Radeon HD 5770, Radeon HD 4890, And GeForce GTX 275 Overclocked

Features
By Tino Kreiss
published

Benchmark Results: Tom Clancy’s EndWar

EndWar also builds on an improved Unreal 3 Engine. The game is not really ideal as a benchmark, since its frame rate is capped at 30 FPS by a limiter. While this is not unusual in current real-time strategy games, it makes choosing a good (and recent) benchmark game from this genre a tad difficult.

During testing, the frame rate actually dipped below the 30 fps mark in the Kopenhagen replay. The only solution was to turn off anti-aliasing at 1920x1200. While this is a good fix for gamers, it’s not helpful as a benchmark, since it leads to identical results and a benchmark run that is all but meaningless. The GeForce 9800 GTX+/GTS 250 sits right on the border here, coming in at 29.95 FPS (rounded up to 30). The Radeon HD 4770 and 4830 score lowest but still come in at 29 FPS at 1920x1200 without AA. The rest of the field could theoretically offer a few more frames per second, but is cut off at 30 FPS.

We get a better impression of the cards‘ performance with anti-aliasing enabled, since the replay can now put a strain even the more powerful models. Future graphics chips will surely hit the 30 fps barrier more often. Thus, we should understand this result as a guarantee for smooth game play. The delta is quite pronounced towards the end of the chart. Here, if a card falls behind by 10 percent, it translates into a 30 percent performance delta. As before, we chose the highest quality setting available in the game, High.

Tino Kreiss
70 Comments Comment from the forums
  • amdgamer666
    Nice article. Ever since the 5770 came out I've been wondering how far someone could push the memory to relieve that bottleneck. Being able to push it to 1430 allows it to be competitive to it's older sibling and makes it enticing (with the 5700 series' extra features of course)
    Reply
  • Onyx2291
    Damn some of these cards run really well for 1920x1200 which I run at. Could pick up a lower one and run just about anything at a decent speed if I overclock well. Good ol charts :)
    Reply
  • skora
    If you're trying to get to the next cards performance by OCing, shouldn't the 5850 be benched also? I know the 5770 isn't going to get there because of the memory bandwidth issue, but you missed the mark. One card is compared to its big brother, but the other two aren't.

    I am glad to see the 5770 produce playable frame rates at 1920x1200. Nice game selection also.
    Reply
  • quantumrand
    I'm really disappointed that they aren't any benchmarks from the 5870 or 5850 series included. Why even bother with tha GTX 295 or 4870x2 and such without the higher 5-series Radeons?

    I mean if I'm considering an ATI card, I'm going to want to compare the 5770 to the 5850 and 5870 just to see if that extra cost may be justified, not to mention the potential of a dual 5770 setup.
    Reply
  • presidenteody
    I don't care what this article says, when the 5870 or 5970 become available i am going to buy a few.
    Reply
  • kartu
    Well, at least in Germany 4870 costs quite a bit less (30-40 Euros) compared to 5770. It would take 2+ years of playing to compensate for it with lower power consumption.
    Reply
  • kartu
    "Power Consumption, Noise, And Temperature" charts are hard to comprehend. Show bars instead of numbers, maybe?
    Reply
  • arkadi
    Well that put things in prospective. I was really happy with 260gtx numbers, and i can push my evga card even higher easy. To bad we didn't see the 5850 here, it looks like the optimal upgrade 4 gamers on the budget like my self. Grade article overall.
    Reply
  • B16CXHatch
    I got lucky with my card. Before, I had a SuperClocked 8800GT from EVGA. I ordered a while back, a new EVGA GeForce GTX 275 (896MB). I figured the extra cash wasn't worth getting an overclocked model particularly when I could do it myself. I get it, I try to register it. The S/N on mine was a duplicate. They sent me an unused S/N to register with. I then check the speeds under one utility and it's showing GTX 275 SuperClocked speeds, not regular speeds. I check 2 more utilities and they all report the same. I had paid for a regular model and received a mislabeled SuperClocked. Flippin sweet.

    Now they also sell an SSC model which is overclocked even more. I used the EVGA precision tool to set those speeds and it gave me like 1 or 2 extra FPS is Crysis and F.E.A.R. 2 already played so well without overclocking. So overclocking on these bad boys doesn't really do much. Oh well.

    One comment though, GTX 275's are HOT! Like, ridiculously hot. I open my window in 40 degree F weather and it'll still get warm in my room playing Team Fortress 2.
    Reply
  • With the 5970 out there seems to be nothing else about graphic cards that interests me anymore :D Its supposed to be the fastest card yet and beats Crysis too!
    Reply