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Review: AMD ATI Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB graphics card: usurper of the throne

by Tarinder Sandhu on 18 November 2009, 05:00 4.0

Tags: ATI Radeon HD 5970, AMD (NYSE:AMD), ATi Technologies (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qauv3

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System setup and notes

Graphics cards BFG GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB BFG GeForce GTX 285 1,024MB XFX GeForce GTX 275 896MB ATI Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB Sapphire Radeon HD 5870  1,024MB Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB
Current pricing, including VAT £320 £250 £170 £425
 £300 £200
Shader model 4.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
Stream processors 480 240 240 3,200 1600 1440
GPU clock speed (MHz) 576 648 633 725 850 725
Shader clock speed (MHz) 1,242 1,476 1,406 725 850 725
Memory clock speed (MHz) 2,016 2,484 2,322 4,000 4,800 4,000
Memory bus width (bits) 896 512 448 512 256 256
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 9.1.0.1015
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 ForceWare 195.39 beta ForceWare 190.62 ForceWare 190.62 5970 press driver Catalyst 9.10 Catalyst 9.10
Operating system Windows 7 RTM Ultimate, 64-bit

Software

3D Benchmarks Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - DX9 - very high quality - FRAPS
Crysis v1.1.1.711 - train map - enthusiast quality
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality
Far Cry 2 v1.03 - very high quality
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X v1.2, internal benchmark: DX10/10.1 - very high quality

Notes

The gaming suite has been updated since the last major GPU review, Radeon HD 5850. The most-anticipated game of the year Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released last week to critical acclaim and booming sales. We're FRAPSing a 60-second firefight near the start of the title.

Due to popular demand, we're also including GPU-bustin' Crysis, as well. Enemy Territory is included  because it demonstrates OpenGL performance - all other games are based on DirectX.

One advantage the Radeon HD 5000-series GPUs have is with DX11 compliance. Our next gaming suite will include a DX11 title, and you will see it at the very start of 2010.

Benchmarks are 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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