XFX HD5770 1GB Single Slot in CrossfireX Review

1. Introduction2. The XFX HD5770 Single Slot3. Testing Methodology4. Colin McRae Dirt 25. Alien V Predator6. Battlefield: Bad Company 27. Just Cause 28. Crysis Warhead9. Far Cry 210. Metro 203311. Thermal Dynamics12. Acoustic Performance13. Power Consumption14. Overclocking15. Closing Thoughts16. View All Pages

KitGuru has reviewed many HD5770 graphics cards since we opened and we still believe it is one of the best value cards on the market, combining very reasonable pricing with decent DX11 gaming performance.

There have already been a massive selection of third party cards in recent months with faster clocks and improved cooling solutions.

Today however we take a look at not one, but two XFX single slot HD5770's which appear to be an ideal partner for a high powered gaming rig built inside a small chassis design. Media buffs will find this card very appealing as XFX have told us it runs very quietly with their new cooling system.

The clocks are running at reference AMD values, so its 850mhz on the core and 1200mhz on the memory (4,800mhz QDR effective) on a 128 bit memory bus with 800 stream processors. This is not going to set the performance world alight, but two of them in Crossfire makes for a very capable gaming foundation.

The reason for reviewing these cards today in a Crossfire configuration is two fold, firstly its much more exciting for our audience and secondly DABS are working with XFX in delivering a Crossfire X deal, bundling two of these cards for £265 inc vat. To make the deal sweeter, they are throwing in a £10 DabsPay voucher.

Key Features

• Single slot profile
• 1GB GDDR5 memory
• ATI Eyefinity technology with support for up to three displays
• ATI Stream technology
• IP5x Dust Protection Standard
• High Performance Japanese Solid Capacitors
• Designed for DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL
• Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT)
• Compliant with DirectX® 11 and earlier revisions
• Supports OpenGL 3.1
• Dual-mode ATI CrossFireX™ technology support for highly scalable performance
• ATI Avivo™ HD video and display technology
• Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay™ technology
• DL-DVI, DL-DVI, Mini-DisplayPort
• PCI Express® 2.1 support

The XFX box art has some of the finest designs in the industry and this one looks like an advertisement for the UK TV show Robot Wars. On the front is a list of specifications and the feature set. This card supports Eyefinity with dual link DVI ports and Mini DisplayPort.

The outer sleeve slides out to reveal the inside box with a window cut into one side, showcasing the cooling solution. The card ships protected in a plastic sleeve.

Inside the box is a fairly minimal bundle, an install guide, a driver disc, a molex to 6 pin adapter and a ‘do not disturb' sign to hang over your closed door handle … these make ideal toys for pets also when they try to jump up and eat them. We also received a voucher for the DX11 capable Colin McRae Dirt 2 which is part of the DABS bundle deal. We mentioned to XFX that our box didn't come supplied with a Crossfire connector, so hopefully they can include one in the bundle on the DABS store.

While the card pictures above looks just like any other reference card on the market (with a slim single slot profile obviously), there is more to it than you might first think. XFX have created a custom PCB for one which maintains their traditional black colour and secondly allows for a custom cooling solution.

The 80mm fan is bigger than most single slot cooling solutions and we hope it will offer low noise levels with reasonable cooling efficiency.

Two of the little boards can make for a formidable gaming system, which we will test shortly on the latest game engines.

Above left is a single Crossfire connector for dual card mode, and above right a single six pin power feed is required.

Due to the single slot solution there is no much room for a wealth of output connectivity, two dual link DVI connectors with a mini DisplayPort are offered. Some people might like to see one of the DVI outputs switched to an HDMI output, but it is pretty easy to get an HDMI to DVI converter cable and this configuration offers broader PC monitor support, especially when using Eyefinity.

XFX are using military grade standard solid capacitors on the card which they say will increase life time while offering enhanced stability and reliability.

There once was one and now there is two. The single slot cooler shown beside a Sapphire Vapor X HD5770. The card is  around a quarter of an inch shorter than the reference design due to the removal of the overhanging shroud. The really observant among you will already have noticed that the GPU core is moved further away from the backplate which required a reversal of the heatsink fins – directly over the core and aiding the cooling system.

The cooler also incorporates IP-5X ‘anti dust' protection which is an industry rating they have managed to achieve when creating the board design.

For testing today we are building our system around an Core i7 875K Engineering Sample CPU kindly supplied by Intel.

We generally aim for slightly lower resolutions when testing budget and mid range cards, but today we are aiming for higher resolutions as two HD5770's in Crossfire X can be a formidable gaming solution.

