Radeon HD 5770 And 5750 Review: Gentlemen, Start Your HTPCs

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Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Sans AA, the Radeon HD 5770 is again bested by the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260. The GeForce GTS 250 is notably faster than the Radeon HD 5750, too. Two Radeon HD 5770s do manage to take top honors, but at a significant cost. Performance-wise, the card to get here really looks like the Radeon HD 5850.

Also, for what it’s worth, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is the first of two DirectX 10.1 titles in our suite. Since I’ve seen questions about this in the comments section of previous stories, I’ll address it here. For the GeForce GTX 260 and GTS 250, we have no choice but to test with DirectX 10 enabled. For the ATI cards, we turn on DirectX 10.1 and use DirectX 10-quality anti-aliasing in order to keep the workload even.

Even after dropping to High detail settings and 4xAA (we used Extreme and 8xAA for our Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 reviews), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is largely an academic exercise with anti-aliasing turned on. A single Radeon HD 5850 will get you close to playable at 1680x1050, but everything else gets bogged down.

In a finish that’s starting to look familiar, the Radeon HD 5770 is beat across the board by the Radeon HD 4870. It’s only at 2560x1600, where the GeForce GTX 260’s 896MB of GDDR3 memory comes up short, that the 5770 is able to pass it. But in the realm of single-digit frame rates, the win means little.

ATI’s new Radeon HD 5750 trades blows with the GeForce GTS 250 at speeds so low that they don’t really mean much.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
123 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Summer Leigh Castle
    Can we BOLD or change the color of the card that's being reviewed?
    Reply
  • masterjaw
    Nice one, but the charts are a bit cluttered without giving emphasis on the featured cards (bold fonts, etc). A media card that could do games pretty good.

    I'm quite agree with the nvidia's G92 still hanging around but looking at their newly released cards (gt220, 210), I don't know what to say anymore. Hopefully, they're making the right choices at the right time.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    Looks to me like the 5770 really needs faster memory speeds, though that would defeat trying to make it cheaper, and perhaps a higher core clock. Perhaps we'll see some factory overclocked cards with memory that can reach a significantly higher speed.
    Reply
  • JohnnyLucky
    Power consumption, temperature, and noise levels are very encouraging. I just finished reading other reviews where the 5700 cards are described as mid-level and mainstream cards.
    Reply
  • buzznut
    If I was building today (htpc), I would still go with a HD4670. Who knows six months from now...
    Those other features are compelling. If I could afford 2 more monitors that is.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Summer Leigh CastleCan we BOLD or change the color of the card that's being reviewed?
    For sure--I've looked into this and would be happy to implement, but haven't had much luck. Any Excel gurus able to get only certain axis labels bolded without changing the entire series?
    Reply
  • noob2222
    and bitstreaming HD audio in an HTPC (a reason to buy a second card for the living room).

    Personally I use my main computer as my HTPC, after all, I can't play games and watch movies from 2 different rooms at the same time, and all it takes is the HDMI cable (at least until they make it wireless.)
    Reply
  • cangelini
    That works as well. But for someone with a triple-head setup *and* an HTPC, I can justify both usage models.
    Reply
  • lashabane
    I'm looking to upgrade from my dated 3850 and was thinking that these would really impress me for the price. I'm thinking I'll just spend the bit extra and get the 5850 when the prices come down.

    Of course, I wouldn't have been able to make such an informed decision so early if it weren't for TH and columnists such as yourself.

    Thanks for another great article Chris.
    Reply
  • ambientmf
    What's the benefit of DirectX 11 capabilities if the cards are worse performing than last gen cards in DX9/10 games? I'd rather get a 4800 series card, being a gamer myself, for slightly better framerates.
    I can see the other benefits for the hardcore HTPC crowd though.
    Reply