Final Thoughts

The HD 5830 is really a great model for people who want to game at 1920 x 1200. The fact that we're also able to get playable FPS at 2560 x 1600 at times means that we've got some extra grunt there for future games when it comes to gaming at the lower 1920 x 1200 resolution.

The bundle is a little on the light side of things with GIGABYTE choosing not to include any games; it would've been nice to see Modern Warfare 2 bundled with the card since we've seen a few other companies do it, but it's not the end of the world. The big deal about the model is of course the fact that the card has an upgraded cooling solution which does a simply fantastic job of keeping temperatures down. This does come at the cost of a little more noise, but it's nothing we would be worried about.

When I first tested the HD 5830 I said that I thought it would've been nice if the card had a bit more grunt for the price. Since GIGABYTE have opted for such a nice cooler that does a good job of keeping the core temperature down, it would've been nice to see them overclock the card slightly. In saying that, though, there's nothing stopping you from doing it yourself with Overdrive which is built into the Catalyst software suite.

The Total Value Graph doesn't lie and it really does show us the value of the card. Compared to the HD 5850 it is a better valued card. Of course, if you want to game at 2560 x 1600 across the board you're going to have to buy something more powerful and as always, as we climb up the power table the price goes up and value overall tends to drop down slightly, which can be seen with the HD 5970 which is the worst valued card on the market at the moment.

If you're looking for a HD 5830 that looks mean and has a fantastic cooling system on it, the GIGABYTE version we looked at today can't be passed up.