual-Link DVI
1 x HDMI
1 x DisplayPort

GPU:

850 MHz Core Clock
40 nm Process Technology
800 x Stream Processors

Memory:

1024 MB Size 128 -bit GDDR5
4800 Mbps Clock Effective

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:

ASUS Rampage GENE II
Intel I7 920 D0
3×2GB Mushkin Enhanced Blackline
Sapphire 5770
Corsair HX750w
WD 320GB Hard Drive

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

1920x1200

1680x1050

1280x800

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

1920x1200

1680x1050

1280x800

Game Benchmarks: All details set to HIGH

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: AA-4x DX11

1920×1200

CPU @ Stock // GPU @ Stock

CPU - Stock GPU - 960-1435

CPU-4.1 GPU-stock

CPU-4.1 GPU- 960-1435

1680×1050

CPU @ Stock // GPU @ Stock

CPU-Stock GPU- 960-1435

CPU-4.1 GPU-stock

CPU-4.1 GPU- 960-1435

1280×800

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

1920x1200

1680x1050

1280x800

Torchlight:

1920x1200

1680x1050

1280x800

World In Conflict:

1920x1200

1680x1050

1280x800

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:

This card has left a great impression on us. When we first got the card, we were not sure what to expect, since all of the talk was “5850 this and 5870 that.” Needless to say, there was a big unknown factor going into the review. Well, we took this card for a ride and tested it with anything and everything we could find. After all was said and done, this card proved to be extremely impressive. It took monster games and held them in check. Yes, we know that there are better 5 series cards out there, but for the price, you would be hard pressed to find another card that puts out this much power. It handled high resolutions with high settings with 8x AA and 16x AF and kept on kicking. The “wow” factor we saw with this card is that it can run any game out on the market without bogging down. There may be some games out there that you may not get to run at max resolution and max settings, but the 5770 can hold its own, especially if you tweak it a little.

Overclocking the card was hassle free and easy. With the great heat dissipation these cards have, the 5770 gives you plenty of headroom to raise the speeds. One thing we think could be improved upon is the obnoxious fan noise when you get above 55% or so. The card becomes completely unbearable if you hit 100%. We still are not sure why a better solution has not been used, because it is out there. It’s just a good thing that you will hardly ever need to crank the fan speed up that high since ATI has reduced the heat output. Overall, the 5770 is an extremely strong contender at the $150 pricing point. It has earned our respect, and we won’t be ashamed to recommend it to our friends.

The Sapphire Radeon HD5770 1GB card has earned our TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!

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

CATEGORIES: ATI, Overclocking, Reviews, Video Cards
TAGS: ATI, graphics card, Overclocking, power consumption, Radeon, Sapphire 5770

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