HD 6670 Performance

[Sgt Prophet]

I just received a XFX HD 6670 1GB graphics card. I've seen many people play games at resolutions as high as 1920x1080 with settings maxed out on an HD 5670. I figured the 6670 would do even better. I used to play on an SLI 9600 GT setup, but that finally died. I got an Dell Inspiron 570 and I loved it. However, the power supply could not handle one of my 9600 GTs due to the fact that it requires a 4pin which the power supply doesn't have. That's another reason why these low pro cards looked so appealing. I would have gotten an HD 5830 if I didn't have to upgrade the power supply.

When I received the HD 6670, I put it in and started her up. I had a black screen. I found that one of the ports are bad. The VGA port worked so I didn't bother worry about the other port. After that, the computer started just fine. I installed the 11.5b drivers off of AMD's website. After that, I went to set my monitor's native resolution which is 1920x1080. I could only set it to 1600x1200. I didn't mind that much, but it was starting to get a little weird. I started up Just Cause 2 and noticed that it looked rather choppy with all the settings maxed out and in 1600x1200 so I turned on fraps and found that I was playing under 20 frames. I was disappointed with performance, but I figured maybe it was the game and not the card. So I tried Crysis 2 which I've played before on my last setup. I could play it on 1920x1080 with Gamer settings and get 40FPS avg with the last setup. I tried it at 1600x1200 at Hardcore settings with my new computer and it was terrible. So I went back to Gamer and still terrible. I was given some advice by "king smp" (a good member of the forums) to uninstall all drivers including the one onboard and start the computer in safe mode and install it there. So I went to "Uninstall Programs" and deleted Crystal Control Center. Then I went to "My Computer" and "Device Manager" to delete all display adapters. I did this for both onboard and the 6670. When I started in safe mode, it wouldn't allow me to install the drivers. So I did it in normal mode and still I had terrible performance. Does anyone think the card it self is just bad or maybe I missed some drivers? I want to play Just Cause so bad. I couldn't play it on my last setup because I only had XP. Plus, I really want to play The Witcher 2, but that also has terrible performance. I can't honestly deal with resolutions lower then 1440x900 after playing most games in 1920x1080 for years.

 

[renz496]

have you tried running driver sweeper yet? btw 5670/6670 will only good at low resolution. for 1080p you're going to need something that a lot better than 6670 if you want to turn all the eye candy up. currently i'm running GTX460 with 1600x900 resolution. at that resolution i was barely have playable performance using high setting in the witcher 2. the game turn into slide show when i jack up all the setting to the max

 

[Sgt Prophet]

I'm afraid to use driver sweeper because I don't know what I'm looking for. I don't want to delete anything that I'm not suppose to.

I thought that too. I used to think it was to low end of a card, but you should see some youtube videos of the HD 5670 that proves the cards can work just fine in higher resolutions. I've seen many people disprove others who say the cards are bad for gaming at high resolutions.

 

[renz496]

I'm afraid to use driver sweeper because I don't know what I'm looking for. I don't want to delete anything that I'm not suppose to

just tick ATI box and leave the other as it is

I thought that too. I used to think it was to low end of a card, but you should see some youtube videos of the HD 5670 that proves the cards can work just fine in higher resolutions. I've seen many people disprove others who say the cards are bad for gaming at high resolutions

what kind games did they test with max setting using 5670 at 1920x1080?

 

[Sgt Prophet]

Forgive me. I'm not good at using forums so if my links come out bad, I'm sorry in advance.

As for Driver Sweeper, I'll make sure to try it. I've already downloaded it.

This guy xSilverbacXx has several videos of him playing on a Dual Core system with 2 GBs of RAM and a HIS IceQ HD 5670 1GB card. His videos were what really caught my attention. Several other people on youtube have proof also. (btw I mean no offense, I'm not trying to come across as rude or am I arguing with you about the resolutions. I'm just mentioning the videos.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oliVW_kJUTw

 

[Sgt Prophet]

I suck at links.

 

[renz496]

i haven't play the game yet so i can't say about the performance. if you see his first race you'll notice that his frame rates rarely hits 30FPS. 30FPS considered as minimum playable frame rates by gamer community standard. any below that regarded as unplayable though it still depends on the person. personally i still call 20-30 FPS as playable FPS but below 20 the 'slide show' effect starts to bother me.

for crysis 2 it is fine to use the lowest setting. the are little to none noticeable graphic different between the 3 preset. just cause 2 will hit the gpu quite hard if you jack up all the setting to the max

 

[Sgt Prophet]

So I have the:

XFX HD 6670 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150542

and the guy on youtube has the:

HIS HD 5670 IceQ
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161334&cm_re=HD_5670-_-14-161-334-_-Product

The HD 6670 has higher core clock and memory clocks, but it only has GDDR3. The HD 5670 has slightly less core clock, but has GDDR5. Does the GDDR5 trump the core clocks to a significant degree or is the HD 6670 still better? I'm going to return the card because I think it is defective. I am still well within the 30 days so I should be alright.

