| INTRODUCTION | | | | As a comparison a Nvidia GT 240 GDDR5 card I |
| The first member of the Evergreen family hit the | | | | have tested in the same system obtained around |
| market back in September (2009). AMD has since | | | | 7000 points in 3DMark 2006 and in my last review |
| then not said much about what would follow. | | | | of a GT220 card (a card more towards the lower |
| AMD chose to release the 5670 card at last | | | | end segment) it achieved 6700 points. The |
| week's CES 2010 event. The 5600 series chip is | | | | Radeon HD5670 card came in at 11700 points |
| called Redwood and currently only includes the | | | | which exceeds the NVIDIA cards by quite a lot. |
| Radeon HD 5650 and 5670 chips. The 5600 series | | | | As I have experienced with all the DirectX11 |
| is clearly directed to the mid range segment of | | | | compatible cards I have reviewed, the |
| the market as illustrated in AMD's release | | | | performance diminishes with the jump from |
| strategy below. AMD has release two versions of | | | | DirectX10 to DirectX11. This is strange because |
| the HD 5670 card, one with 1GB GDDR5 and | | | | "higher performance" is one of the major selling |
| another with 512MB GDDR5. This review covers | | | | points with the new API from Microsoft. |
| the latter one. | | | | The Radeon HD 5670 actually turns out to be |
| The 5600 series adopts the technologies of its big | | | | even more powerful in the first batch of games |
| brothers like ATI Stream and ATI Eyefinity. Here | | | | that I had expected based on the results |
| are AMD's own words about their new "ATI | | | | achieved in the benchmarking tests. I was actually |
| Stream" technology: | | | | somewhat surprised that this medium range card, |
| ATI Stream technology is a set of advanced | | | | at a price level below $100, could move these |
| hardware and software technologies that enable | | | | games with great fluidity. |
| AMD graphics processors (GPUs), working in | | | | Games like The Last Remnant, Street Fighter IV |
| concert with the system's central processors | | | | and Devil May Cry 4 actually ran really well no |
| (CPUs), to accelerate enabled applications beyond | | | | matter what level of graphics quality setting, |
| traditional graphics and video processing. This | | | | resolution or filter I set. Even Resident Evil 5 ran |
| enables balanced platforms to run | | | | OK |
| computationally-intensive tasks more efficiently, | | | | A strange thing about the results above is the |
| providing a better application experience to the | | | | case of the games STALKER: Clear Sky and |
| end user. The 5600 series also has full support for | | | | STALKER: Call of Prypiat. The first one uses |
| Microsoft's DirectX11 API. I guess most people | | | | DirectX10 and the second DirectX11. STALKER |
| buying a graphics card in the middle range | | | | Clear Sky (DX10) offers a very limited gaming |
| segment don't really know what the big deal is | | | | experience while STALKER: Call of Prypiat (DX11) |
| but anyone interested in the GPU industry knows | | | | has much better results. I mean, those games are |
| that if you want to see the latest innovations in | | | | part of the same series. It raises questions like: is |
| gaming you want to be on the latest DirectX | | | | DirectX11 more efficient than DirectX10 after all? |
| train. | | | | Or; do these two games have different 3D |
| ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS | | | | motors? I am afraid I cannot answer those |
| The test sample I will be reviewing today is a | | | | questions for you, just thought that I'd bring it to |
| generic AMD ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB | | | | your awareness. |
| GDDR5. It is a pre production unit which AMD | | | | There are however clearly two games in this |
| sends out to selected publications before other | | | | batch which this card cannot handle; Far Cry 2 |
| outfitters' versions hit the store shelves. I am | | | | and Crysis Warhead. The performance of the |
| actually a bit late out with my review, but hey, | | | | Radeon HD 5670 in Far Cry 2 at a resolution of |
| what's the hurry anyway? | | | | 1680×1050 (without filters) at 41.04 FPS |
| Here are the specifications for the HD5670 512MB | | | | just isn't good enough and far from the results I |
| GDDR5: | | | | achieved with the Sapphire HD 5750 (61.57 FPS). |
| AMD ATI Radeon HD 5670 512 MB GDDR5 GPU | | | | Still, the Radeon HD 5670 demonstrates a |
| Redwood (Radeon HD 5670) Transistors 627 Ms | | | | remarkable performance in very demanding |
| GPU Speed 775 MHz Stream processors 400 | | | | games. If we can live with not always running the |
| Performance calculation 620GFLOPS Texture units | | | | games in the highest resolutions with filters |
| 20 Texture fill rate 25.2 GTexels/s ROPs 16 Pixel | | | | enabled, then you will not be disappointed. |
| fill rate 6.2 Gpixel/s Z/Stencil 24.8 GSamples/s | | | | HD VIDEO |
| Type of memory GDDR5 Speed of memory | | | | In order to analyze the performance of the |
| 1000 MHZ Amount of memory 515MB Bandwidth | | | | Radeon HD 5670 when replaying HD video I |
| of memory 64 GB/s Bus width 128-bit | | | | measured the average CPU load (%) during a 5 |
| Consumption Normal (61W)/IDLE (14W) | | | | minute period while playing HD content. I did the |
| IN DETAIL: | | | | measurements in two resolutions: 720p (H.261) |
| I'm not going to spend too much time rambling | | | | and 1080p. |
| about what the card looks like since most | | | | The excellent results are really thanks to the ATI |
| outfitters will be mounting their own cooling | | | | Steam technology. It is great to see such a |
| solutions. In short however, the card has a one | | | | powerful card with such small dimensions. It |
| slot cooler which is great and expected with a | | | | makes the card ideal for a HTPC. |
| middle range card. | | | | OVERCLOCKING, COOLING AND CONSUMPTION |
