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Review: AMD ATI Radeon HD 5850 single-card and multi-GPU evaluation

by Tarinder Sandhu on 30 September 2009, 15:16 4.3

Tags: Radeon HD 5850, AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qauab

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System setup and notes

Graphics cards BFG GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB BFG GeForce GTX 285 1,024MB and SLI XFX GeForce GTX 275 896MB AMD Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB AMD Radeon HD 5850  1,024MB and CrossFireX Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2  2,048MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 OC 1,024MB
Current pricing, including VAT £350 £240 £175 £299
 £200 £245 £170
Shader model 4.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 4.1 4.1
Stream processors 480 240 240 1,600 1,440 1,600 800
GPU clock speed (MHz) 576 648 633 850 725 750 901
Shader clock speed (MHz) 1,242 1,476 1,406 850 725 750 901
Memory clock speed (MHz) 2,016 2,484 2,322 4,800 4,000 3,600 3,600
Memory bus width (bits) 896 512 448 256 256 512 256
CPU Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1366)
Motherboard Foxconn Bloodrage X58
Motherboard BIOS P04
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.0.1012
Memory 6GB Corsair DOMINATOR PC12,800
Memory timings and speed 9-9-9-24 1T @ DDR3-1,333
PSU Corsair HX1000W
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px
Disk drive(s) Seagate 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (3Gb/s mode)
Graphics driver ForceWare 190.62 ForceWare 190.62 ForceWare 190.62 Catalyst 9.9 press Catalyst 9.9 press Catalyst 9.9 Catalyst 9.9
Operating system Windows 7 RTM Ultimate, 64-bit

Software

3D Benchmarks Call of Duty: World at War v1.5.1220 HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark: DX9 - maximum detail
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X v1.2, internal benchmark: DX10/10.1 - very high quality
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality
Far Cry 2 v1.03 - very high quality
Race Driver: GRID v1.2, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark - ultra quality
Crysis v1.1.1.711 - train map - enthusiast quality

Notes

We're now testing all video cards with Windows 7 RTM Ultimate 64-bit. Updating the gaming suite, Call of Duty: World at War and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X are included.  H.A.W.X enables the use of DX10.1 code-path and we've used it for AMD-based cards. Internal testing has shown it to be significantly faster than running DX10, and the benchmarks will show that.

Snagging a second card, we've added in results for the HD 5850 running in dual-GPU CrossFireX at 2,560, comparing it to the somewhat price-equivalent GeForce GTX 285, also in dual-card mode.

Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,200, and 2,560x1,600 with the maximum in-game detail. Power-draw, temperatures, and overclocking are considered, too.


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