Sapphire HD5770 Crossfire Review
Crysis Warhead & MW2
Published: 29th March 2010 | Source: Sapphire | Price: £249.96 |
Benchmarking Continued
Crysis Warhead
Ah Crysis Warhead how I hate thee. Every time we get some new hardware we hope one day to find the combination that Warhead enjoys, and everytime we come away more and more disappointed with how abysmally Crytek optimised it. Ho hum.
The 5850 still brings up the rear, the 5770xf isn't as far ahead as it was, and this time the 5870 noses ahead of our overclocked setup. Still very good performance though for two little cards.
Modern Warfare 2
Finally Modern Warfare 2. Although strictly speaking it should be called Future Warfare (unless we are fighting in space?). Here the 5850 gives a much better account of itself although still behind the near standard order of things.
Although the 5870 wins in maximum FPS, the 5770xf overclock provides the higher average framerate. All the cards on test though give great performance throughout and any of them would be a great choice.
Time to wrap this exciting test up.
Most Recent Comments
you mentioned the driver cd being used. Was it the 10.3 ATI CrossFireX Application Profiles if not it would be useful to know what effect this has across the boards.
It was 10.2 dude 10.3 has only just been released.
cheers, was wondering. just put spanner in works was intending to buy 5870 but not too sure now, not a lot of money and seems more bang for buck on crossfire. just never used crossfire.
Lol this really makes me question my judgement. Was really thinking about a 5870 but this definitely makes me think twice about it if I can save £100 and get comparable performance if I do a bit of overclocking...
If funds weren't too much of an issue would it still be recommended to go with a 5870 instead?
If funds weren't too much of an issue would it still be recommended to go with a 5870 instead?
If funds aren't an issue and you enjoy the thought of upgrading in the future, then yes a 5870 would be a wise purchase.
If you plan on purchasing a setup and sticking with it until some future release, go 5770.
If you plan on purchasing a setup and sticking with it until some future release, go 5770.
A pair of these makes a great combination it seems. What I wonder is, how powerful a CPU do you need so that you're not bottlenecking this setup on most games? Is it the same as the single card? Also, what are the power requirements like under overclocked crossfire compared to the other cards? This seems to be something that comes up more and more nowadays.
And another question (more relating to my setup) - are two 8x PCI-E lanes sufficient? Would a better chipset than P45 be worth investing in to make the most from these cards?
And another question (more relating to my setup) - are two 8x PCI-E lanes sufficient? Would a better chipset than P45 be worth investing in to make the most from these cards?
second that. if you're looking for value the powerdraw should be considered.
do you have stats on that? how does the dual 5770 compare?
I lol'd
do you have stats on that? how does the dual 5770 compare?
So much for driving round a track. Can we shoot people in the head now?
I lol'd
will be good to run same benches with 10.3b ^^, CF goes up every driver release XD
It's so pleasing to see these reviews, after buying these cards 4 months ago, only because we can't find a 5850 at a reasonable price...
It's so pleasing to see these reviews, after buying these cards 4 months ago, only because we can't find a 5850 at a reasonable price...
Power draw is very low when not gaming. The second card simply down clocks to hardly anything and sits dormant.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='alexhull24'
A pair of these makes a great combination it seems. What I wonder is, how powerful a CPU do you need so that you're not bottlenecking this setup on most games?
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No mate thats completely inaccurate unless the CPU was a single core celeron.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='tinytomlogan'
No mate thats completely inaccurate unless the CPU was a single core celeron.
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BTW I remembered I did this last night during the transition from single to Crossfire.
Here is a shot with everything maxed on one card in the menu.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/benchmin.jpg
And the same menu about twenty minutes later with the second card fitted.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...iburon/new.jpg
I had a gap between getting one card and the other because the second was an RMA exchange for my dead 280GTX
Here is a shot with everything maxed on one card in the menu.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/benchmin.jpg
And the same menu about twenty minutes later with the second card fitted.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...iburon/new.jpg
I had a gap between getting one card and the other because the second was an RMA exchange for my dead 280GTX
Cool, I'm making the same transition as you, from GTX280 to 5770CF. I'm just about to start running benchmarks with the GTX280 and a single 5770, should have results up this week if anyone's interested. I've got DiRT 2, so that'll be tested, if there's any other games people would particularly like to see I can see if I can bench them. Don't have BC2 I'm afraid!
Start a thread fella, always good to see individual results
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='tinytomlogan'
Start a thread fella, always good to see individual results
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Sounds good !
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='alexhull24'
And another question (more relating to my setup) - are two 8x PCI-E lanes sufficient? Would a better chipset than P45 be worth investing in to make the most from these cards? |
I too have a board that shares the bandwidth into 2 x 8xPCIE. I read for about a week before deciding that it would be fine. In my 3dvantage I scored 14,400 or so on 3dmarks. The test system used for the review here probably cost 2-3 times what mine did. My motherboard was £30 and my CPU will not touch an I7 (Phenom 2 940).
So yes, the particular set up used here scored 3000 more 3dmarks than mine did and it probably allowed the 5770s to stretch their legs more but 14,400 is still a very respectable score for a system like mine.
I did read somewhere that putting the same system into a motherboard with twin 16X PCIE slots gained about 1000 points more than the system with 2 x 8X PCIE slots.
Also consider that your 280 will score about what mine did in Vantage - about 9000 3dmarks. So to sum it up if you already have a system with 2 x 8x PCIE slots then it would be financial suicide for the levels of performance you will gain (hardly any tbh).
Hurrah. Just managed to push over 15k marks in Vantage using a gentle OC.
GPU @ 875 (XXX speed, now you can see why paying £35 for this paltry OC is brainless) and ram at 1350 (XFX XXX @ 1300).
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ntageblack.png
GPU @ 875 (XXX speed, now you can see why paying £35 for this paltry OC is brainless) and ram at 1350 (XFX XXX @ 1300).
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ntageblack.png
Last one for me. 900/1350.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...eblackfull.png
I'm not going to push them any harder as I don't need them going wrong. It's also doing a Nelly (getting hot in here) and I don't fancy taking off all my clothes.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...eblackfull.png
I'm not going to push them any harder as I don't need them going wrong. It's also doing a Nelly (getting hot in here) and I don't fancy taking off all my clothes.
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