# HIS Radeon HD 5970 CrossFire



## W1zzard (Nov 17, 2009)

With the release of AMD's latest Radeon HD 5970, the question comes up "What can be gained by going CrossFire?" We investigate the quad GPU performance of the HIS Radeon HD 5970. Even though the setup rip a $1200 hole in your wallet, performance will make you smile.

*Show full review*


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## locoty (Nov 18, 2009)

i think the driver still immature for Xfire

must wait till 4 - 6 six month


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## LagunaX (Nov 18, 2009)

Oh Nvidia...where are you?


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 18, 2009)

so much for this being a GF 295 Killer youd think it would be getting way more frames even for immature driver sets.


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## locoty (Nov 18, 2009)

yes i agree. the driver get mature, and this card will be more powerful


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## btarunr (Nov 18, 2009)

LagunaX said:


> Oh Nvidia...where are you?



Busy showing paperweights to the press.


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## WarEagleAU (Nov 18, 2009)

Not necessarily true Eldair. Hell on those tests it failed, I wonder why it wouldn't run them. Drivers seem to be the logical clue and we know ATI has issues with those at times. When these mature, they will be kick ass. It doesnt really make logical sense to lose FPS when xfired compared to just one beast. This bitch is a mother though Ill tell ya that.


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## shevanel (Nov 18, 2009)

wow a single 5970 is a monster.


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## dir_d (Nov 18, 2009)

Seems like that i7 was the bottleneck in alot of those benches


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## magibeg (Nov 18, 2009)

Wow, a 5970 crushed crysis.


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## Steevo (Nov 18, 2009)

•Some things just look better in pairs™


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## mlee49 (Nov 18, 2009)

Why is there no Overclocking section of the review?  

Any details about heat consumption other than in the conclusion?  Actual numbers would be great as a part of the review.


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## Aceman.au (Nov 18, 2009)

The 5970 has slaughtered the GTX 295... Double FPS at some Res's.

The corssfire is disappointing but it seems to be bottlenecking somewhere...


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## tuanming (Nov 18, 2009)

The 5970 could have yield better results or fps if this was tested in Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64. Too bad, it this review used the 32-bit OS...


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## shevanel (Nov 18, 2009)

tuanming said:


> The 5970 could have yield better results or fps if this was tested in Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64. Too bad, it this review used the 32-bit OS...



good observation and a valid point. but still impressive on 32bit xp nonetheless


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## tuanming (Nov 18, 2009)

shevanel said:


> good observation and a valid point. but still impressive on 32bit xp nonetheless



Have you guys seen Hexus review of this card? It's a totally different story! You don't see the 5970 double the fps of the GTX 295 or anywhere near that. This is probably one of the best reviews of the 5970. 

Great Job, W1zzard.


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## Binge (Nov 18, 2009)

l33tGaMeR said:


> The 5970 has slaughtered the GTX 295... Double FPS at some Res's.
> 
> The corssfire is disappointing but it seems to be bottlenecking somewhere...



Hey you 10 month old GPU... Happy birthday to the ground!


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## locoty (Nov 18, 2009)

why did wizzard not use 64 bit OS?


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## Zubasa (Nov 18, 2009)

This Is Madness!!


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## SK-1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Any vantage scores available on these in single and crossfire?


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

tuanming said:


> The 5970 could have yield better results or fps if this was tested in Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64. Too bad, it this review used the 32-bit OS...



show me your data


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

WarEagleAU said:


> Hell on those tests it failed, I wonder why it wouldn't run them.



the benchmark process simply went *poof* closed, nothing i could do, tried several times


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## TheMailMan78 (Nov 18, 2009)

Im not all that impressed to be honest. I mean yeah its the fastest setup out there but I thought we would see almost double the FPS in most areas.

Anyways nice review W1zz!


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## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Im not all that impressed to be honest. I mean yeah its the fastest setup out there but *I thought we would see almost double the FPS in most areas*.
> 
> Anyways nice review W1zz!



It's never almost double though, with some games, it gets quite close.

Don't forget that this review was done with the 9.6 drivers and we're now with the 9.11.