| The card is manufactured with a 40nm | | | | Overclocking is always exciting (at least for me) |
| technology which is great since it will increase its | | | | but I wasn't overly enthusiastic about this card |
| energy efficiency and decrease the generated | | | | since all I had to work with was the ATI Catalyst |
| heat in relation to performance. | | | | application. I did however reach a decent 9% |
| A good thing about the fact that this card is fairly | | | | increase of the GPU (775 MHz) and a 9.5% |
| small and thin is that it fits in smaller cases suitable | | | | increase of the original memory frequency. This |
| for HTPC and media PC projects. The length of | | | | was the max numbers I could set in the ATI |
| the Radeon HD 5670 is 170mm. | | | | Catalyst application which leaves some room for |
| The card has no PCI- Express power connector | | | | other outfitters to unlock a greater overclocking. |
| which should be considered as something positive | | | | The cooling system of this card fulfills its task. We |
| I guess. It means that the card will never draw | | | | must consider that is just a generic sample of the |
| more power than what the PCI-Express bus can | | | | card so none of the outfitters fancy cooling |
| handle. | | | | solutions are present. The temperatures that you |
| The 5670 generic card has 3 connectors; a | | | | see in the graph below at full load are high but |
| Display Port; a HDMI and a DVI connector. It | | | | they are actually what I usually see with a new |
| supports the "ATI Eyefinity" technology which | | | | reference model AMD ATI card. We will just see |
| means you can use monitors on each connector | | | | what the different outfitters can come up with in |
| simultaneously. The HMDI connector support s | | | | terms of cooling solutions for the 5670 chip and |
| HDMI 1.3a which means full support for Dolby | | | | what they can do with the temperatures. |
| True HD and DTS Audio Masters. | | | | The fan is automatically regulated and its rotation |
| TEST SYSTEM I used my normal test system | | | | speed is around 28% when the card is in idle |
| for this review, here are the specs: | | | | mode. Below 40% the fan is imperceptible but |
| Test equipment Processor Intel Core i7 920 Fan | | | | above 50% it is perfectly audible without ever |
| Prolimatech Mega Shadow Motherboard Asus | | | | getting as annoying as fans on high end cards. |
| Rampage II Gene Graphics card ATI Radeon HD | | | | The use of the new manufacturing technology at |
| 5670 512MB GDDR5 Soundcard Integrated | | | | 40nm gives this card a better efficiency ratio |
| Memory 3 x2 GB GSkill Trident 1600 MHZ | | | | than previous generation of graphics cards. In the |
| (6-7-6-18) Hard disk Intel X25-M G2 Postville 80 | | | | real world this means an improvement of the |
| GB Power supply Corsair HX850W | | | | performance at the same power consumption |
| Operating system and software Operating | | | | levels. Or the other way around; a lower power |
| system Windows 7 64bits System dirvers | | | | consumption at the same performance level. |
| Controller 8.69_RC3 (BETA) DirectX August 2009 | | | | According to AMD ATI, the idle mode |
| Benchmarking software 3D Mark 06 3D Mark | | | | consumption should be 14W whereas the typical |
| Vantage Furmark 1.7 Unigyne Heaven Benchmark | | | | consumption in operation is at 61W. |
| Games The Last Remnant Street Fighter IV | | | | I measured the total power drainage of my |
| Resident Evil 5 Weak May Cry 4 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. | | | | system in idle mode and overclock mode which is |
| Clear Sky S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Prypiat DIRT 2 Far | | | | illustrated in the graph below. I cannot tell you if |
| Cry 2 Crysis Warhead Other software CPU-Z | | | | AMD ATI's number are correct or not. |
| 1.49 GPU-Z 0.3.7 OCCT 3.1 | | | | RESULTS OF THE TEST WITH OVERCLOCK |
| During my test I set the in-game graphics | | | | The results tells us a slight increase of the |
| settings to the highest quality. I set the filter | | | | performance. For instance the gain in Crysis |
| settings to "medium" because of the fact that | | | | Warhead was around 1.5 FPS and in Far Cry 2 the |
| this card is not intended for people who "must" | | | | increase was around 3 FPS. In reality this doesn't |
| have the filter settings to max. | | | | mean much. |
| For those of you who are not too familiar of how | | | | CONCLUSIONS |
| to measure the performance of a graphics card, | | | | OK, so this card is clearly not a high end gaming |
| here's a table with frame rate numbers and what | | | | card, but the big question is if it's powerful enough |
| they actually mean in real life gaming experience: | | | | to be of any use for us gamers? I would say |
| FPS (Frames per second) FPS lower than 30 Not | | | | definitely yes! If you can accept playing FPS |
| a good gaming experience 30 - 40 FPS OK but | | | | games without filters you will be satisfied with this |
| not good gaming experience 40 - 60 FPS Good | | | | card. Hard core gamers will however have to go |
| gaming experience Higher than 60 FPS Excellent | | | | for the next price level. |
| gaming experience | | | | What is great with this card is that AMD has |
| I always do the tests with the benchmarking | | | | managed to squeeze in all the new technologies |
| software first because it often gives a glint of the | | | | which we saw in the 5800 series, like the ATI |
| overall performance of the card. In this case the | | | | Steam, DirectX11 and ATI Eyefinity. That fact |
| results tell me that the performance of this card | | | | combined with the fact that this card is quite small |
| is a bit above what I had expected from a | | | | makes it ideal for anyone looking for a graphics |
| medium range card in the new AMD generation. | | | | card for HTPC project. |