NVIDIA's latest beast offers unprecedented performance to the enthusiast gamer. But it also requires massive amounts of data being fed to it to perform. That's why it is commonly expected that high-end graphics cards are crippled if the PCI-Express interface does not offer the maximum speed of x16 2.0. We test four different PCI-E configurations and their performance to shine light on this question.
PowerColor has engineered a unique HD 5750. Their Go! Green Edition is completely fanless using a big passive heatsink, it also works without additional PCI-Express power connector, a configuration which limits the card to 75W maximum power draw. Considering that the AMD reference design requires 92W, PowerColor had quite a way to go. Did they succeed?
MSI's new R5870 Lightning is designed with the hardcore overclocker in mind. It comes with more PWM phases, noise free coils, voltage measurement points, an overclock out of the box and software voltage change support via Afterburner. But is that enough to satisfy the demanding enthusiast crowd?
ASUS has released what seems to be one of the best custom designed HD 5850s. The card which supports DirectX 11 and Eyefinity is extremely quiet, offers better price/performance than the AMD reference design, comes with an overclock out of the box and supports voltage control via SmartDoctor.
Today we have with us the ASUS EAH 5830 DirectCu 1024 MB, a premium non-reference implementation of the Radeon HD 5830. The way its cooler is designed, and going by ASUS' choice of components, the EAH 5830 DirectCu is catered to the value performance enthusiast who can squeeze the last ounce of performance out of it by overclocking.
Sapphire's new HD 5450 seems to be the dream come true for all media PC users. It is passively cooled, which means no noise, can be turned into a single slot low-profile card and includes native HDMI and all the HD audio improvements of the Radeon HD 5000 Series. But is that enough to win over the enthusiasts?
Sapphire's new HD 5570 is set out to deliver decent gaming performance for casual gaming and also best-in-class media playback capabilities. Thanks to its compact design and the included low-profile bracket it seems to be able to achieve that.
PowerColor's brand new HD 5870 PCS+ comes with an overclock out of the box and an amazing cooling solution that makes the card quieter than any other card in this performance segment. For a price increase of only $10-$20 over the reference design this seems like a great deal.
MSI's new HD 5770 Hawk is designed to deliver extra features to overclockers. Its TwinFrozr dual fan offers plenty of cooling power to keep the card cool during overclocking, yet runs extremely quiet. As added bonus for tweakers, MSI has included easy to use V-Check voltage measurement points on their PCB and an overclock out of the box.
Sapphire's HD 5770 Vapor-X features their exclusive cooling solution which promises to reduce temperature, fan noise and increase overclocking potential. In our testing we confirmed that the card does indeed run quiet, cool and offers the highest overclocks we saw on a HD 5770 so far.
MSI's new R5670-PMD1G is one of the few HD 5670 cards that come with 1 GB of video memory, as opposed to 512 MB on most other designs. This review will answer whether there is any point in 1 GB of memory on a card like the HD 5670 or if 512 MB is enough.
PowerColor has sent us their new Radeon HD 5770 PCS+ which is an overclocked version of the HD 5770, featuring a custom PCB design and thermal solution by PowerColor. Thanks to PowerColor's changes, the card can manage a reduced power consumption, which is even lower than the AMD reference design, resulting in a leading performance per Watt score.
After months-long DirectX 11 extravaganza by AMD, it seems to be time when NVIDIA declares itself to have a competing GPU, based on its spanking-new Fermi GPU architecture. The GeForce Fermi 100 (GF100) is promising to take over the legacy built by its ancestors, the G80 and GT200, to become yet another monster high-performance silicon which will reignite competition in the upper-quadrant of the market. We look at what NVIDIA is putting on offer, before we get to test NVIDIA's assertions.
Today AMD announced the availability of their Radeon HD 5670 Series. HIS has chosen to design a custom PCB and uses an Arctic Cooling thermal solution to keep their card cool. Even though it uses an active fan, the card is easily one of the quietest cards on the market, underlining its potential media PC use.
Powercolor is the first add-in-board manufacturer to release a completely custom designed Radeon HD 5850. The HD 5850 PCS+ features a revamped cooling solution that offers extremely low temperatures and comfortable noise levels. It also comes with higher clocks out of the box that should give the card an extra performance boost.
Intel's latest Clarkdale processors are the first to integrate a GPU and CPU inside a single processor package. This can lead to large cost savings and simplifications for motherboard vendors and system integrators. But does the Core i5 661 have enough GPU steam to play current games?
NVIDIA recently launched their first GDDR5 graphics cards. The new GeForce GT 240 is based on NVIDIA's brand-new 40 nm G215 graphics processor and features 96 shaders. Axle has chosen to use an Arctic Cooling heatsink on their GT 240 design.
While Axle is not the most well-known graphics card manufacturer, their GeForce GT 220 can score. It comes with a silent Arctic Cooling heatsink making it the quietest GT 220 we tested so far - great for HTPCs. It also offers low temperature levels which means overclocking is easy to do. We saw an 31% overclock on the GPU core clock and 18% on the memory.
HIS designed a Radeon HD 5750 that uses a nearly silent cooler by Arctic Cooling which makes this card a premium choice for HTPC or quiet gaming PC. Even though the cooler is quiet, the temperatures are low, which means you can get some nice overclocking out of your card. In our case around 20% free extra performance.
Powercolor's new HD 5750 PCS relies on a copper cooling solution by Zerotherm to keep the card cool. It does so without much fan noise and while being twice as energy efficient as the HD 4850 which is comparable in performance.
Today NVIDIA launches their first GDDR5 graphics card. The new GeForce GT 240 is based on NVIDIA's brand-new 40 nm G215 graphics processor and features 96 shaders. Palit has built an overclocked "Sonic" Edition card that comes with high clock speeds out of the box and features a sensible temperature based fan control mechanism.
Today marks the day that AMD takes back the graphics card performance crown from NVIDIA. The new AMD Radeon HD 5970 comes with two fast Cypress GPUs on a single PCB. Using their latest power saving features, AMD achieved a very modest power consumption for this card which right now is the fastest money can buy.
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.
Today NVIDIA launches their first GDDR5 graphics card. The new GeForce GT 240 is based on NVIDIA's brand-new 40 nm G215 graphics processor and features 96 shaders. It also includes several new features like support for DirectX 10.1, HDMI audio enhancements and extremely low power draw. But is that enough to justify a price of $100 ?
Inno3D's GeForce GT 220 uses NVIDIA's latest 40 nm graphics processor. It offers extremely low power consumption, especially in idle and has support for DirectX 10.1. It also features NVIDIA's new HDMI audio improvements, so you no longer need to route an SPDIF cable to the graphics card.