If memory serves, W1zzard said he would be doing a full re-bench in November. Was he referring to these reviews or not, dunno


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## Imsochobo (Nov 18, 2009)

you have a cpu bottleneck.

Hell a PHII at 6.5 ghz is most likely the only config that wont be cpu bottlenecked, and thats not hard to get, but i doubt anyone would like to pay the price and the pain of doing refill og Lhe!

thats why you dont see double the FPS.
Wait till more demanding games comes out, then we can see almost double, or double fps.


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## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

I want to see benches with 4ghz+ processors.


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

pantherx12 said:


> I want to see benches with 4ghz+ processors.



send me one



HTC said:


> If memory serves, W1zzard said he would be doing a full re-bench in November. Was he referring to these reviews or not, dunno



will switch to w7 64 and do a full rebench after this round of reviews. i need about a month time window to do that, couldnt do it before


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## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> send me one



I would make one myself if I had the card and a processor that could hit 4ghz.

but alas, I do not : [


It wasn't a request to TPU by the way, just an open statement.


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

mine wasnt a request to you either, open statement. send me your cpus!!


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## HTC (Nov 18, 2009)

pantherx12 said:


> I want to see benches with 4ghz+ processors.



Actually, and in order to reduce the eventual CPU bottleneck, 4.5+ GHz would be ideal. Even then, i'm pretty sure in some games would still have some CPU bottleneck, though not as severe.

@ present, the GPU is much more advanced then the CPU, generally speaking: unless there's some sort of breakthrough, the top high-end video card (ATI or nVidia) will be more and more CPU bottlenecked.

EDIT



W1zzard said:


> will switch to w7 64 and do a full rebench after this round of reviews. i need about a month time window to do that, couldnt do it before



Will be looking forward to it.


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## pantherx12 (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> mine wasnt a request to you either, open statement. send me your cpus!!



Come now I'm pretty sure you could get hold of a q9650 for "review purposes"


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## mark84 (Nov 18, 2009)

Hi W1zzard, would it be possible to do power readings for the HD5970 crossfire review you did?
Would like to see how much power such a system would draw.

Also, as it's been mentioned you'll be doing a full re-bench at a later date, could you also include power readings for some kind of 2D benchmark or Blu-Ray video play back?


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

i'll look into those power measurements. bluray playback is planned in the power numbers for next rebench


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## amschip (Nov 18, 2009)

I wonder if LucidLogix hydra will be better at scaling two of those, Actually I really hope it will as I'm planning system upgrade next year.


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

amschip said:


> I wonder if LucidLogix hydra will be better at scaling two of those, Actually I really hope it will as I'm planning system upgrade next year.



dear lucidlogix, send me your vaporware, i'll write a review


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## amschip (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> dear lucidlogix, send me your vaporware, i'll write a review



I know i know it seems like vaporware atm, but if it appears then I hope you write a good review about it 
On the other hand you don't seem to believe that this thing is physicaly possible. Or am I wrong?


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## TheMailMan78 (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zz what's the reasoning behind the outdated drivers in your reviews? Also why not use a 64-bit OS? Is there no benefit in your opinion or is it something else?


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

TheMailMan78 said:


> W1zz what's the reasoning behind the outdated drivers in your reviews? Also why not use a 64-bit OS? Is there no benefit in your opinion or is it something else?



as i've said countless times it takes a long long time to rebench all cards with new drivers. so i do it in intervals of several months. 64-bit os has not much of an advantage, and if amd/nvidia dont provide 64-bit drivers for their launches i'm fucked. so i prefered to play it safe. new vga bench rig will be w7 64-bit, coming in the next months, this year probably.

show me your numbers where a gpu limited benchmark gains, say, 5% on 64-bit vs. 32-bit..


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## KainXS (Nov 18, 2009)

whoa, bad drivers for sure, damn those are some bad drivers there.


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## Olle P (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> ... 64-bit os has not much of an advantage, ...


