System setup and notes
| Graphics cards | Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1,024MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 1,024MB | HIS Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB | HIS Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB | Inno3D GeForce GTX 260 OC 896MB | EVGA GeForce GTX 275 896MB | BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £125 | £190 (estimated) | £225 | £310 | £140 | £195 | £285 |
| Shader model | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Stream processors | 800 | 1120 | 1440 | 1,600 | 216 | 240 | 240 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 850 | 800 | 725 | 850 | 620 | 633 | 702 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 850 | 800 | 725 | 850 | 1,242 | 1,404 | 1,584 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 4,800 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,800 | 2,100 | 2,276 | 2,664 |
| Memory bus width (bits) | 128 | 256 | 256 | 256 | 448 | 448 | 512 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1366 - Turbo Boost on) | ||||||
| Motherboard | ASUS P6T SE | ||||||
| Motherboard BIOS | 0704 | ||||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 9.1.1.1025 | ||||||
| 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) | Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB SSD | ||||||
| Graphics driver | Catalyst 10.2 | Catalyst 10.2 (ATI_Cypress_LE_8.703_RC2) | Catalyst 10.2 | Catalyst 10.2 | ForceWare 196.21 | ForceWare 196.21 | ForceWare 196.21 |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit | ||||||
Software
| Benchmarks | DiRT 2, London map -
ultra quality Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X v1.2, internal benchmark: DX10/10.1 - high quality Far Cry 2 v1.03 - very high quality Crysis Warhead v1.1.1.711 - train map - enthusiast quality Power-draw Temperatures HEXUS.bang4buck Overclocking |
|---|
Notes
AMD provides Radeon HD 5830 drivers that are based on Catalyst 10.2 but, cheekily, have the Overdrive option ticked by default, pushing up the GPU's core speed to 870MHz. We manually disabled it before testing.We have a total of six comparison GPUs ranging in price between £125 and £310 - three from AMD and three from NVIDIA. All have been tested with the latest official drivers (as at 20/02/10).
The most-direct competitor to the Radeon HD 5830 is the GeForce GTX 275; both etail for around the £200 mark.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,200, and 2,560x1,600 with decent degrees of image quality.
Our pre-performance thoughts are that the HD 5830's pricing will be too close to make it a compelling choice, but let's roll out the benchmarks and find out.
