Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB Review

Performance Analysis

Starting with Fallout 3[i], where the HD 5750 lags behind the higher-end HD 5770 by around 7fps. We used the GeForce GTX 260 (rev 2) as a comparison, and weren’t surprised when this card struggled with [i]Fallout 3 and AA - all Nvidia cards do this at the moment, thanks to a glitch in the graphics driver. However, with AA disabled, the GTX 260 (rev 2) was faster than the HD 5750 by 5-8fps.

Fallout 3[/i] usually favours ATI hardware – making the results for the HD 5750 doubly embarrassing – but Crysis loves Nvidia GPUs. It was no surprise that the GTX 260 (rev 2) was way ahead of both the HD 5770 and the HD 5750 at every resolution. The GTX 260 (rev 2) was the only card of the three to manage a playable frame rate at 1,680 x 1,050 with no AA, for example, while neither low end DX11 ATI card could manage a playable frame rate even at 1,280 x 1,024.

The GTX 260 (rev 2) continues its dominance in S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky. While the HD 5770 had a marginal lead in the minimum frame rates at 1,680 x 1,050, the Nvidia card was faster in the other resolutions. At 1,280 x 1,024, the HD 5750 was 1fps shy of what we consider playable, while the GTX 260 (rev 2) was 4fps clear of the all-important 25fps minimum frame rate barrier.

Call of Duty: World at War is the least demanding game we test when benchmarking but we were still surprised to find that the HD 5750 managed a playable minimum frame rate of 26fps at 1,920 x 1,200 with 4x AA. However, the HD 5750’s thunder was stolen by the similarly priced GTX 260 (rev 2), which was a huge 50 per cent faster than the HD 5750, with a huge minimum frame rate of 39fps at 1,920 x 1,200 with 4x AA.

Overclocking

Overclocking with ATI’s new 40nm GPUs is a more fruitful process than with previous-generation chips. Using AMD’s GPU Clock Tool, we managed to bump the Sapphire’s GPU from 700MHz to 840MHz, and the memory from 1.15GHz to 1.34GHz (5.36GHz effective). In Crysis, this overclock yielded an extra 3fps across the board, meaning that the budget card performed almost identically to its more expensive brother. Sadly, Folding@home doesn’t yet work on the new HD 5000-series GPUs, so Nvidia is currently still the way to earn bragging rights.

It should come as no surprise that the HD 5750 sucked the least amount of power from the wall during our tests: our PC consumed 132W when idle and 192W when under load. The Sapphire cooler not only kept things cool, but also whisper-quiet, keeping the GPU at just 26˚C above room temperature when under load with a practically inaudible purr.

Conclusion

We’re at the crossover stage of DirectX 10 to DirectX 11 graphics cards, so the price of the older-generation GPUs like the GTX 260-216 is being driven down by the newcomers like the ATI HD 5770 and HD 5750. For this reason, new budget graphics cards often struggle to hold their own against old mid-range cards, and that’s exactly what has happened with the HD 5750. While Sapphire has made a good fist of it, with a Dirt 2 pre-order code in the box and a cool and quiet third party cooler, the HD 5750 is disappointing when it comes frame rates.

You may be swayed by the lure of DX11 support and convinced that buying a HD 5750 over a GeForce GTX 260 (rev 2) would be more future-proof but considering that the HD 5750 struggles to run some games smoothly now, we couldn’t disagree with this more; when looking at a graphics card, you should always look at the performance first and the features second.

This is especially true for new versions of DirectX, as it will be a year or two before DX11 games are ubiquitous and even longer until DX11 becomes a mandatory feature, by which time this card will be well past its sell by date. If you need an upgrade with this sort of budget, a GTX 260 (rev 2) is by far the best option for just £10 more, while anyone owning a decent DX10 mid-range card like last years HD 4850 or HD 4870 should sit tight or find enough extra cash for the the HD 5850, which offers a lot more performance to go with its DX11 features.

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• 8/10

• Performance
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• 6/10

• Value
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• 7/10

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• 6/10

Score Guide