On your test rig it most certainly has.
Just count the RAM available:
Regular "CPU" RAM: 3x2 GB = 6 GB
Graphics RAM (for this test): 2x2 GB = 4 GB
*Total: 10 GB*

A 32-bit OS can use a maximum total of slightly less than 4 GB, which probably is the reason some of the gaming tests were totally unable to run at all. (All addressed RAM available for either the CPU or GPU, none available for the other?)
To address all that RAM you'll need at least the Business version of 64-bit Win7, which can handle up to 12 GB if I'm not mistaken. (Home Premium can only address 8 GB.)

32-bit OS is just fine as long as the total RAM is 4GB or less.

Cheers
Olle


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## Delta6326 (Nov 18, 2009)

w7 Home basic is 8gb, w7 home premium is 16gb and w7 pro and up is 192gb of max physical ram in 64bit os


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## 1Kurgan1 (Nov 18, 2009)

Nice to see that in some games 2x 5970's seem to do almost double the fps of 2, but can obviously tell drivers need work as other tests it fail, still very nice to see they might have actually found a good way to sclae more than 2 GPU's.


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## tuanming (Nov 18, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> show me your data



You will find the data when you use Windows 7 64-bit OS. Most serious or hardcore gamers tends to go with x64 OS anyway. I mean come on, if you have the hardware, why not go with 64-bit OS. Future OS will be mostly 64-bit and beyond. I'm just simply saying there could be better fps if you use the 5970 and 5970 crossfire in a 64-bit OS. But there's no guarantee that the gain will be significantly improve.

Also, if you can provide some pictures or video that would be even better. But that's only a suggestion because not many reviews of this card posted pics or video in their review.


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## W1zzard (Nov 18, 2009)

tuanming said:


> Also, if you can provide some pictures or video that would be even better. But that's only a suggestion because not many reviews of this card posted pics or video in their review.



umm what are you missing? i took photos of everything the seemed of interest concerning the card in the single card review... crossfire is just 2 cards and a cf bridge


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## Soylent Joe (Nov 18, 2009)

Oh Jebus, just look at what kind of performance a single 5870 will give you. I long for the day when I can play GTA4 @ 1920x1080 with everything turned up and get no less than 60FPS  T_T


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## a_ump (Nov 18, 2009)

eh idk bout all this 4gb maximum stuff. I mean i know that's how it works for motherboard memory but one thing that always makes me think otherwise is on my 680i LT it only registered 2.8gb of memory when i had 1 8800GT, when i had em in SLI, and now with my 7800GTX 256mb and the amount of memory never changed....if graphics memory did affect that total why doesn't the amount of graphics memory you have affect how much memory my computer can use? when i played crysis and had SLI 8800GT's my ram usage shot up to like 2.4/2.8gb. so 512mbx2 would be 1024mb of memory that should be subtracted from my 2.8gb total no? hsouldn't my total have read 1.8gb available memory?

nice review w1zz, i always enjoy yours the most out of others cause you include twice as many games as others and give price/perf and perf/dollar graphs, something else i have yet to see on another review site.


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## DaC (Nov 18, 2009)

Nice review Wizz... about the 64-bit system, well like you said, it's coming, but indeed like the other guys said, gamers already switched to 64 bits OS, but I don't know if it's better or worst.....
It would be nice if you could make a review just like the PCI express from 16x to 1x on the hd5870. But this time taking two things in consideration: CPU bottleneck (comparing results at different CPU clock), and also the 64bit vs 32bit test.......
Well..... but this is a lot of work, I don't think you'll find time to do all that.... Your reviews are great and one of the most complete on the internet =]


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## troyrae360 (Nov 18, 2009)

Awsum Card, Awsum review!! 

Only thing is (I dont wanna sound ungratful) I understand why you benchtest with old drivers, but then you say in the conclusion 'It should also be noted that the drivers do not seem to be in a fully finalized state yet.' well obviousley coz yor using drivers that were released 5 months befor the card, Prehaps in the conclusion you should say that you used very old drivers as opposed to saying 'drivers do not seem to be in a fully finalized state yet', it just sorta sounds bad when you put it that way.

Maybe you could do a couple of benchmarks with 9.11 drivers, prehaps just 3dmark, crysis and hawx that wouldnt take long and would give us an idea of what the card should be really be running like.

