Crysis Warhead

Crysis Warhead does exceptionally well on the GT240, so don't let the graph full you. The GT240 is using Gamer settings, or middle ground. To maintain similar framerates the HIS 5670 had to drop to Mainstream. Still, for a lower end ATI card, the numbers are pretty good.

Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark

HIS 5670

MSI GT240

MSI 4670

The GT240 and the HIS 5670 are pretty close in this test. I'd still pick the 5670 over the GT240, as it offers slightly higher frame rates, but both cards had to run at 0xMSAA, Super High settings to score a Solid A score.

Overclocking

Overclocking the HIS Radeon 5670 IceQ 512MB (128bit) GDDR5 went pretty well, although the Catalyst Control Center limited me to 'only' 850MHz on the core. In the end I had to switch to GPUTool to get the highest clock. A nice boost to 900MHz core was the highest stable I could achieve, but I didn't fare so well with the memory. By default, the GDDR5 comes clocked at 1000MHz, but anything over 1050MHz produced lock ups and graphic corruption in games after extended play. Still, the boost to the core was nice, although the end result was only a few FPS extra in games.

Final Words

This has been a pretty interesting review and I'm actually hesitant about my conclusions. On the face of things, looking at the results, the is a pretty good card, but it is a little over priced for the area it's performing at. On the other hand, throughout the testing, I've had indications of poor driver support. I've left the review an extra week or so to see if things improve on that front but nothing has changed as yet. I honestly won't be surprised to see a jump in frame rates right across the board when a better driver appears, but that's not something I can guarantee obviously. Still, it's there, in the back of my mind every time I use the card …

This is a very quiet card, in fact I'd go so far as to say it's one of the quietest, if not the quietest actively cooled card I've … er ... never heard. With it's small size, low power requirements and quiet performance, the has HTPC written all over it. But that's not to say it won't play the odd game as well, which, with slightly reduced settings, it'll handle even on a big screen TV.

If you want more from your games, then you should probably look elsewhere, and it has to be said that the price is a little high considering the performance, but if the drivers improve in the next couple of months, then the will certainly be the card of choice at this price bracket.

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