GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card

There's no real trouble getting a hold of a HD 5750 at the moment. We take a look at GIGABYTEs version which carries with it a new fan.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: GIGABYTE
12 minutes & 18 seconds read time

Introduction




GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 02


The HD 5000 series across the board does a good job of making games playable at certain resolutions. If you're a resolution fanatic then the HD 5870 or HD 5970 is going to be the best card for 2560 x 1600 users. Are you mainly a 1920 x 1200 user? Well, the HD 5850 is a great option and if you're not a huge gamer but you like to dabble a bit at the resolution, the HD 5770 does a pretty good job of holding its own.

For 1680 x 1050 users, this is a resolution that has become one of the most common wide screen resolutions due to the aggressive pricing associated with monitors that carry support for the resolution. The HD 5770 is a great choice if you've got the money. If you really want to crank up the detail you might even find yourself looking at a HD 5800 series card.

If you don't want to blow the bank, though, the HD 5750 does a good job at the resolution. Having already checked out a few models, we'll be seeing how the GIGABYTE version stands up. With a pretty nice looking fan we hope that it's able to put out impressive numbers in the cooling department along with some nice numbers at 1680 x 1050.

Let's get stuck into the package first before we move onto the card and its specifications. Once we've done the boring stuff we'll get into the benchmarks and then wrap it all up. So without further ado, let's move forward.

The Package




GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 03


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 04


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 05


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 06


Being a mid-range card, there's not a whole lot going on with the package. In saying that, there's nothing else you should really need to get up and running with the HD 5700 series offering an array of connectivity directly on the PCB.

Video Card




We've had a look at a few HD 5750 cards from companies and we're not sure if there's no reference cooler or that no one simply wants to use it. Having a look at the card straight on, you can see we've got a new fan design which we haven't seen before.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 07


This seems to be becoming a bit of a trend with GIGABYTE, though. We saw them opt for quite a large fan on their GT 240 and this one seems no different. The bigger fans tend to be quieter while also offering better cooling capabilities. Hopefully this one's no different. As for stickers, there's not a whole lot of room; we've simply got a GIGABYTE one that sits in the middle of the fan.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 08


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 09


While the fan might be different, the PCB layout is pretty much the same. Towards the back of the card we have a single PCI-E 6-Pin power connector while closer to the front we have a Crossfire connector in the event you want to hook a bunch of these up together.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 10


The I/O department carries with it all the goodies we've come to expect from the HD 5000 series with two Dual-Link DVI connectors along with a native HDMI and DisplayPort connection. These connections mean we're able to have up to three monitors on the single card through ATIs Eyefinity technology.


Specifications

Having a look at the clocks, GIGABYTE hasn't done anything with them. The core comes in at the stock 700MHz while the 1GB of GDDR5 carries with it the stock clock of 4600MHz QDR.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 01


While it's always nice to see companies overclock the core and memory, it's still something a lot of companies don't do with these mid-range cards at launch. Hopefully we'll begin to see companies overclock the card a little in future, because the HD 5750 really manages to show some potential.

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.8GHz (190MHz x 20)
Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P (Supplied by Noctua)
Motherboard(s): GIGABYTE EX58-UD5 (Supplied by GIGABYTE)
Memory: 3 X 2GB Kingston Hyper X PC3-16000 2000MHz DDR CL9 (Supplied by Kingston)
Hard Disk(s): Western Digital 640GB SATA 2.0 HDD (Supplied by Western Digital)
Operating System: Windows 7
Drivers: ATI Catalyst 9.10 Beta, Catalyst 9.11


With not a whole lot being tested on the new testbed when it came to mid-range cards, we simply chose to use the results from our Sapphire HD 5750. This card actually has the original 9.10 Beta drivers on it which is noted in all our graphs.

With both cards clocked at the same speed, we will see what the performance difference between the two driver sets is. More importantly, since we already have a good idea of how the HD 5750 performs, we'll see how the cooling solution from GIGABYTE performs.

Let's get started!