Dont get me wrong, Im not trying to complain i very much appreceate these reviews, and i always digg them


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## niko084 (Nov 18, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> so much for this being a GF 295 Killer youd think it would be getting way more frames even for immature driver sets.



Um it pretty much takes the GTX 295 to town. 
Especially in Crysis 

Crossfire performance sucks... But ATI has been struggling with anything above 3 cards across the boards. Got some work to do guys.


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## troyrae360 (Nov 18, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> so much for this being a GF 295 Killer youd think it would be getting way more frames even for immature driver sets.



Doubbles the preformance of 295 in Crysis!! and thats on drivers that were released almost 6 months before the card was released it stomps all over the 295


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## shevanel (Nov 18, 2009)

who needs xfire. one of these things are plenty.


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## Weer (Nov 19, 2009)

Anyone maybe think the reason the 4GB cards weren't working was that they were being used in an OS that only has the ability to address 4GB of memory?

Damn you, W1zz! You got lucky this time since I'm waiting for Fermi. You know I don't buy any new card without your review..


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## W1zzard (Nov 19, 2009)

Weer said:


> Anyone maybe think the reason the 4GB cards weren't working was that they were being used in an OS that only has the ability to address 4GB of memory?
> 
> Damn you, W1zz! You got lucky this time since I'm waiting for Fermi. You know I don't buy any new card without your review..



there is no 4 gb card. there are four 1 gb gpus. as discusses in another thread there is no need for 64-bit os with any graphics card. the driver will map up to 256 mb into main memory. when some data needs to the copied to the gpu, the driver tells the gpu, "get x bytes from main memory address y" and the gpu will handle the rest


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## lism (Nov 20, 2009)

Can someone explain me why 



> # No support for CUDA / PhysX



is mostly mentioned at any review of an AMD/Ati card while Cuda & Psysx is Nvidia only?


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## Hunt3r (Nov 20, 2009)

Weer said:


> Anyone maybe think the reason the 4GB cards weren't working was that they were being used in an OS that only has the ability to address 4GB of memory?
> 
> Damn you, W1zz! You got lucky this time since I'm waiting for Fermi. You know I don't buy any new card without your review..



Nvidia will have surprised everyone with this fermi else she will lose to concurrency


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## LaidLawJones (Nov 20, 2009)

I am a little late to the review. Damn job keeps interfering with my life. Thank you ATI, it is so nice to see the #1 position. Now it is time to start selling and saving for an upgrade (MB,mem,CPU/GPU, water cooled) in the summer. By then there will be a better selection, drivers will be more mature, pricing and availability will have stabilized. The only concern I have, if you can call it that, is that team green does not beat ATI and prices go up. In that case, I hope ATI remembers the people who have been loyal to them for years.


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## T3kl0rd (Nov 20, 2009)

Those Crysis specs were nuts.  First card I have seen to own Crysis @ 1920X1200.  Great review, would like to have seen 2 5870's in CF for a comparison.


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## Tom20 (Nov 20, 2009)

Very impressive! I won't pay that much for a video card though.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Nov 21, 2009)

Crysis just got pwned ....


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## Lionheart (Nov 23, 2009)

Crysis gets pwned by the HD4870X2, GTX295 and the HD5870, the HD5970 rapes Crysis LMAO!!!


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## CLUBBER1986 (Nov 24, 2009)

sorry but my dual mars for £790 with ex i7 whould kill that, you say wait for nvida to pop something out...... 

but as im not an nvid freak, i own a 5970 as well in my amd rig and that pulls more fps with lower cpu freq, 

one thing i will say is both run HOT!!!! mars more, overclocking on both is tetchy... my mars are water cooled but you couldn get much more out of it before turning into moulten slack,!!


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## Lionheart (Nov 24, 2009)

ppffft mars waste of money, more driver support as well.


