Right now is an interesting time to purchase a new graphics card, as we are faced with a rare scenario that has seen AMD beat Nvidia to the punch with their latest generation products. Up until a month ago the GeForce GTX 285 featured the worlds most powerful and complex GPU based on the GT200 architecture. With a price tag near enough to $400 US, it goes without saying that not everyone enjoyed the power of this particular graphics card.
However when AMD released the Radeon HD 5870 on September 23rd at $380 US, it was able to make the GeForce GTX 285 look quite slow. Then the Radeon HD 5850 followed a week later, and despite a price tag of just $280 US, it was still faster than the GeForce GTX 285, making it the second fastest GPU available.
Despite all this, what was to follow excited most gamers the most, as we introduced the new Radeon HD 5770 last week. This particular version may be slower than both the Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, but it is also a great deal cheaper as well, with the retail value of just $160 US. The Radeon HD 5770 turned out to deliver similar performance to that of the Radeon HD 4870, which is obviously the product it is stepping in for.
This also made the Radeon HD 5770 only slightly slower than the GeForce GTX 260 in most tests, while there were a few that saw it come out on top. The similar performance margins between the Radeon HD 5770 and the older Radeon HD 4870 quickly got us wondering about Crossfire performance. Should you throw a pair of these graphics cards together you could theoretically achieve Radeon HD 4870 X2 like performance for $320 US.
That said, before spending $320 US on a pair of Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards, what are the alternatives right now? The GeForce GTX 275 seems to be fetching between $280 – $300 US, so it is only slightly cheaper, while the GeForce GTX 285 is still priced around $380 US. There is also the Radeon HD 5870 at $380 US, while the most expensive graphics card money can buy is the GeForce GTX 295 at around $480 US.
Therefore the main competition for a Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration will come from the Radeon HD 5870 and the GeForce GTX 285. While we will be comparing the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire configuration to 10 other graphics cards, including a single Radeon HD 5770, we will be focusing primarily on how it compares to the Radeon HD 5870 and GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards. In total we have tested with 18 games, while we have also included some 3Dmark results, so get ready for an onslaught.
Hardware
- Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz)
- x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24)
- Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300)
- HIS Radeon HD 5870 (1GB)
- HIS Radeon HD 5850 (1GB)
- HIS Radeon HD 5770 (1GB)
- HIS Radeon HD 5770 (1GB) Crossfire
- VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2GB)
- Asus Radeon HD 4890 (1GB)
- Palit Radeon HD 4870 (1GB)
- Asus GeForce GTX 295 (1792MB)
- Asus GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)
- Asus GeForce GTX 275 (896MB)
- Palit GeForce GTX 260 (896MB)
- ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58)
Software
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
- Nvidia Forceware 191.03
- ATI Catalyst 9.10
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