Over the course of the past two months, AMD has launched five different models as part of its HD 5000 series. The company kicked things off with its higher-end HD 5850 and HD 5870 cards, which simply put, reaffirmed the fact that the roaring success of the HD 4000 series wasn't going to be the last. Just last week, AMD ushered in the launch of its first dual-GPU card as part of the HD 5000 series, the HD 5970, and it's mind-bogglingly fast, especially when compared to NVIDIA's current offerings.
While high-end cards are all fine and good for those who need the kind of powered offered, there exists an even stronger market for lower-end components, and that's where the HD 5770 and HD 5750 come into play. I took a look at the former about a month ago, and was impressed with the overall value. No matter how you looked at it, the card offered fantastic performance, a lower power consumption (and lower temps as a result), along with such perks as DirectX 11. There wasn't a single aspect not to like - well, except for the overclocking potential.
Model
Core MHz
Mem MHz
Memory
Bus Width
Processors
Radeon HD 5870
850
1200
1024MB
256-bit
1600
Radeon HD 5850
725
1000
1024MB
256-bit
1440
Radeon HD 5770
850
1200
1024MB
128-bit
800
Radeon HD 5750
700
1150
512 - 1024MB
128-bit
720
Radeon HD 4890
850 - 900
975
1024MB
256-bit
800
Radeon HD 4870
750
900
512 - 2048MB
256-bit
800
Radeon HD 4850
625
993
512 - 1024MB
256-bit
800
Radeon HD 4770
750
800
512MB
128-bit
640
Radeon HD 4670
750
900 - 1100
512 - 1024MB
128-bit
320
Radeon HD 4650
600
400 - 500
512 - 1024MB
128-bit
320
At $109 for the 512MB version, and $129 for the 1GB version, the HD 5750 is without a doubt, a card designed for those who want performance far beyond what an integrated chip could offer, but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The HD 5750 is capable of delivering on all fronts in that regard. As you can see below, Sapphire changes things up from the reference design just a wee bit. the board itself is identical, but the cooler is a little more robust, with a larger heatsink base.
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1GB Video Card
The Vapor-X series is one of Sapphire’s main lines when it comes to offering performance graphics cards. With the main focus being on cooling thanks to a completely new cooler, when compared to the stock one we've seen the series perform well, not only recently but ever since its introduction.
Recently we had a chance to look at the HD 5750 and HD 5870 Vapor-X models. After looking at both of them there was a clear hole in the middle with the much loved HD 5770 and HD 5850 not being part of the lineup.
The good news is that the HD 5770 has now joined the Vapor-X series and if the whispers we're hearing are anything to go by, the HD 5850 shouldn't be all that far away either.
So let's take a look at the package of the HD 5770 Vapor-X before having a closer look at the card and the cooler it carries. Then we'll have a look at the specifications and get stuck into the benchmarks to see just how the model performs.
ATI 5 series video cards. If not you have probably been living under a rock. ATI took a swing for the fences and hit a home run in terms of the performance delivered by the Sapphire HD 5870 when compared to the best single GPU card that Nvidia had to offer at the time, the GTX 285. The follow up, the Sapphire HD 5850, just about cleaned house as well. Building on that performance lead they solidified the high end stranglehold with the Sapphire HD 5970 that really just crushed the GTX 295 and HD 4870x2. With the high end covered the mid range was not forgotten about with the introduction of the 5700 series that included the Sapphire HD 5770 and 5750. The 5 series of cards are the first true Direct X 11 video cards to market but at launch really did not have any games ready to show off this technology. This has now changed with more than a few games ready with many more in the wings from a slew of developers. Sapphire as ATIs largest partner always brings something interesting to the table after the release of the reference or ATI cards. Sapphire has a few lines that are geared more towards the enthusiast with the Atomic, Toxic and Vapor-X series. Each offers better component usage and some innovative cooling solutions. For instance there was the use of a self contained liquid cooling system on the Sapphire HD 4870x2 Atomic and the first use of the Vapor-X technology from Microloops on the Sapphire HD 3870 Atomic back in January 2008.
From that point forward Sapphire has made use of the technology not only on the Vapor-X line but in the Toxic and Atomic lineups to bring out the best cooling and noise performance from their video cards. The cooling is only part of the Vapor-X package. The Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X comes equipped with not only the additional cooling but is built using solid high polymer capacitors and "Black Diamond" chokes that use a built in heat spreader to drop the operating temperatures by 10% while increasing the efficiency by 25%. So what does this really get you net? Because of the cooling used Sapphire ups the clock speed by 10Mhz on the Juniper 40nm core going from 850MHz to 860MHz but no increase on the GDDR5 memory clocks. At this point you have a card with better cooling, better component selection and higher clock speeds. Lets see if that translates in to better performance and overclocking. If the past history is any indication this card should do well.
HD 4850
The graphics solution world is constantly evolving with visual quality being stepped up at an ever-growing exponential rate. The launch of Windows 7 and with it the tantalising prospect of DirectX 11 games is perhaps not so much just a single step up but a whole flight of stairs designed to deliver unparalleled graphics quality.
With nVidia sliding by the way side, ATI is setting about monopolising the market rolling out numerous members of its 5 series cards, each of which offers a different price/performance ratio, following the main launch of the 5870 – a card which packed some serious performance and certainly turned heads at the beginning of the DirectX 11 era.