 

[renz496]

i can't find exact review on 6670 GDDR3 version since most reviewer side are using card with GDDR5 in their review. but i'd expect 6670 with GDDR3 should be a bit slower than 5670 with GDDR5 assuming the clock speed is a very close to each other.

if the card boot up properly and does not produce anything weird during games i don't think the card is defective. for your resolution (1080p) at least try to get some mid range cards like HD6800 series or GTX460/GTX560's. they should be able to max out most game out there at 1080p though they will not run the game gloriously with constant 60FPS at all time

 

[Sgt Prophet]

Thanks for you help. I'll just get the HD 5670 and see how that turns out.

 

[loneninja]

Both the 5670 and 6670 are weaker than a 9600GT SLI set up.

 

[renz496]

loneninja got a point there. 5670 is about as fast as 9800GT (9800GT should be slightly faster but i assume the difference would be very minimal between the two) and 9800GT is about 20% percent faster than a single 9600GT. so if the game can properly utilize SLI your previous setup will be faster than 5670 or 6670. what is your current spec? maybe we can suggest something better for your rig

 

[Sgt Prophet]

It is an Inspiron 570 from Dell. The build consists of:

Processor
AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz

Ram
6GBs or 6144MB

Hard Drive
1TB

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Power Supply
300 watt (due to the way dell rates their power supplies by continuous power, this power supply is roughly 400 to 450 watts)

Most cards now a days, requires at least one 4 pin connecter. Let me remind you that my power supply does not have that. Therefore, I'm stuck with buying a low pro card until I can get a new power supply (which I probably won't for a long time if the HD 5670 proves to be enough for my taste).

Let me remind you that I have chosen these cards, due to the amount of proof on youtube, that the HD 5670 cards are well equipped to handling today's games at 1080p with max settings at playable framerates, such as the mid 20s or even the 30s. renz496, if you did not know this already, fraps (the traditional recording program that is used to put gaming clips on youtube) caps frames at 30 and brings framerates down almost 10 to 20 frames depending on CPU. Which means that if you normally play at 60fps on a game, with fraps turned on, you most likely will have 40 frames without the cap. So a steady 30fps with fraps on means you've either got a good card or a "very" good processor. The youtube clips are my only hope, because the HD 5670 or HD 6670 are my only options for my poor power supply. If I had the money to get a GTX 460 or above, then I would gladly do so. However, that isn't the case.

My sincere thanks to both "loneninja" and "renz496" for all your help and comments. I will have to settle for whatever the HD 5670 dishes out. BTW, renz496, you say all your settings are maxed out in "The Witcher 2", correct? Does that include Uber Sampling? If so, then I would suggest turning that off to receive a huge boost in performance. Uber Sampling is another version of Super Sampling which offers minimal improvement in overall image quality. However, if you get decent framerates even with it enabled, then by all means keep it enabled. It is only a suggestion.

 

[renz496]

all i know fraps will reduce the game performance if you're recording the game footage (which i believe the recording also take portion of the cpu raw power hence lowering the frame rates of the game being recorded). and regarding the witcher 2 i've only able to play the game on high setting not the max setting. the max setting would be ultra high + ubersampling. i did once maxing all possible setting on the game and try to play the game and i'd just smile to myself . i was able to play most of my game on the max setting with my GTX460 (1600x900 reso) even crysis on very high setting. but for The Witcher 2 its a no go

for the gpu part i think it is fine if you can get something with performance of 5830, 6790 or GTX460 768MB. above that you might want to overclock the processor a bit. btw since you already decided which card to get all i can say is good luck.

 

[Sgt Prophet]

Thanks. Its much appreciated. I will report back and tell you how it all went after I get my refund and buy the HD 5670.