Test System:

XFX HD5770 Single slot 1GB GFX in CrossfireX

Intel Core i7 875K @ 3.2ghz
Corsair 4GB DDR3 @ 1600mhz
MSI P55-GD65
Coolit ECO A.L.C.
Silverstone Raven 2 Chassis

Windows 7 Ultimate  64 bit
Catalyst 10.7
Fraps Professional
Corsair TX650W PSU
LaCie 730
Intel 160GB SSD & 1TB Western Digital Drive

Keithley Integra Model 2700
MultiMeter Thermal Probe
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp

Colin McRae Dirt 2
Alien V Predator
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Just Cause 2
Crysis Warhead
Far Cry 2
Metro 2033

All the latest bios updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru test all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.

Our minimum frame rate game graphs have three main zones. These are sampled over a specific 30 interval period of time and then mapped into a chart. These are handy reference guides to detail worst case performance of the product being reviewed. When we test video cards we try to find the best combination of resolution and image quality settings while still maintaining playable frame rates.

Over 30fps is the zone most people want at all times, this means perfectly smooth frame rates with no hitching.

Between 30fps and 25fps is the KitGuru ‘Playable’ zone, although some people might notice occasional stuttering in specific scenes.

Under 25fps is classed as the KitGuru ‘Danger Zone’ which means that the game experience will be less than impressive. Settings and/or resolution would need lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.

Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (known as Dirt 2 outside Europe and stylised, DiRT) is a racing game released in September 2009, and is the sequel to Colin McRae: Dirt. This is the first game in the McRae series since McRae’s death in 2007. It was announced on 19 November 2008 and features Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and Dave Mirra. The game includes many new race-events, including stadium events. Along with the player, an RV travels from one event to another, and serves as ‘headquarters’ for the player. It features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. The game takes place across four continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The game includes five different event types. Rally, Rallycross, ‘Trailblazer,’ ‘Land Rush’ and ‘Raid.’ The World Tour mode sees players competing in multi-car and solo races at new locations, and also includes a new multiplayer mode.

This engine support DX11 and was one of the integral releases for ATI when they launched the 5xxx series cards a while ago. Hardware tessellation is used on the crowd, as well as water and cloth objects. DirectCompute 11 accelerated high definition ambient occulsion is also integrated with full floating point high dynamic range lighting.

We enabled maximum settings, including hardware tessellated animated crowds and dynamic water via ULTRA settings.

With a single card Dirt 2 is unplayable at these settings with juddering and hitching apparent on some of the more graphically intensive levels. Adding a second card means that the game performance enhances dramatically becoming playable with a much smoother frame rate throughout.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

We enabled very high settings, Tessellation + Adv, Shadows on, 4AA and 16AF.

A single card at these settings struggles to maintain smooth frame rates with many performance drops below 20 frames per second, resulting in an unplayable game. Adding the second card allows for a much smoother experience, ensuring the game is playable. There was in fact only a momentary single drop under 25 frames per second.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2, usually known as Bad Company 2, is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 systems. It is a part of the Battlefield series and was released worldwide in March 2010.

The game is primarily a squad-based online first person shooter. Additionally, the game includes a single player campaign, where the player reassumes the role of Preston Marlowe, the protaganist of the original game. The game's Destruction 2.0 engine allows for destructible environments, and multiplayer maps contain a wide selection of vehicles, aircraft and emplacements and allow for five different game modes.

We cranked the settings to the limits, enabling HBAO and turned on 4AA and 16AF for the highest image quality possible.

Battlefield BC2 performance with a single card at these settings is rather juddery throughout with a stuttering effect happening midway throughout our testing environment, with frame rates dropping and rising as explosions happened around us. With an extra card this is resolved and the frames are much smoother throughout. A single card is not playable at these settings.

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0; an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak “Baby” Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

We set the graphic options to their highest settings with SSAO on high and enable 4AA and 16AF.

Again at our settings the single card struggles to keep smooth frame rates above 25fps falling often into the 20fps zone which leads to unplayable performance levels. Adding the extra bundled card and enabling crossfire means the game performance rises to above 30fps at all times.

Crysis Warhead, like the original, Crysis, is based in a future where an ancient alien spacecraft has been discovered beneath the Earth on an island east of the Philippines. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of (Former SAS) Delta Force operator Sergeant Michael Sykes, referred to in-game by his call sign, Psycho. Psycho’s arsenal of futuristic weapons builds on those showcased in Crysis, with the introduction of Mini-SMGs which can be dual-wielded, a six-shot grenade launcher equipped with EMP grenades, and the destructive, short ranged Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX). The highly versatile Nanosuit returns.

In Crysis Warhead, the player fights North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in many different locations, such as a tropical island jungle, inside an “Ice Sphere”, an underground mining complex, which is followed by a convoy train transporting an unknown alien object held by the North Koreans, and finally, to an airfield. Like Crysis, Warhead uses Microsoft’s Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) for graphics rendering.

