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Review: ASUS Radeon HD 5770 Voltage Tweak: better than the rest?

by Tarinder Sandhu on 16 October 2009, 15:51 3.75

Tags: Win 7 - ASUS Radeon HD 5770 1GB, ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qauhn

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System setup and notes

Graphics cards ASUS Radeon HD 5770 VT 1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1,024MB XFX GeForce GTX 260 896MB
Current pricing, including VAT £125 £125 £125
Shader model 5.0 5.0 4.0
Stream processors 800 800 216
GPU clock speed (MHz) 1,003 (OC) 850 576
Shader clock speed (MHz) 1,003 (OC) 850 1,242
Memory clock speed (MHz) 5,680 (OC) 4,800 1,998
Memory bus width (bits) 128 128 448
CPU Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1366)
Motherboard Foxconn Bloodrage X58
Motherboard BIOS P08
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.1.1015
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 Catalyst 9.9 press Catalyst 9.9 press ForceWare 190.62
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 comparing the ASUS Radeon HD 5770 Voltage Tweak directly against a stock-clocked Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 and XFX GeForce GTX 260 - both of which are priced at around the same level. To see how the Juniper GPU compares against a bevy of competitors, please head here.

Comparing it against just the basic HD 5770 will show how great a performance improvement is realised by increasing clocks, and looking at GTX 260's numbers will provide a means of evaluating how it fits into the bigger picture.

Overclocking the ASUS card with the default voltage results in a stable speed of 950MHz core and 5,680MHz memory, up from 850MHz/4,800MHz - a not-too-shabby increase.

Dialling up the engine voltage from the shipping 1.125V to 1.287V - a 14.4 per cent increase - boosts the engine clock to a stable 1,003MHz. The memory speed remains the same, though.

Based on a sample of just one, there does appear to be merit in adding extra voltage to the core. We're also including numbers for the over-volted card's power-draw and temps, and they make for some very interesting reading.

Benchmarks are conducted at the 1,920x1,200 resolution only,