 

[infernox_01]

Thanks. Its much appreciated. I will report back and tell you how it all went after I get my refund and buy the HD 5670.

why dont you just buy the gddr5 HD6670? its faster than a gddr5 HD5670. the best card that would work without a 6-pin cable (im guessing the power supply doesn't have one) would be the powercolor HD5750 go! green edition.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5750_Go_Green/

 

[Sgt Prophet]

I was thinking about getting the HD 6670 GDDR5, but I'm already losing money on refunding the card because of restocking fees which is $12 plus shipping the item back was $11. The HD 6670 GDDR5 versions on Newegg are in the 90s. I could barely afford the $80 HD 6670 DDR3 version. The HD 5670 is $80 with a $10 rebate, so I only pay about $90-$100 out of this whole transaction. If I get the HD 6670 GDDR5, then I may as well have gotten a new power supply and a HD 5830 from the beginning. That would be nice, but I would end up with an empty wallet, but a beast computer. I prefer to keep some money on me at all times.

I haven't received my refund yet, so there is always time for someone to change my mind. (if that's even possible right now)

 

[infernox_01]

fair enough. i would recommend going for this MSI twin frozr HD5670 which comes with a $30 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127523&cm_re=5670-_-14-127-523-_-Product

 

[celpas]

all i know fraps will reduce the game performance if you're recording the game footage (which i believe the recording also take portion of the cpu raw power hence lowering the frame rates of the game being recorded). and regarding the witcher 2 i've only able to play the game on high setting not the max setting. the max setting would be ultra high + ubersampling. i did once maxing all possible setting on the game and try to play the game and i'd just smile to myself . i was able to play most of my game on the max setting with my GTX460 (1600x900 reso) even crysis on very high setting. but for The Witcher 2 its a no go

for the gpu part i think it is fine if you can get something with performance of 5830, 6790 or GTX460 768MB. above that you might want to overclock the processor a bit. btw since you already decided which card to get all i can say is good luck.

renz,in the witcher 2 on high spec with ssao enabled how much fps did you get?I played the game on my overclocked gtx 275 and in the first spot where you come out of the tent the fps was around 27-40 with ssao disabled.when I enable ssao my fps is a constant 20-30 fps.

 

[renz496]

renz,in the witcher 2 on high spec with ssao enabled how much fps did you get?I played the game on my overclocked gtx 275 and in the first spot where you come out of the tent the fps was around 27-40 with ssao disabled.when I enable ssao my fps is a constant 20-30 fps.

with SSAO disabled i got mid 20s to mid 30s but when enabled my frame rates mostly in mid 20s

 

[celpas]

with SSAO disabled i got mid 20s to mid 30s but when enabled my frame rates mostly in mid 20s

http://dxtory.com/v2-download-en.html

Have you tried using dxtory.Using this program you can limit fps ingame to 25 and the game feels awfully smooth.this app helped me even in bfbc2 where I limited my fps to 30 and the game felt SMOOTH

 

[Sgt Prophet]

fair enough. i would recommend going for this MSI twin frozr HD5670 which comes with a $30 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127523&cm_re=5670-_-14-127-523-_-Product

Hmm.... Well I think that would be great! I love MSI products and especially their cooling solutions. Plus, its far less expensive. However, it is only 512 MB and I'm shooting for higher resolutions, hopefully 1080p. Though I have heard many who play at high resolutions with just a 512, isn't it better to have the 1GB of VRAM for such resolutions?

 

[infernox_01]

heres some reviews comparing the two. makes some difference in the minimum frame rates at higher resolutions but doesnt affect the average frame rates (except for hawx).

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1187/1/

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/01/14/ati-radeon-hd-5670-review/1

 

[renz496]

http://dxtory.com/v2-download-en.html

Have you tried using dxtory.Using this program you can limit fps ingame to 25 and the game feels awfully smooth.this app helped me even in bfbc2 where I limited my fps to 30 and the game felt SMOOTH

i know what you meant. to me constant 25-30 have much smoother feeling than random frame rates jumping around 40-60 fps. but to me i depends on the game as well. for example i'm fine with crysis with 25-30 fps but for batman AA even 40 fps is not acceptable to me. to me the game is a bit sluggish when the frame rates drop below 50. btw thanks for the link. i will look up to it

Hmm.... Well I think that would be great! I love MSI products and especially their cooling solutions. Plus, its far less expensive. However, it is only 512 MB and I'm shooting for higher resolutions, hopefully 1080p. Though I have heard many who play at high resolutions with just a 512, isn't it better to have the 1GB of VRAM for such resolutions?

512 should be fine but if you try to crank up setting that depending on RAM such as AA and AF the card definitely have to struggle.

 

[Sgt Prophet]

I may be the only guy who thinks this, but I never did like AA. Once I got to 1280x1024, I stopped applying AA. As for AF, I've never really played a game where it was super demanding. I most defiantly do not see a reason to add AA to a game at resolutions like 1920x1080. That's just my opinion.