AMD ATI Radeon HD 5770 Review

Performance Analysis and Conclusions

Compared to its most direct competitors, the Radeon HD 5770 has painted a rather strange performance picture - it's anything but a Mona Lisa, but it's not disastrous. As a result, we're frankly not sure where it stands at the moment because a lot of the 5770's appeal is going to depend on how aggressively AMD prices it and we've heard quite a range of prices. The best estimate we've been given though is approximately £120 inc VAT.

In our performance evaluations, the Radeon HD 5770 performed well, but didn't set the world on fire - the comparative lack of memory bandwidth severely limits the card's potential when compared to the Radeon HD 4890, which has the same engine clock as this new mid-ranged 5000 series card. What's more, we found that the card was also slower than the GeForce GTX 260-216 and Radeon HD 4870 1GB - especially when anti-aliasing was enabled - but it does manage to keep its head well above the Radeon HD 4850, though.

If you look at UK pricing for the Radeon HD 5770 and compare it to where the Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 were over a year ago, we haven't moved on a great deal. The Radeon HD 5770 costs about the same as the Radeon HD 4850 did when it was introduced and delivers performance relatively comparable to the Radeon HD 4870 1GB - it's faster if anti-aliasing is left off at 1,680 x 1,050 and 1,920 x 1,200.

UK pricing isn't exactly AMD's fault, but it is interesting to bring it up because it shows how badly the UK has been hit by the pound's weakness in the current economic climate. It also proves that this isn't really a true replacement for the Radeon HD 4800 series cards if that's the path you chose last time around - our recommendation is to hold onto what you've got for the time being or look at the 5850 if you feel the urge to upgrade.


Moreover, comparing to the older generation of cards is a little moot because they're not going to be around for much longer. The same can be said for the GeForce GTX 260-216, which is becoming increasingly difficult to source. There's also the fact that it won't be long before Nvidia is effectively giving away its GTX 200 series cards, because the huge die is not exactly cheap to produce and partners are unlikely to want to sell cards at a loss.

In effect, the Radeon HD 5770 could become the only choice at this price point in the short-to-medium term and we really don't like the idea of that. Nvidia is late with its Fermi architecture and while the flagship chips are expected this year, we aren't likely to see cheaper derivatives until April at the very earliest.

Of course, it's not all doom and gloom for the 5770, as it achieves its performance with considerably lower power consumption than the previous generation cards and also idles at never-before-seen power levels in this performance bracket. It's also worth bearing in mind that the new Radeon also has a feature advantage because modern graphics cards are no longer just about pushing pixels. We can't forget the improved image quality introduced with the 5000 series, as well as EyeFinity, full support for bitstream audio and DirectX 11.

Frankly, we're not convinced DirectX 11 will be a must-have feature in the mid-range because we've come away from this review feeling that the 5770 isn't likely to be fast enough to make the best use of the new technology (remember that image quality improvements generally don't come for free), but we're ready to be proved wrong when the first true DX11 games turn up. The reason we feel that way is because there's a massive gulf in performance between the 5850 and 5770, which really doesn't add up - it's as if there's a card missing in the middle of AMD's line up but, from what we've heard, there's nothing to plug that gap in the near future.

We're also not sure there's enough performance here to make EyeFinity a pleasurable experience on three 1,280 x 1,024 or 1,680 x 1,050 displays - at least where gaming is concerned - but the feature will be useful for anyone looking to create a huge desktop environment on a card that doesn't cost the earth. Having said that, the Radeon HD 5750 costs less and supports the same maximum resolution, so you could save yourself a few quid if all you're looking for is the ability to drive three 30in monitors from one graphics card.

While there's nothing in particular wrong with the 5770, it just doesn't do enough to stand out and we're left feeling disappointed with what AMD has delivered at this price point - we haven't gone anywhere in a year. We feel that's because AMD is confident that Nvidia cannot compete in this portion of the market for a while, which is a worrying proposition for consumers. For the Radeon HD 5770 to become an attractive product for gamers, it needs to fit in somewhere between the current 4870 and 4850 pricing at around £100 inc VAT. Until that happens, you're better off considering one of the previous generation cards while they're still available.

• Performance
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• -
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• 7/10

• Features
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• -
• 9/10

• Value
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• -
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• 4/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 6/10

Score Guide