Conclusion

AMD keeps on revolutionizing the graphics card market. After giving us more speed, the company now offers more functionality by introducing DirectX 11 features into the mainstream sector. The Radeon HD 5770 and Radeon HD 5750 are both highly appealing products. Compact, quiet, economical, affordable and DirectX 11 compatible, AMD’s new RV830 Juniper based graphics cards are a treat for every gamer who cannot invest into a more expensive RV870 Cypress based product.

It is the senior model of the new series, Radeon HD 5770, which is the most interesting. Let’s take a look at its results.

Of course, the Radeon HD 4770 is out of competition. The new card is 6 to 56% faster depending on the particular game. The average gap is as large as 34%. It is harder for the newcomer to compete with the Radeon HD 4890 which has a higher memory bandwidth. This can be observed even at 1280x1024 where the Radeon HD 5770 is an average 12% slower than the RV790-based solution. On the other hand, notwithstanding the 128-bit memory bus, it beats the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 in five out of the 13 tests!

When the resolution is higher, the average advantage of the Radeon HD 5770 over the Radeon HD 4770 grows to almost 40% but the new card is still about 12% slower than the Radeon HD 4890 (but it wins in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky thanks to architectural improvements). The race with the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 produces mixed results: 5 wins and 8 losses, the loss in Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. being still due to the game’s incompatibility with Adaptive AA. It is only in World in Conflict: Soviet Assault that the gap is really large.

The new card stays at the same distance from the Radeon HD 4890 here, but increases its advantage over the Radeon HD 4770 to 46%. The Radeon HD 5770 improves in its fight with the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. Notwithstanding the higher resolution and 128-bit memory bus it wins seven tests at 1920x1200! It falls far behind Nvidia’s solution only in Far Cry 2 and World in Conflict: Soviet Assault.

AMD’s new mainstream generation enjoys a 50% advantage over the previous one at 2560x1600, yet the new card cannot overtake the Radeon HD 4890. The Radeon HD 5770 wins 8 and loses 5 tests in its competition with the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. It is hard to believe this as Nvidia’s card has a 448-bit memory bus!

The Radeon HD 5750 is inferior to the Radeon HD 5770 due to lower GPU and memory frequencies and one disabled SIMD core. The gap is small at 14-15%, though. It is only in some applications that the gap grows to 19-20%. The card delivers a comfortable frame rate in most tests, excepting the extremely high resolution of 2560x1600. This is an excellent choice for an inexpensive gaming platform or an HTPC, especially as the Radeon HD 5750 is compact, has low heat dissipation and offers the same multimedia capabilities as the more advanced members of the fifth ATI Radeon HD generation.

The Radeon HD 5700 models both boast good overclockability without any special tools or methods. In some applications overclocking makes the senior Radeon HD 5700 series card as fast as the Radeon HD 4890 whereas the junior model, when overclocked, easily overtakes its senior cousin. The average performance growth of the Radeon HD 5770 overclocked to 940MHz GPU and 1445 (5870) MHz memory frequencies is about 12%, reaching 14% in some applications.

For the Radeon HD 5750 overclocked to 870MHz GPU and 1430 (5720) MHz memory the average and maximum performance growth are 14% and 16%, respectively. This is a real gift for overclockers, especially as PC enthusiasts will surely reach better results using more advanced coolers. On the other hand, we have to note that the main bottleneck of the new series is the 128-bit memory bus which is going to limit the effect from overclocking at high resolutions.