GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5750 Silent Cell & HD 5570 OC Video Cards

It's been a while since we've looked at some mid range cards. Let's take a look at a couple from GIGABYTE today.

Published
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Manufacturer: GIGABYTE
13 minutes & 31 seconds read time

Introduction




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Over the past few months I've had a few mid range cards rock up and with high end launches and all those fun things I haven't actually taken the time to look at some of these mid range models. Since we haven't looked at a mid range model since our last testbed upgrade, we didn't really have anything to compare them against.

So today I've thrown a pair of GIGABYTE cards together. The first is an overclocked HD 5570 and the other is a HD 5750 Silent Cell. Compared to some of the more recent video card reviews you see, this one will be a little more cut down due to the nature of the models. For example, no AA testing will take place.

Before we get stuck into the testing, though, we'll have a look at both cards, first the HD 5570 OC and then the HD 5750 Silent Cell. Once that's done we'll get stuck into the benchmarks and then both cards will be looked at in our TPR and TVR graphs. Again, though, these will be new ones based on mid range and lower models.

So for now, let's check out what's going on with the two cards we're looking at.

GIGABYTE HD 5570 OC




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There's nothing too fancy going on with the HD 5570 OC. GIGABYTE has opted for a larger 80mm cooler, though, which does take up two slots. Connectivity sees a single Dual-Link DVI connector, VGA port and HDMI port. No Crossfire or power connector is included on the card.


Specifications

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The card as we mentioned is an overclocked one. While the 1GB of GDDR3 has been left at the default 1600MHz DDR, the core has had a slight bump from 650MHz to 670MHz. It's nothing too serious, but it's always nice to see a little bit more power.

GIGABYTE HD 5750 Silent Cell




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The HD 5750 Silent Cell has a bit more going on and the stand out is of course that massive passive heatsink that stands out. It's been a while since I've looked at a Silent Cell card, but past experiences have always been pleasant.

The card carries with it two Crossfire connectors and a single 6-Pin PCI Express power connector. Connectivity is offered via two Dual-Link DVI connectors along with a single HDMI and VGA one. The bundle doesn't have much going on, but the standout part of the card is of course that heatsink.


Specifications

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When it comes to the clocks, it doesn't come as any surprise that GIGABYTE hasn't chosen to bump the core or memory up for the simple fact that the card is passively cooled. That means the core comes in at 700MHz while the 1GB of GDDR5 memory carries a 4600MHz QDR clock.

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


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We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASRock, Kingston, Western Digital, Noctua and Thermaltake.

As I mentioned, mid range cards have been a little few and far between lately and for that reason we'll be including only the two cards we've looked at here. They're not going against each other due to the price difference; instead we'll just be looking at how they perform in a number of games and applications.

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.

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It's been months since we've tested a HD 5750; it's nice to see the model manages to put out some great Vantage scores still. The HD 5570 does sit a fair way back, though.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark




Version and / or Patch Used: 1 and 2
Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com
Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//



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 DirectX10 results.

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Under Heaven you can see that the HD 5750 is actually twice as fast.

Benchmarks - CINEBENCH


CINEBENCH

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).

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CINEBENCH shows both cards performing quite close to each other.

Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5


Resident Evil 5

Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark
Developer Homepage: www.residentevil.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.

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RE5 is more than playable at 1920 x 1200 and below with the HD 5750. The HD 5570 does struggle, though. At 1680 x 1050 you're going to want to get stuck into the detail levels.

Benchmarks - BattleForge


BattleForge

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

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Both cards really struggle under BattleForge with neither being near a 60 FPS average.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.


Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx
Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/





Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is an arcade-style flight simulator video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and iPhone OS.

The fundamental gameplay mechanics are similar to those of other console-based flight series. Players take on enemies with over 50 aircraft available. Each mission is at real world locations in environments created with commercial satellite data. A cockpit, first person, and third person view are selectable. The third person view gives the player an external view of both their plane and the target.

Set above the skies of a near-future world, increasingly dependent on private military companies with elite mercenaries who have a relaxed view on the law. As these non-governmental organizations gain power, global conflict erupts with one powerful PMC attacking the United States.

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HD 5570 performance isn't nice. The HD 5750, though, performs strong; just below the 60 FPS average at 1920 x 1200 and above it at 1680 x 1050. A small detail drop would bring our levels up to playable ones at the higher resolution which is nice.

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.darkestofdays.com/index.php
Product Homepage: http://www.darkestofdays.com/index.php





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 take advantage of the NVIDIA PhysX abilities. For that reason we will test ATI cards at the Low preset, NVIDIA based cards though will be tested at Low and High.

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The same picture as we just saw in H.A.W.X, - a small detail drop at 1920 x 1200 will bring the HD 5750 over that 60 FPS mark. The HD 5570 does struggle, though.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
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.

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The HD 5750 again performs strong. The same can't be said for the HD 5570 which has an average of just over 30 FPS at both resolutions.

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.batmanarkhamasylum.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, ATI cards will be tested with the technology off due to it not being supported on their cards.