3DMark Vantage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/
Buy It Here




3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 20


We can see the new driver gives us a little boost in the P preset, but that's about it. Both HD 5750s perform quite close to each other with only a single point separating them at the X preset.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark (DX10 & DX11)


Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 1
Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com
Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/products/unigine



New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

Note: If a card doesn't support DirectX 11 the benchmark will be left out. If it does it will be included along with the DirectX 10 results.

Direct X 10

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 21


Direct X 11

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 22


With both cards carrying the same clock speeds, it comes as little surprise that both perform very similar to each other.

Benchmarks - CINEBENCH R10


CINEBENCH R10

Version and / or Patch Used: Release 10
Developer Homepage: http://www.maxon.net/
Product Homepage: http://www.maxon.net




CINEBENCH is a real-world test suite that assesses your computer's performace capabilities. MAXON CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software, CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

MAXON CINEBENCH runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC and Intel-based).

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 23


It seems that the new drivers aren't so nice in CINEBENCH which is a bit disappointing. We've seen ATI really dominate in this benchmark in the past. Something worth noting for people who want a mid-range card for OpenGL work, it might be better sticking to the original BETA driver for now.

Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5


Resident Evil 5

Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com
Product Homepage: http://www.residentevil.com




Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on September 18. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 25


We've said many times, without a minimum the number we want to see in the average department is around 60 FPS. While we're above that at both resolutions, you can see a lot more breathing room at 1680 x 1050 which is where this card is aimed at.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.03
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com
Buy It Here




The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 26


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 27


With a drop in detail getting a 30 FPS minimum at 1920 x 1200 wouldn't be too hard with the HD 5750. If you're on a lower resolution monitor, though, you could easily not have to drop detail and have a nice gaming experience at the Very High preset.

Benchmarks - World in Conflict


World in Conflict

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.10
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.massive.se
Product Homepage: http://www.worldinconflict.com





World in Conflict is a real-time strategy video game by Massive Entertainment and to be published by Sierra Entertainment for Windows (DX9 and DX10).

The game is set in 1989 where economic troubles cripple the Soviet Union and threaten to dissolve it. However, the title pursues a "what if" scenario where, in this case, the Soviet Union does not collapse and instead pursues a course of war to remain in power. It is an intensive new game that is sure to put plenty of stress on even the latest graphics cards. We use the built-in benchmarking for our testing.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 28


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 29


WIC performance is under that 30 FPS minimum that we like to see. However, moving down the detail presets will easily yield the extra 5 FPS we need at the lower resolution.

Benchmarks - Batman Arkham Asylum


Batman Arkham Asylum

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.rocksteadyltd.com
Product Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com





Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum - Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.

Using a wide range of Batman's gadgets and abilities, players will become the invisible predator and attempt to foil The Joker's demented scheme.
Batman: Arkham Asylum features an original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author and five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini, whose credits include Lost season one and Batman: The Animated Series.

Note: With support for PhysX NVIDIA based cards will be tested with the technology on and off, while ATI cards will be tested with the technology off due to it not being supported on their cards.

Without PhysX

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 30


GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 31


As good as Batman Arkham Asylum looks, it's not all that intensive. We can see that both cards manage to smash the 30 FPS minimum we need to see at both resolutions.

Benchmarks - Darkest of Days


Darkest of Days

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.4
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.phantomefx.com
Product Homepage: http://www.darkestofdays.com





Darkest of Days takes the player through time into historic battles in an effort to save key individuals from certain death. The battles range from Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 to fighting in Pompeii as ash and fire rain down from an erupting Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Other locations include the battles of Antietam and Tannenberg, and a German World War II P.O.W. camp. There are different missions in every time period and the game takes about 4 hours to complete.

The game features over twenty weapons, both from the original time period as well as those brought back from the future. In addition, there are artillery weapons from different time periods to assist in battle.

Note: With the PhysX set to Medium or High, Darkest of Days takes advantage of the NVIDIA PhysX abilities. For that reason we will test ATI cards at the Low preset, while NVIDIA based cards will be tested at Low and High.