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## Crazykenny (Nov 24, 2009)

CLUBBER1986 said:


> sorry but my dual mars for £790 with ex i7 whould kill that, you say wait for nvida to pop something out......
> 
> but as im not an nvid freak, i own a 5970 as well in my amd rig and that pulls more fps with lower cpu freq,
> 
> one thing i will say is both run HOT!!!! mars more, overclocking on both is tetchy... my mars are water cooled but you couldn get much more out of it before turning into moulten slack,!!



Yes yes, and I own the moon and Jupiter 

Nice review W1zz


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## Morgoth (Nov 25, 2009)

when is the X2 version comming?


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## TheMailMan78 (Nov 25, 2009)

Morgoth said:


> when is the X2 version comming?



The 5970 is the X2 man.


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## Crazykenny (Nov 25, 2009)

A 5970X2, that would be something  Technically it would be a X4 then, right?


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## grafic8722 (Dec 9, 2009)

This may sound crazy, but what about a triple crossfire? 
Because i wanna buy 3 5970.


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## kylzer (Dec 9, 2009)

grafic8722 said:


> This may sound crazy, but what about a triple crossfire?
> Because i wanna buy 3 5970.



As far as i know DX10/11 only supports up to 4Gpus

or maybe its not dx its something thats limiting the amount anyways.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 9, 2009)

Drivers


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 9, 2009)

eidairaman1 said:


> Drivers



WTF does that mean?


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## wolf (Dec 9, 2009)

he means that drivers are limiting how many GPU's we can link to render together.


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## grafic8722 (Dec 9, 2009)

Well i don't wanna open a new post just for this, but i am building my new computer


```
EVGA E760 CLASSIFIED 3-Way SLI
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition
Kingston HyperX 12GB DDR3 1600 (3 x 4GB) * 2= 24GB of Ram :rockout:
COOLER MASTER V10
Ultra X4 1600-Watt

but i still don't know if 
XFX HD-597A-CNB9 Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB Crossfire or
BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 OCFU Sli
```


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## warup89 (Dec 9, 2009)

Hey Wizz, out of curiosity.....Do you get to keep this cards [and all other reviewed cards] or do you have to send them back?


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## exodusprime1337 (Dec 9, 2009)

he sells them for an unlimited supply of hot german prostitutes


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## Lionheart (Dec 9, 2009)

grafic8722 said:


> Well i don't wanna open a new post just for this, but i am building my new computer
> 
> 
> ```
> ...




The HD5970 dude, defantely


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## Kantastic (Dec 9, 2009)

grafic8722 said:


> Well i don't wanna open a new post just for this, but i am building my new computer
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



The 5970 will crap all over that 295.


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## InnocentCriminal (Dec 9, 2009)

W1zzard said:


> dear lucidlogix, send me your vaporware, i'll write a review





That made me lol!


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## grafic8722 (Dec 9, 2009)

Kantastic said:


> The 5970 will crap all over that 295.



ok, thanks now i have to wait for newegg to have stock .....:shadedshu


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## T3kl0rd (Dec 10, 2009)

grafic8722 said:


> but i still don't know if
> XFX HD-597A-CNB9 Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB Crossfire or
> BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 OCFU Sli[/CODE]



HD 5970 is twice as powerful, don't miss out on owning one!  Wish I could.  Can run GTA IV at constant 60 FPS with one, that is sweet!(as long as your CPU is core i7)


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## Lionheart (Dec 10, 2009)

you getting the blck edition from XFX?


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## grafic8722 (Dec 11, 2009)

CHAOS_KILLA said:


> you getting the blck edition from XFX?


yeah, is the best edition i could find
is there a better one?


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## magicxtech (Jan 9, 2013)

*question *

Hi all:
I watch that video card charging his 5970 is faster than the asus 5970, look:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH5970/11.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5970_CrossFire/7.html

the gpu is the same but do not understand why you give more fps if they are from the same series.
Thanks!


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## 3870x2 (Jan 9, 2013)

While the test setup is identical, there are several different variables that could case such a discrepancy, thus it would be difficult to pinpoint.  W1zzard might be able to explain though.


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## W1zzard (Jan 9, 2013)

magicxtech said:


> Hi all:
> I watch that video card charging his 5970 is faster than the asus 5970, look:
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH5970/11.html
> ...



different in-game settings


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