However, with DirectX 11 games still very much on the horizon and price of the 5870 way over budget for many enthusiasts, the inevitable introduction of the 5850 followed shortly. Based on the same RV870 core, codenamed Cypress, but located inside the $250 price bracket, the 5850 should consolidate the performance achieved by its bigger brother placing it in the upper mid-range section so as to push all the buttons for DX11 enthusiasts.
Features
Microsoft DirectX® 11 Support
ATI Eyefinity Technology
ATI Stream Technology
Designed for DirectCompute 5.0 and OpenCL
Accelerate Video Transcoding
40 nm Process Technology
Advanced GDDR5 Memory Technology
2nd Generation TeraScale Engine
Microsoft Windows 7® Support
ATI CrossFireX™ Technology
Enhanced Anisotropic Filtering
Accelerated Video Transcoding
Display Flexibility, Supports DL-DVI, DP, HDMI and D-Sub
HDMI 1.3
Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio™ Support
ATI PowerPlay™ Technology – Enhanced Support for GDDR5 memory
ATI Avivo™ Technology Enhanced Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2)
Supports OpenGL 3.1
Specifications
SKU Number: 21162-00-50R
I/O Output: Dual DL-DVI-I+DP+HDMI, Triple Display Support
Core Clock: 725 MHz
Memory Clock: Effective 4000 MHz
PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface
1024MB /256bit GDDR5 memory interface
Dual Slot Cooler with Auto Fan Control, 2 Ball Bearing
On-board HDMI, supports HDMI 1.3 with High Bitrate Audio
On-board DisplayPort
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2GB Overclocked
We mentioned in our standalone review that there was really more to the HD 5970 than just what meets the eye. We also covered the fact that ATI have kind of pushed this whole thing about the HD 5970 being "Unlocked." At first glance it's a little hard to figure what exactly ATI mean when they're saying this. Generally speaking, in the computer world the term "Unlocked" tends to refer to a CPU and the fact that it is multiplier unlocked.
So, what does this whole "Unlocked" mean for ATI’s latest giant card? Well, you can't enter some secret key combination and unlock more stream processers or ROPs, nor is there a secret to gaining extra memory. What ATI mean by saying the model is "Unlocked" is its overclocking ability.
Initial thoughts on the overclocking potential of the model was that it would be alright, but not great. If it was going to be so good, why didn't the model come out of the factory faster? If the OC potential is so good, why has Sapphire strapped the overclock name to the model and only given us a 10MHz core bump and 40MHz QDR memory bump?
To be honest, we're not sure what the answers to these questions are. All I can tell you is that many hours was spent trying to find the maximum overclock and what we achieved was surprising to say the least; and when I say least, I mean the absolute very least.
In an evolution of its predecessor, the 4870 X2, today we look at the Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC. Yes, it has a new naming scheme. And yes, it is an overclocked version. For those who cannot satisfy their hunger for performance, this Sapphire card features software to let you tweak the voltages to push your overclock to the limit; no volt modding required, no voided warranty.
The Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC is an absolute behemoth, from its gaming horsepower, to its size, weight, cooling technology, and price tag. It is big, it is brash, and and it is entirely unapologetic.
ATI is on a roll. There is no doubting it or denying the fact that the boys in red have managed to hammer a successive number of nails into NVIDIA’s DX11 aspirations by being first to market with not one but a whole series of brand new, segment-leading DX11 cards. The HD 5800-series was first on the scene and proved that these new cards could compete with the best of the best from the previous generation and then some. However, in many people’s opinions, there was one thing missing: ATI firmly marking their turf by laying claim to the fastest graphics card in the world. That’s where the HD 5970 2GB comes into the picture.
At its most basic, the new HD 5970 is a dual GPU card that makes use of an on-board PLX bridge chip to handle the communication between the two cores. Each GPU core is able to address a whopping 1GB of GDDR5 memory which will hopefully make the bandwidth issues of the HD5800-series of cards a thing of the past. From a pure performance standpoint, this card’s potential is simply out of this world.
We all remember the HD 4870 X2 and the older yet no less significant HD 3870 X2 dual GPU cards so some of you may be wondering where the “X2” moniker went. Well, ATI has decided to do away with old naming conventions for one reason or another and believe it or not, we welcome this change. It cements the HD 5900-series as the current high performance cards in ATI’s lineup while keeping a clear distinction between all of their product ranges.
In this review we will be looking something unique: a pre-overclocked ATI card being released right alongside the reference-clocked version. That’s right, at launch there will be two different HD 5970 cards being released by the likes of Sapphire, XFX and other ATI board partners: one with standard speeds and another with some increased performance potential. Along with this somewhat shocking revelation, there are several other things that make the HD 5970 a cut above but we will go into those a bit later in this review.
Our introduction wouldn’t be complete without some speculation about the HD 5970’s pricing and availability and on both fronts, it isn’t pretty. We should be looking at an initial “launch” price of about $600USD or $675CAD which will make it the most expensive card on the market by a long shot. However, this price is likely to skyrocket in the days following launch since we hear it will be be next to impossible to find. The retailers we have spoken to are all expecting less than 10 cards in total at launch which makes this a paper launch that we are sure will be passed off as a hard launch.
With NVIDIA’s Fermi cards firmly behind the iron curtain somewhere in Santa Clara, ATI has a clear path to complete market domination with their HD 5970. Let’s hope they make the most out of it.
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