PhysX set to Low

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 34


Like we said about RE5, we want to see an average of around 60 FPS when we don't have a minimum on hand. As you can see, the HD 5750 again has no trouble doing that at 1680 x 1050. If you want to back off on the detail, you could boost the smoothness even more at the resolution or get above 60 FPS at 1920 x 1200.

Benchmarks - BattleForge


BattleForge

Version and / or Patch Used: Auto Patched at Load
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.ea.com
Product Homepage: http://www.battleforge.com





The Gods have disappeared and the old sun has died, letting a vile twilight engulf the world of Nyn. In exchange for all treasures the mortals possessed, the evil giants agreed to forge a new sun and hurl it into the sky.

But the deal was betrayed, the treasure stolen and now the mortals flee the wrath of the giants. Under the light of a new sun the mortals stumble into a world changed and twisted by an age of twilight. The long journey home has become a conquest of survival.

Note: Supporting DirectX 11, we have separated the graphs for NVIDIA and ATI cards. While the numbers between the two brands can be compared, you have to make note that ATI based HD 5000 series cards are running DirectX 11.

DirectX 11 (ATI HD 5000 Series Only)

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 36


BattleForge is a pretty intense DX11 game and you can see we're below that 60 FPS average we want. To play you will want to drop the detail right down or maybe look at a higher end card.

Temperature and Sound Tests


Temperature Tests



With the TES 1326 Infrared Thermometer literally in hand we found ourselves getting real-world temperatures from the products we test at load (3D clock speeds).

There are two places we pull temperature from - the back of the card directly behind the core and if the card is dual slot and has an exhaust point we also pull a temperate from there, as seen in the picture.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 43


Checking the heat output, you can clearly see the GIGABYTE cooler does a good job of keeping temperatures down with it coming in at under 50c when compared to the basic Sapphire card.


Sound Tests



Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 44


The better noise is that we're able to get better temperatures with less noise. You can't ask for much more from a cooler and we don't intend to.

Power Consumption Tests






Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a 7,200RPM SATA-II single hard drive is used without CD ROM or many cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 1GB Video Card 45


Power draw seems a bit all over the place between the two cards. The idle is up on the GIGABYTE while it's down on load. Either way, you're not going to need anything too fancy in the power supply department when it comes to powering the HD 5750.

Final Thoughts




Having a look at the gaming performance, the HD 5750 from GIGABYTE doesn't hold any surprises with it coming in just as we would expect. As for the difference between the two driver sets, there seems to be a slight drop in CINEBENCH performance; for most people this won't be an issue since gaming performance is pretty much in line with the 9.10 betas.

The stand out point for this card is the cooling; GIGABYTE are on a bit of a roll when it comes to using their own cooling. We saw them do an excellent job on the GT 240 which offered a great performance to noise ratio and we see the same thing here again. If you're looking for something that's quiet and is going to run cooler than some of the original designs from companies, this is an excellent choice.

Performance, while still the same as any standard HD 5750, is still great. Since most of the cards we test are of the higher end variety, our in game presets tend to revolve around very high to maximum in game settings. You can see for the most part that the HD 5750 doesn't have any real trouble handling this at 1680 x 1050, with some games even being playable at 1920 x 1200.

This is a nice HD 5750 that's quiet and is cooled well thanks to the cooling option GIGABYTE has opted for. It would've been nice to see a core and memory bump since we know the card has a few more MHz in it, but this is something you can easily do yourself under the Catalyst driver software.

If you're on the hunt for a HD 5750 this is one worth looking at. While it might carry the stock clocks, ATIs own built in Overdrive feature can give you a bit more MHz which is going to give the model a bit more breathing room. There's not a whole lot more you could ask for out of the mid-range model that comes in at $144.99 over at Newegg.

What do TweakTown.com awards mean? Click for details!

PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.

USUnited States: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com

UKUnited Kingdom: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.co.uk

AUAustralia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com.au

CACanada: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.ca

DEDeutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de

Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.