XFX ATI Radeon HD5670 1GB Passive Heatpipe CFx Review

When building a low noise media/gaming center there really are only a handful of suitable options. If gaming is your main priority then a single slot HD5770 will deliver better performance than the products tested today, with noise level penalties. If your budget is tight and you don't care about gaming then the HD5550 is a good solution.

The HD5670 in the right hands (XFX and Sapphire) can be passively cooled and will still deliver enough performance to enjoy a game on your television set when the need arises. We have highlighted today that the HD5670 can handle 720p gaming with relative ease, although more intensive DX11 titles such as Lost Planet 2 really will need a Crossfire configuration if you don't want to deal with image quality compromises.

After reviewing many high end boards, it is rather refreshing to test products which dont need fans or power connectors. These cards consume very little power and remain reasonably cool, even when loaded. The fact that programs such as Cyberlinks PowerDVD 10 Ultra and Espresso can also use their power to help with encoding and decoding really adds value to the discrete solution.

When you factor in that one of these is currently retailing for £85 inc vat, they really are difficult to ignore, especially if you are building a media center for High definition playback and want the highest possible reproduction at 1080p. Some of the credit has to go to AMD, because Catalyst 10.10 really does deliver an unparalleled HD experience.

KitGuru says: Built for media, IQ is top drawer.

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