HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB
Sporting the familiar HIS IceQ cooling setup, this 5750 aims to keep things cool and quiet. Should bode well for overclocking then, and look good to boot.
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So Christmas is out of the way and that means it’s sales time. But what to get? Well, if you’re looking for an upgrade to your graphics, but you don’t want to spend a fortune, then the 5750 is a good card to look at, especially since it can be Crossfired at a later date should you so wish. While the AMD/ATI HD 5750 is a relatively new card, it has been out long enough for partners to start creating non reference design cards based on the GPU, and is one such company. For this review, we have the . This card sports an uprated cooler using the usual IceQ cooling setup to aid in keeping things both cooler and quieter than a standard card. |
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Specifications
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Model Name
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HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB (128bit) GDDR5 PCIe |
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Chipset
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Radeon HD 5750 |
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Memory Size
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1GB GDDR5 |
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Manu. Process
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40nm |
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Memory Type
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GDDR5 |
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RAMDAC
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400MHz |
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Engine CLK
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700MHz |
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Memory CLK
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4.6GBPs / 1100MHz |
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Memory Interface
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128bit |
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Bus Interface
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PCI Express x16 2.1 |
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GPU Features
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Ports
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1x DVI, 1x (Native) HDMI, 1x DisplayPort |
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The box for the HIS Radeon HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB follow the latest HIS design of a white based box with images of cold and ice and weaponry. We have an iced up Excalibur and of course all the major features of the card on the front, while the rear provides more detail about what you are getting. HIS also throw in a rather handy 1-in-7 tool with a torch, screwdriver set, brush and spirit level included.
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Inside the box, everything is kept inside another blue box and carefully packed into a clear plastic insert. Besides the card itself, you also get a two 4 pin Molex to one 6 pin PCIe power adapter, a Crossfire bridge, a DVI to VGA adapter, the Toolkit, a coupon for Colin McRae’s DiRT 2 (Steam Download) and the HIS Software CD including the driver, installation and manual guide, and the 3D OS Bumptop software.
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You can instantly see the difference between the HIS Radeon HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB and a reference card, as the HIS card sports the big blue cooling setup. This does make it a little bigger than the standard card but honestly there isn’t much in it. The fan used on the cooler certainly has plenty of fins and in use it is extremely quiet at all load levels.
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At the rear of the card we find a single PCIe power input. Flipping the card around we can see the IO panel which sports the usual three outputs we have come to expect on 57xx series cards; a DVI, an HDMI and a DisplayPort. Above is the grilled exhaust for the cooler.
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Turning the card over we can see that there is half of the included GDDR5 on the room but this isn’t cooled in anyway. The cooler is held on by a cross brace on the rear. You can also see the cooler hangs just over the rear edge of the card a little.
Since this is the HIS IceQ+ cooling setup, that does mean it’s UV reactive, which if you’ve not seen this before it is pretty neat under a UV light. You have to admit it does look really good but I wonder if there is enough of a market now to start offering other colours? Red/Orange perhaps? Blue is universally safe and it does look good but blue has been the colour for PC modding/lighting for a while now and other colours are starting to make an appearance in cases.
Testing
Test Setup: Intel Core 2 Duo 6420 @ 3.20GHz, 4GB of OCZ PC2-6400 Ram @ 960MHz, Asus Blitz Formula, Maxtor Diamondmax 10 7200 250GB HDD, Asetek Waterchill Watercooling, Hyper Type M 730w PSU. All latest drivers as of December 2009 and the OS is Windows 7.
For comparison, we are using a reference Radeon HD 5770 card.
Software
Left 4 Dead 2 – Recording a custom demo on the Dead Center – Hotel level (inside in the inferno), we used FRAPS to record frame rates as we played back the demo on all cards at same settings.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars – ETQW gives us our lone OpenGL test results as we run through a recorded demo on the Slipgate level. Settings for all cards were the same.
Colin McRae DiRT2 – DiRT2 has some very good looking visuals and provides us with our first DirectX 11 test. We used FRAPS with the games inbuilt benchmark to test a quick run around a London track.
Assassin’s Creed – We headed for the nearest tower from the bureau roof in Acre and repeatedly climbed to the top. With 2 leaps of faith and a good look of the city from on high, we once again used FRAPS to record our frame rates. Settings for each card were set to highest possible for that card.
Crysis Warhead – We used the Framebuffer benchmark tool to run through the Ambush demo and recorded the results with FRAPS. Settings for each card were set to highest possible for that card.
Devil May Cry 4 (Benchmark) – DMC4′s benchmark provides a nice way of testing that anyone can do. Results are all from the benchmark itself, and include average frame rates as well as 4 graphs for each level tested. Settings for all cards were the same.