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While great looking, Batman AA performs well on most cards. We can see even the HD 5570 is able to offer us playable FPS at 1680 x 1050. The same can't be said for the higher resolution. The HD 5750 on the other hand blitzes the test.

Benchmarks - Dark Void


Dark Void

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.airtightgames.com
Product Homepage: http://www.darkvoidgame.com/




The game's story takes place during World War II and centers around a cargo pilot named William Augustus Grey (voiced by Nolan North) who is teleported to another world while flying through the Bermuda Triangle. In this world, known as the 'Void', Will encounters an alien race as well as other humans, which are known as the Watchers and the Survivors respectively.

Will reluctantly joins the Survivors who are engaged in a feud with the alien race to satisfy his desire to return to Earth. While aiding the Survivors, Will discovers that the Void is a middle ground that connects both the Watchers homeworld and Earth. It also becomes apparent that the Watchers are supplying the Axis powers with various supplies for reasons unknown. With the help of Nikola Tesla, Will utilizes retrofited Watcher technology to combat the Watchers and eventually find a way to escape the Void.

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Playable numbers across the board with minimums of 30 FPS or higher being seen from both cards at all resolutions.

Benchmarks - Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor


Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.51
Timedemo or Level Used: Sample File
Developer Homepage: http://www.elcomsoft.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.elcomsoft.com/ewsa.html




ElcomSoft has pioneered many software innovations that have made it easier to recover passwords protecting various types of resources. For the first time in the industry, the company's patent-pending GPU acceleration makes its way into Wi-Fi password recovery, reducing the time required to recover Wi-Fi passwords up to a hundred times.

Supporting up to four NVIDIA boards such as GeForce 8, 9, and 200, as well as ATI video cards such as RADEON HD 4000 Series and up, Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor allows building servers with supercomputer performance at a fraction of the price.

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Mid range model puts out mid range WSA performance; no surprise here.

Temperature Test


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.

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Very good numbers from both cards; the big fan does wonders on the HD 5570 and even though the HD 5750 is a passive cooled card, its heat numbers are fantastic.

Sound Test


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).

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Noise levels from the 80mm fan on the HD 5570 are impressive with it being the quietest card.

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.

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Power draw on both models is low, just as you would expect.

Total Performance Rating (TPR)


Total Performance Rating

The TPR graph is a combination of all our benchmarks in which NVIDIA and ATI are on an even playing field. This includes benchmarks where PhysX can be forced off like Dark Void and Batman: Arkham Asylum, but not Darkest of Days.

The TPR number is a combination of:

3DMark Vantage, Heaven Benchmark V2, CINEBENCH R11.5, Resident Evil 5, BattleForge, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., Far Cry 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum (PhysX Off), Dark Void (PhysX Off) and our three High Quality tests which include Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5 and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

All of the benchmark results achieved are then combined into a single number. As this graph will grow over time and cards won't be re-tested, next to each model you'll find the driver version that was used when the card was benchmarked.

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On a whole you can see that the HD 5750 performance is about twice of what the HD 5570 puts on offer.

Total Value Rating (TVR)


Total Value Rating

The TVR graph is the TPR score divided by the price of the video card. The price of the video card is based on the list price of the model on Newegg.com. In the event the card isn't listed, it will be based on the U.S. $ MSRP given to us by the manufacturer.

In the event we can't source a price from either, the product will not receive a TVR rating. As with our TPR graph, the amount of video cards on the list will grow over time and the price of the model won't change from what it was when first reviewed. For this reason the U.S. $ price that the card is based off will be included next to the name of the model.

In the event you want to find the TVR rating yourself based on the current price, all you have to do is simply divide the TPR number by the list price.

TVR numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number; 100.3 will be 100; 100.8 will be 101 and 100.5 will be rounded down to 100.

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Double the performance, but not double the price means the HD 5750 is still the better valued card even though it uses a more expensive silent cooler.

Final Thoughts




First let's talk about the HD 5570. It's not a bad model; it's just not really a gamers model unless you're talking about some 1680 x 1050 lower steam gaming. For something like Counter Strike, Team Fortress and other source based games, it's a great little option. Throwing the word OC on is a bit of a stretch, but we can't deny that the core is overclocked by 20MHz.

The HD 5570 has a market; it's not my market, but it could well be yours. It handles older games like Dark Void fine and Batman AA. It's also going to perform strong in Source based ones. The worst thing is we probably make the card look a little worse than it actually is because of the way we test our games. It's a good card, but hardly award winning.

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The HD 5750 Silent Cell on the other hand is good and next to the HD 5570 it looks great. Let's just look at some quick facts; the model is double the performance of the HD 5570, yet not double the price; clearly a rarity in the video card market. The silent cooling is, well, dead silent and still throws out some seriously good looking cooling numbers. Coming off 70dB+ GTX 400 series cards, it's a real pleasure.

Most of the time the HD 5750 Silent Cell is able to handle 1920 x 1200 with max in game settings. When it doesn't a small detail change will fix it. The HD 5750 Silent Cell from GIGABYTE has everything going for it; price, performance, quality and features. There's not much more you could ask for from a mid range card.

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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.

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