CPUs

Review: XFX HD 5770

As the very cheapest of the HD 5770s we've tested, XFX's offering grabs our interest. Shop around, and you can have one of these for as little as £116 – that's a whole £35 cheaper than Sapphire's offering, with its four-screen EyeFinity capability.And that's a claim that XFX's 5770 can't make. With just two DVI ports, a DisplayPort and no HDMI, it's a no-frills card. That lack of HDMI makes it less suited to home cinema, which leaves it as a pure gamer's card.However, it makes up for it in elegance. While all the other 5770s we've tested are dual-width cards, the XFX is slim and single, which is a boon for smaller, sexier, SFF setups, and leaves more room in your case for components to breathe. Let's see how it fairs in the performance stakes.We've tested five HD 5770s from the leading manufacturers against each other to see which hits the price/performance sweetspot when it comes to mid-range and high-end gaming. We also cranked the settings up (HDR, Anti-Aliasing, reflections etc) even at middling resolutions, to see just how capable these cards really are.We tested each card using the following games and settings:Heaven 2.11900x1200, 8XAA, 16XAS, Extreme TessalationJust Cause 2Mid-range: 1680x1050, 8xAA, 16xAF, High settingHigh-end: 1920x1200, 8xAA, 16xAF, High settingsFar Cry 2Mid-range: 1680x1050, 8xAA, 16xAF, High settingHigh-end: 1920x1200, 8xAA, 16xAF, High settingsDiRT 2Mid-range: 1680x1050, 8xAA, 16xAF, High settingHigh-end: 1920x1200, 8xAA, 16xAF, High settings[insert benchmarks table – highlight XFX line]

In most tests, the XFX offers equivalent performance than the bulk of the 5770s we tested. Worth noting is that it scored the lowest in our Heaven 2.1 Tessellation test, but only by 0.1 FPS. We'd likely attribute this to the smaller, slightly less-powerful cooler allowing the heat – and resistance – to rise. But in real-world gaming terms, its marginally lower scores in some tests are unnoticeable; the competition really is that close.The really interesting thing about the XFX HD 5770 is what its price represents. Now, the 5770 generally speaking, is a reasonably capable mid-range card. We burned these babies with high AA and AF setting in our tests, but drop those settings a little and you do see the frame rate rise. But at just £116, our thoughts turn to Crossfire setups. For just over £230, you can net yourself a twin-card setup, which would offer pretty kick-ass performance at mid-range resolutions of 1680 x 1050. If you're content with that 22" monitor and want zingy performance on a budget, this is probably the cheapest way to achieve it. At a price equivalent to Nvidia's 285, which such a setup will blow out of the water, it's pretty mouth-watering. Oh, and did we mention the 5770 is DX11 capable? Yum.And that's what that lower price-point really represents: the prospect of a twin-card CrossFire setup, and a pretty feisty one at that. 

We likedCapable performance, at a lower price than pretty much every other 5770. That makes it a real candidate for a Crossfire setup, and the gateway to tasty mid-resolution frame rates in DX11.We dislikedNo frills; no bundle to speak of; just the facts, Jack.Related LinksRead more graphics card reviewsTechRadar's Reviews GuaranteeRelated StoriesReview: Sapphire HD 5550 OverclockReview: Asus GeForce GTS 450 TOPReview: HIS HD 5770Review: Sapphire HD 5770 Flex EditionReview: Gigabyte HD 5770 Super Overclock

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