Left 4 Dead 2 (DirectX 9)
So the opening level towards the end features you fighting you way through the zombie horde in a burning hotel. It’s one of the most graphically intense parts of the game but the HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB did pretty well. The fact you are slow moving through the level helps and it’s highly playable. We used maximum graphics settings at 4xMSAA and 8xAF, so you could knock the detail level to medium and increase FPS with this card that way.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (OpenGL)
At 4xMSAA, the HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB does well in this test too. There were a few more drops than I expected but nothing overly dramatic, and there are plenty of options you could lower to ensure a solid frame rate.
Batman Arkham Asylum (DirectX 9)
Without Anti-Aliasing, both cards put in high numbers, but with this game at least, even a little MSAA can bring your frame rates right down. Still, the game looks pretty good, and is often dark in most places so MSAA isn’t missed overly much compared to a drop below 60 in the frame rate.
Colin McRae DiRT2 (DirectX 11)
This is a new test for Viperlair and our first test using DirectX 11. I’ll be honest, I wanted higher frame rates for this game than the HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB allowed, but it also has to be said that with the exception of the cars being ‘shinier’ DX11 at High settings didn’t offer much except a performance drop. Without DX11, the frame rates above jump a good 15% higher on average and the game still looks very good indeed. If you must play in DX11, it’s still quite playable with this card, but I would certainly consider overclocking it to eek out every last frame and ensure a good playing experience.
Assassin’s Creed (DirectX 10)
The HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB does well in this game too. Everything was set to the highest possible at 1680×1050, and without the frame counter in the corner, the experience was the same as any high card we have tested from the previous generation. The graph shows that the card is quite capable of keeping up with it’s slightly bigger brother, the 5770, at least in the game which does like a good CPU to back up the graphics card.
Crysis Warhead (DirectX 10)
Crysis Warhead still tests graphics cards almost painfully, but without MSAA, were able to get playble frame rates at Enghusiast levels. The 5770 was able to use some MSAA, hence it’s slightly lower but still playble scores.
Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark (DirectX 10)
HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB, 0xMSAA, Highest Settings
HIS 5770 1GB, 2xMSAA, Highest Settings
Both cards scored a solid “S” for Super Slick Style, although we had to drop the anti-aliasing on the 5750 to make sure it stayed at “S” and didn’t drop down to ( a still extremely good ) “A”.
Overclocking
Overclocking was something I was really looking forward to with the HIS Radeon HD 5750 IceQ+ 1GB since the 5750 has proven to be quiet a good overclocker on it’s own, but combined with the HIS IceQ+ cooling setup I was hoping for some great results. And I wasn’t disappointed.
Using the Catalyst Control Center’s Overdrive facility I first tried the Auto-Tune. After an hour or so, it pretty much maxed everything out and locked up, so I went back to doing things the old fashioned way; manually. Alternating my testing between Left 4 Dead 2 and DiRT2, I raised the Core and Memory till I’d hit their limits. The Core starts at 700MHz and we got our sample to a stable 865 and the Memory went all the way to 1360 (up from a starting speed of 1100). 870/1400 was attainable but some games crashed randomly after moderate periods of game play. Airflow in my case is very good (Cosmos S) so to push the card further would have most certainly required additional modifications such as voltage increases and ramsinks. Still, 865/1365 is a pretty big increase and gave us a nice bump in games, putting us easily into the same area as the default 5770 card. And it’s very quiet, even when fully loaded and overclocked.
Final Words
I’m very happy with the . It’s proven to be a nicely performing card, with a good package, great looks and a very high overclock (though of course YMMV with overclocking).
I’ve been playing the included DiRT2 game for a bit now and I have to say I love it. I do recommend a steering wheel or Xbox360 controller to play though I wouldn’t say they were a necessity. Nor would I say DirectX 11 is needed, since while playing, the only thing really noticeable is ‘shinier’ cars. That said, stop the game and look about and you can see some other subtle changes in the shadows, but these DX11 extras do mean a bit of a performance hit. The plays the game pretty well, although like it’s GRID predecessor DiRT2 does benefit from a 60 odd average frame rate.
In other games, there isn’t much that fazes the at resolutions in the 1600 area, and with a slight drop in graphic settings you could easily run at 1080p. Eyefinity … I don’t have the screens to try it, but I have to say I would be sceptical. That said, the includes a Crossfire bridge and should give you a nice performance boost that may allow for Eyefinity gaming (when the drivers support it of course, which they should do by the time this review is published).
Price wise, you are going to pay a slight premium above that of regular 5750′s; approx $3 more, but if you’re card overclocks as well as my sample has, combined with the overall package, then the at $152 (at time of writing) isn’t a bad deal at all. The tool kit is included only while stocks last but the cooling setup, package and the looks the card provides are easily worth an extra $3 without it.
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