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

Features
By Chris Angelini
published

Benchmark Results: Far Cry 2

Finally, we see ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 beat Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 260, though the Radeon HD 4870 is still a faster card. Additionally, the Radeon HD 5750 ekes past the GeForce GTS 250 1GB.

As we’ve seen before, the scaling going from one Radeon card to two is very impressive in Far Cry 2. Two cards deliver solid results all the way up to 2560x1600 (though a single Radeon HD 5850 is perfectly playable at that resolution, too).

Applying anti-aliasing has a profound impact on performance, and the first thing we notice is that the 512MB frame buffer found on the Radeon HD 4770 is insufficient for 2560x1600.

Despite its inclusion of GDDR5 memory, the narrow 128-bit memory bus on ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 and halved number of more-efficient ROPs results in a loss to the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260. The Radeon HD 5750 is on par with Nvidia’s GeForce GTS 250, but only 1680x1050 is really a playable resolution.

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