New generation HTPC VGA card - ATI Radeon HD 5570 OC Review

[windwithme]

The Radeon HD 5XX0 series is the latest generation of all ATI’s product lines,
the main features of which are using more 3D technology and more advanced process of the chips.
Plus, the product roadmaps of ATI and AMD are quite similar.
The products are all built either with higher C/P rates or with variety of choices for users to make the purchase by their budget easily.
There are several kinds of product lines on the PC market: 5900 / 5800 / 5700 / 5600 / 5500 / 5400,
which brought ATI new series VGA card a very good comment from the market.

I once shared an article about ATI Radeon HD “4670” at the end of 2008,
and it turned out that based on the C/P rate, the model was very popular on the market.
We can see that from the pricing and position of the product, the new generation ATI Radeon “5570” looks like the previous one “4670”,
and also seems “5570” is going to take over the lower cost level of VGA from “4670”.
The particulars of the “5570” are including supporting updated Direct X 11, ATI Eyefinity multi-screen technology and ATI Stream technology.

First, let’s take a look at the externals of ATI Radeon HD 5570, which is built with a smaller short-card design,
means which can be modified with low-profile short bracket, then put into smaller size PC to increase the 3D performance,
although one D-Sub connector could be missing.

From the rear, we can see that there is a metal bracket to hold the heat-spreader on the front side by 4 screws on the rear.

Built-in GDDR3, there are total 8 pcs. of Samsung memory chips on the both sides of the PCB. Frequency is 900Mhz, means it should be DDR3 / 1800.
The total capacity is 1024MB, it should be enough to support most of the usage in any kinds of conditions.

The heat-spreader is so quite during the operation, no noises, copper made looks very pretty.

From the left side, we can see all components “5570” is using, and also with the very dense circuit design.
ATI has a very good standard in using the materials & components from the generic PCB design.
Since AND & ATI were combined several years ago, we can find AMD brand name on ATI products nowadays.

“5570” has built-in D-SUB, DVI & HDMI three different kinds of output connectors.

We can see the ATI “5570” chipset is MADE IN TAIWAN after we removed the heat-spreader.

The heat-spreader is designed with a large copper base to use for heat spreading, and the quality of the thermal paste also looks very good.

 

[windwithme]

The main board I am using for testing is ASROCK 890GX Extreme3, the mean feature is the “True 333 function”,
USB3.0 / SATA 3.0 & E-SATA 3 can be performed at x16 full speed.

In the early stage, the ASROCK 890GX main board is one of the few models which can break out from the limitation of supporting multi-core CPU of the AMD SB850.

South bridge chipset is AMD latest model SB850, which supports 6 x SATA3 devices, including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 & RAID 5.

The North Bridge chipset is AMD 890GX chipset, which is integrated with AMD Radeon HD 4290 VGA chipset.

CPU is designed with V8 + 2 Phase, supports the highest 140W CPU which makes the stability of the entire system much better.

Testing Platform
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition
MB: ASROCK 890GX Extreme3
DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMD4GX3M2B1600C7
VGA: ATI Radeon HD 5570
HD: CORSAIR CMFSSD-128GBG2D
POWER: be quiet! power4 DELUXE 530W
Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp14Pro
OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit

CPU: 222 X 18 => 3996MHz
DRAM: 1776 CL8 8-8-24 1T

GPU Default 650MHz/900MHz

CINEBENCH R11.5
OpenGL => 36.95 fps
CPU => 4.61 pts
CPU(Single Core) => 1.14 pts

3DMARK2006 => 8481

3DMark Vantage => P4453
CPU SCORE => 13443
GPU SCORE => 3641

GPU OC 745MHz/1133MHz

CINEBENCH R11.5
OpenGL => 44.52 fps
CPU => 4.59 pts
CPU(Single Core) => 1.15 pts

 

[windwithme]

3DMARK2006 => 10007

3DMark Vantage => P5363
CPU SCORE => 13456
GPU SCORE => 4467

The performance of “5570” shows quite good in the stable over clocking range, the over clocking efficiency increases a lot compare with normal.
With 3DMARK2006 & 3DMARK VANTAGE testing programs, the efficiency increase 20% up by 3D games.

