Item: MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK Edition: the very best mid-range graphics card?
Author: Tarinder Sandhu

Review: MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK Edition: the very best mid-range graphics card?

Final thoughts and rating

MSI has chosen the mid-range Radeon HD 5770 GPU and gone to town on it with the HAWK Edition. Using a custom PCB with voltage-reading points and Twin Frozr II cooler, MSI's effort is an improvement over the reference card in many ways.

Ostensibly aimed at the enthusiast and attracting a £35 premium over the cheaper generic HD 5770s, MSI further tries to provide value by including the useful Afterburner/Kombuster software.

But shipping with a measly overclock on the core - 25MHz - the company leaves it to the enthusiast to tinker with the core voltage and fan-speed settings. Going by our results, most should hit a 1,000MHz core speed and 5,600MHz memory; both combining to increase performance by around 10 per cent.

The question we're left answering is whether MSI's efforts provide adequate recompense for what amounts to a 30 per cent hike in price over generic Radeon HD 5770s and GeForce GTX 260s.

We appreciate companies that go the extra mile and try for something different, but the HAWK's price premium is a little too much for it to be recommended outright, putting it close, we imagine, to the upcoming Radeon HD 5830. The lack of a second CrossFireX connector and loss of a DVI port take away some of the shine, as well.

Bottom line: MSI's Radeon HD 5770 HAWK Edition is an innovative graphics card that's slightly undone by the cost of implementing 'military-class' extras. A very good card at £140, sure, but average value at the current etail price of £155.

The good

Genuine thought has gone into appeasing the enthusiast's desire for a special-edition HD 5770
Afterburner/Kombuster software bundle is good
Overclocks well, once the voltage has been cranked up

The not so good

No second DVI port or second CrossFireX connector
Etail price of £155 makes it 30 per cent dearer than a reference card (update 23/02: Ebuyer etails it for £133)

HEXUS Rating

MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK Edition (at £155)

HEXUS Awards

MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK Edition (at £155)

HEXUS Where2Buy

The MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK Edition graphics card can be ordered from the following retailers:

	As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
SCAN.co.uk	£151.21

Ebuyer.com	£133.17

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Good card, but losing the dual outputs is going to put a lot of people off who are used to a dual display setup, myself included.

That said, it's the quality product we've come to expect from MSI these days. OK, it's a bit more expensive, but it's going to appeal to the overclocking fraternity who are on-the-whole used to shelling out a bit more cash for their hardware.

Also, it would make an excellent candidate for watercooling to tweak a bit more performance out of it.

Looks like it's a very nice card :)
The overclocking/monitoring/stress tool looks like one of the better bits of bundled software I've seen.
MSi have really been improveing their software.

The voltage monitoring points are a very nice inclusion for the serious overclocker, would of been nice if they where hard points set at a right angle, rather than loose wires, although they look like they can be disconnected eaisly.

That was a really good overclock, what would the effects of been on the bang for buck score?

Shame about the price, although it's not too bad.

Also would of been nice if they made the fans that little bit larger.

Oh god, please will someone make another PASSIVE 57xx! I want the kind of performance this MSI 5770 card gives, it would be a nice step up from the 4650 I have. But it must be passively cooled! I can't be the only one that wants a “performance-orientated” card that is silent?

Powercolor makes a passive 5750, which should be right up your alley. Club3d is also making one that I ‘believe’ is almost exactly the same.

It looks to incorporate an Artic Cooling S1 which I own and have used for many-a upgrade on larger cards. I have 2 quiet 120mm Yate Loons zip-tied to mine, but I digress. It should be the same as the ‘stock’ 5700 series cooler fan-less. A reviewer mentions 43c at idle, Hexus has the 5750 at 43c idle stock in their review. You wouldn't want anything with higher power consumption than the 5700 series with a just a passive cooler.

If I had to guess the resolutions you play at, I'd say it's a literal 3x+ improvement over a 4650. Higher resolutions closer to 4x, and playable. If you were playing games with your 4650, I would suggest a new monitor or look rather at a 5670. If you were scaling a 1680/1920 monitor with that card, then ouch.

I know this is a UK site and you're a UK pal, but here's the card at Newegg. I don't know about the UK, but buying that card saves you a little over $5 bucks than buying the parts separately there, plus you can re-use the cooler for future upgrades: just buy the cheapest version of whatever card you want next time, even if it has a janky cooler. This can save you quite a bit of ching in this segment, as sometimes AIBs will match cards in this range with bare-minimum coolers to separate themselves on price. Mounting holes will not change, they have become a standard.

If you want something like in this review, then buy a aforementioned cheap 5770, a S1, and overclock it a wee bit. I bet it would cost you less than this card. 1ghz/5600mhz though, just ain't gonna happen passively. That, or wait for NI…Which I think will end up with many passive cards. ;)

Good luck. :)

A good 4890 can be had for this money and offer more power. I think from a gamers point of view the 5770 is over priced for now.