Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark (DirectX 10)

HIS 5770 (above)

HIS 4870 (above)

MSI 4850 (above)

This test follows the general rule of all the testing we have done; the 5770 gives you a similar gaming experience to that of a 4870 card, but the 4870 card does provide slightly higher frame rates. Both the 5770 and the 4870 scored an 'A' while the 4850 fell just short and got a 'B'.

Overclocking

The overclocking went pretty well. Default clocks are 850MHz core and 1200MHz memory. Using the Catalyst Control Center's Overdrive section, we used a combination of Auto Tune (to get a ballpark overclock) and manual tuning (to see if we could get more) to raise the clock speeds. The Core went to a rather impressive 950MHz stable and the memory reached all the way to 1475MHz ... and then the machine locked up. After restarting we backed the memory down and till things stabalised at the 1425MHz point. We got an OK boost in games as well, although there was little difference in the Crysis scores. Left 4 Dead however increased enough that we had enough headroom to increase the graphic settings to maximum and up the AF to 16x.

Temperatures at defaults were very low (at idle the clock speeds are 157MHz/300MHz) with an idle temperature of just 45C. Load temperatures went up to 69C at defaults, 73C overclocked.

Final Words

Ok, I want to first of all make some conclusions without involving prices, as I want to judge the card on it's own merits without current pricing polluting it; we'll get to pricing in a little bit.

The is a good card. We've certainly got plenty of features and the performance is close to that of the HD 4870 series card, and since we are testing with beta drivers, things may improve in the near future. The 128bit bus, unlike the 2xxx series cards, doesn't hold the 5770 back noticeably for it's intended target market but when you consider that this card has the same engine clock as a 4890, and the same memory speed as a 5870, then things are a little muddied in that respect. However, this is GDDR5 memory we on the and it does compensate somewhat for the bus, and appears to have plenty of headroom too. Also in our testing, we've been able to raise the graphic quality a bit more than we expected which would suggest that memory bandwidth isn't much of an issue here. Tessellation (DX11) has been bandied about a lot with the 5xxx series cards, and this isn't tied to memory bandwidth but core engine speeds, so perhaps in the near future we will see even further evidence that the 128bit bus isn't as large a handicap these days. If you play Crysis (a game that does like plenty of memory bandwidth), then you'll notice that the 4870 offers higher performance, otherwise most other games the experience is similar.

This a mid-range part yet the gap between it and the 58xx series is pretty big. Perhaps AMD/ATI plan on another card to fill that gap later on? Obviously, there is a huge gap in performance between this card and the 4770, and let's not forget the extra features of the 5xxx series on top of this extra performance. DirectX 11 has yet to show us anything tangible in the way of games, but that will hopefully change in the near future as the already popular Windows 7 is released and one game I'm personally looking forward to is Aliens vs Predators which will support DX11. We have support for Eyefinity, although at this performance level one does have to wonder how well it will do (something we will hopefully take a look at later) but the support is there none the less and AMD insist that the 57xx series is a viable Eyefinity platform. The low temperatures and low power consumption are also big plus points. And for the HTPC users in the crowd, there is the 5xxx series improvements when it comes to HDMI audio; HDMI 1.3a with DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD bitstreaming. This a card for those gamers who have 20” - 24” Widescreen monitors; 1680x1050 to FullHD 1920x1080 resolutions and want to run everything at the max.

Okay, now let's add in the price to the mix. This is particularly relevant with the 5770 because of it's performance and the current pricing of the 4870 cards. We've seen 4870 1GB cards for as little as $140 lately, which makes the $160 of the 5770 1GB a little hard to swallow if you're only looking at a card for it's performance. No-one with half a brain is going to buy a card that costs more but gives you less frames without a compelling reason. It's still cheaper than the launch price of the 4850, and this is for a card that out performs the 4850, but price to performance the 4870 1GB is a wiser purchase right now. Still, prices for the 5770 will likely drop soon, and the 48xx is an endangered species. With NVIDIA not having anything new on show right now (mid-range NVIDIA cards are not due till next year) and it's own current line reaching end of life, it may be a case of you won't have much choice but to get a 5770 or 5750. That's not exactly a bad thing, as the 5770 is a pretty good card, but you have to wonder what more choice would do to the price when it comes to choosing this range of card with it's 'cheaper' 128bit bus.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that if DX11, Eyefinity, Display Port, lower power consumption and Bitstreaming HD audio formats are important to you right now (and I'm betting that only the last two will draw any real purchasing attention at the time of writing) then the 5770 is your (only) card of choice at this price point. If you're more interested in performance, then your choice gets slightly cheaper by including the 4870 1GB cards into your purchasing decision, and that's only if you stick to the red camp. There are cards in the green camp at this price and performance point as well (GTX 260 is pretty close in price, slightly higher performing for slightly more money but less features), but like their 4xxx series rivals, they too will soon disappear from shelves leaving us with just the 5770 and the 5750. And if you can deal with a drop in performance, the 5750 is worth a look too.

If you already have a 48xx series card, or a GTX 260 and don't need the new features, and all your after is performance in existing games, then there is little compelling you to upgrade to a 5770 card. But if you're on the look out for a new $160 area high performing card and you want to take advantage of some of the new features afforded you by the 5xxx series, then the at $160 is certainly a good choice. Also keep in mind here that this is the retail card, and there is included a coupon for Dirt 2 via Steam (a DX11 game) with the package, so perhaps this will appeal to you and your wallet as well. Now if the price dropped to say the $130-$140 area, then this card would be very good value for money indeed.

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