GPU Default 650MHz/900MHz

StreetFighter IV Benchmark
1280 X 720 => 110.18FPS

DEVIL MAY CRY4
1280 X 1024 => 94.33/81.35/120.46/67.27 fps

FINAL FANTASY XIV
1920 X 1080 => 2051

GPU OC 745MHz/1133MHz

StreetFighter IV Benchmark
1280 X 720 => 131.18FPS

DEVIL MAY CRY4
1280 X 1024 => 113.98/99.90/145.02/79.52 fps

FINAL FANTASY XIV
1920 X 1080 => 2420

The Radeon HD 5570 has good testing results with the games above, which operates very smoothly even if using the 1920 X 1200 screen resolution.
But if users adjust the 3D effects too high, that might cause a little bit lag in some games,
by this situation, users might need some higher grade VGA cards to work it out.
For the lower-cost level VGA Card, the performance of “5570” is quite well among the 3D effects.

Power Consumption
GPU Default 650MHz/900MHz
System Standby - 102W

GPU Full speed - 151W

 

[windwithme]

GPU OC 745MHz/1133MHz
System Standby - 102W

GPU Full speed - 169W

The default & over clocking settings all have no additional power consumption in standby, the entire PC keeps at around 102W.
When GPU full speed , the over clocking might increase around 18W power consumption, but the efficiency also increases around 20% more,
so the range increased of the power consumption when over clocked is also quite reasonable & acceptable.

Thermal Testing
GPU Default 650MHz/900MHz
System Standby - 50.5

GPU Full speed - 61.0

GPU OC 745MHz/1133MHz
System Standby - 51.5

GPU Full speed - 64.0

The ambient temperature is at 33 degree, no mater with over clocking or with default settings,
the standby temperature shows stable, and it just increases 3 degree when over clocked.
So it should have some help a lot by using 40nm process chipsets to control the thermal for “5570”

The last, it is the one of the hottest 3D games at the moment - StarCraft II : Wings of Liberty

Setting page
GPU Default 650MHz/900MHz
Default - 49

High level settings - 40

GPU OC 745MHz/1133MHz
Default - 62

High level settings - 47

Even we keep the StarCraft II resolution at 1920 X 1200, there is still 30/fps smooth performance,
we recommended not to adjust the 3D effects too high, otherwise it might cause a little bit lag during the game.
But in the high resolution with StarCrafe II, which can still be qualified with the high loading of StarCraft II,
that means the 3D performance of “5570” is still higher than standard.

 

[windwithme]

The VGA card is always the one of the most popular market of the PC components, lots of the customers are all targeted on gaming purpose.
Moreover, the largest part of the VGA users is focused on the models under US$100, which is also the basic market.
But there are still some entry level models under US$ 60, the models are suitable for the users who can not be satisfied
with the built-in on board GPU and would like to have independent VGA card.

But at the point of my view, except the budget issue,
if users would like to choose an entry level VGA for the PC in order to get better 3D performance,
I think the best solution for the better C/P rates is to choose the VGA between US&60-US$100.

ATI provides multiple solutions in entry level and middle-end VGA cards, there are 3 different models with good performance for the price under US$100,
the highest on is the previous generation Radeon HD 4850, the cheapest one is the Radeon HD 4670.

The weakness of the “4850” is its higher power consumption and the dimensions are also larger.
And the 3D technology of “4670” is not as new as “5570” supports, and the dimensions are not available for the smaller PC.

For these 2 models listed, ATI 4850/4670 VGA both belong to the promotional models with higher C/P rates during the gap of the 2 different generations.
The price of ATI Radeon HD 5570 is between these two models, and which is designed with newer technology and using advanced process,
but I think the major advantage of ATI Radeon HD 5570 will be to use for the smaller PC mainframes.

In the recent years, no mater PC or NB, the designs of the outside dimensions are getting smaller and smaller.
At the PC end, Micro ATX has been popular for many years, but there are many kinds of Mini-ITX models came into the market this year.

So it’s quite important to have high performance & low power consumption for the model with Low Profile dimensions in the new developing market.
It was hard to find one Low Profile VGA with good 3D performance on the market before ATI Radeon HD 5570 released.
But after then, ATI Radeon HD 5570 has increased the strong power of competition for ATI.
It has better 3D performance than “4670” and it might be very possible to become the king of performance and efficiency in the field of Low Profile size.

And we also hope that ATI is able to release more Low Profile size VGA cards to have more choices for the users who love smaller PC mainframes.

This article is also posted in my blog: WIND'S 3C
Welcome 3C fans to drop by.