We use a particularly intensive area of gameplay which we call the Cargo run, this is strictly a ‘worst case scenario’ and generally you should experience slightly better performance through the majority of the game.

These settings with a single card are not possible and a reference HD5770 has problems even with 1680×1050 resolution at gamer level. Crossfiring two of them however means that 1920×1200 gaming is a strong option. This engine is still such a test of modern hardware, and we can only think back to the good old days when only a handful of people could run it properly at all.

Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer.

For our testing we are using Direct X 10 rendering mode, with all in game details set to “Ultra High”. HDR is enabled and 4AA is turned on.

Far Cry 2 is a game which clearly benefits from a Crossfire solution as minimum frame rates are boosted above 30fps into the 40-50 zone. This enhances the overall gaming experience significantly.

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

There is some contention regarding whether the engine is based on the pre-release X-Ray engine (as claimed by Sergiy Grygorovych, the founder of GSC Game World, as well as users who have seen the 4A Engine SDK screenshots, citing visual similarities, shared resources, and technical evaluation of the pre-release 4A Engine demo conducted at the request of GSC Game World), or whether the engine is an original development (as claimed by 4A Games and Oles' Shiskovtsov in particular, who claims it would have been impractical to retrofit the X-ray engine with console support). 4A Engine features Nvidia PhysX support, enhanced AI, and a console SDK for Xbox 360. The PC version includes exclusive features such as DirectX 11 support and has been described as “a love letter to PC gamers” because of the developers' choice “to make the PC version [especially] phenomenal”.

We tested with settings on High, Advdanced DOF and Tessellation is enabled, 0AA and 16AF.

Metro is the modern day Crysis and as such proves too much to handle for a single card. image quality settings would need to be lowered dramatically to become playable. Obviously when connecting a second card the situation is improved with only a few dips under 25fps maring the overall experience.

We measure temperatures with diodes and our Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp gun for verification. Room ambience in our labs is kept to 23c with air conditioning to ensure accurate results.

To stress test we run Crysis at Enthusiast settings and then use Furmark. Furmark is a synthetic test and not really indicative of ‘real world’ conditions but it is interesting nonetheless.

For a single slot cooling solution these results are very impressive although it is clear that when idle the temperatures are higher than a dual slot card. It is however important we measure dBa next because without good acoustic performance the single slot concept seems somewhat pointless.

Recently have changed our method of measuring noise levels. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

These results are excellent and are lower than a reference dual slot HD5770 cooler. The only HD5770 based card we have tested which has better acoustic performance is the Powercolor HD5770 Vortex which rated 29.3dBa under load.

To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. The best way to get maximum load results is by using Furmark, and even though it is not indicative of a real world situation it shows the limits the card can theoretically demand. The ‘gaming’ results are measured when playing Crysis Warhead and is a more valuable result to take from this.

These results are lower than the previous reference solutions we have tested, around 5-10w less under load. A dual Crossfire X configuration would be consuming around 130W when gaming which is certainly nothing to cause concern when pondering your next quarterly electric bill.

Being single slot cooled cards we need to be careful when increasing the clock speeds, we are already seeing 81c with Furmark, so we will proceed with a little caution.

The maximum clocks we reached were 890 mhz on the core and 1240mhz on the memory, an increase of 40mhz on each. This didn't help performance much, a single frame increase in Crysis Warhead for example.

When overclocking, the core temperatures rose by around 3-4c hitting 85c when running Furmark after 30 minutes. We don't think this overclock is worth the minor performance increase at the expense of higher temperatures.

We love the HD5770 and still believe it is in a strong position to sell well, even with the release of the exemplary GTX460 from nVidia. The HD5770 recently dropped in price and you can now pick them up for £125 inc vat in the UK.

The XFX ‘bundled' Crossfire deal with Dabs is £265 inc vat which means each single slot card is costing £132.50. Applying a quick calculation we can see that this is around £15 more than a generalised double slot CFx solution. When we factor in the £10 DabsPlay voucher this bundle deal is actually pretty good value. Granted you only get one free game, but unless you plan on giving away one of the Dirt 2 codes to a friend I would hardly say this is a big deal.

The XFX cooler is excellent, we really do like it. Acoustic noise is low and it managed to maintain gaming temperatures around 76c for each card when tested in our Silverstone Raven 02 chassis.

These single slot cards really make sense when you are building a system into a chassis of limited dimensions as they provide great gaming performance without using up a massive amount of physical space. The only weakness is the limited overclocking potential, however for many people building a customised gaming system this will not prove much of an issue.

When you factor in the excellent DX11 architecture, fantastic cooler performance levels and XFX's renowned support system then this is one of the finest HD5770's on the market right now.

KitGuru says: These are single slot cards with all the performance of their fatter counterparts. A clear winner.

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