Introduction

One of my favorite TV commercials happens to be one by Microsoft, where a little girl is using a computer to place captions on pictures to send to her friends. Brilliant! Microsoft is using that commercial to advertise their upcoming launch of the Windows 7 Operating System. This is a commercial that, no matter how many times you see it, you can’t help but watch. One of the enhancements Microsoft has upgraded in Windows 7 is Direct X. Direct X 11 has been redesigned to take better advantage of your video card's power via Direct Compute and its ability to take advantage of the GPU’s parallel processing power.

On September 23, 2009 AMD/ATI launched the 5800 series of video cards, which happen to be the first Direct X 11compatible video cards available to consumers. The first of the series to be released were the 5870 and 5850, which were marketed as their (5870) flagship and are enthusiast level video cards, starting at prices just below $300.00 USD (5850). For those of us who are on a budget and are anticipating the launch of Windows 7, those two video cards may be out of the question and we are left wondering when a mainstream Direct X 11 compatible video card video card will be available. Well, the wait is over. AMD/ATI has launched their newest video card in the 5000 series, the Radeon HD 5770 and 5750, which are being marketed towards the mainstream users. Prices start at $109.00 USD for the 5750 and top out at $159.00 USD for the 5770.

Sapphire Technologies, a manufacturer of Radeon series video cards, has announced the availability of their Radeon HD 5770. The Sapphire HD 5770 is targeted towards the mainstream user and is also DirectX 11 compatible. The Sapphire HD 5770 has 800 streaming processors, 1GB of GDDR5 memory, compute power of 1.36 Teraflops and ATI Eyefinity support, at a price that is easy on the wallet.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 DirectX 11

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 comes packaged in a bright black box, which caught my eye immediately, due to the image of the mascot at the left center of the box. The back of the box lists some of the new features offered with the video card.

Inside the exterior packaging, there is one other box that houses the HD 5770 and its bundle of accessories and software. When opened, the components are further protected by recycled insulation.

The card itself is placed in an antistatic bag, and when removed from it, you will get your first look at the heatsink, which is a two slot cooling solution. The heatsink on the Sapphire HD 5770 shows the Sapphire and ATI Radeon Logos. The Card is made of black PCB.

Sapphire HD 5770 DirectX 11 (Continued)

The HD 5770 is PCI-e 2.0 and will require a compatible motherboard. It is also CrossFire capable. There are two DVI outputs and HDMI and Display ports onboard, the 5770 is Eyefinity ready. To power the card you will need one 6-pin power adapter.

Bundled with the video card are a DVI to VGA dongle, Crossfire Bridge interconnect, and a Molex to PCIe 6 adapter.

There is also a 'getting started' package that contains a quick start guide, Driver Software, Warranty Information and a voucher for a free copy of Dirt 2, which is a soon to be released DirectX 11 game.

Installation

To install the Sapphire Radeon HD 5770, you will need to open your case, find and unscrew the existing video card, remove it from the PCI-e slot, then insert the new card in its place. You will need one 6 pin PCI-e cable on your PSU to power the card.

Software (Driver Installation)

The installation of the HD 5770 drivers is easy and, if you have installed any programs before, you will find it pretty routine. If not, you can simply follow the on screen prompts and you will have your drivers installed in no time.

Graphics Drivers

Technologies

What's New?

A new line of DirectX 11 compatible 40nm Radeon video cards starting with Cypress (5870 and 5850), Juniper (5770 and 5750), Redwood and Cedar (entry level) and Hemlock (dual core 5800 series) all released within 6 months.

Architecture and Specifications

Efficiency

• Idle: 18W
• Load: 108W

With ATI Eyefinity technology, the 5700 Series of video cards can run three monitors simultaneously as one image for more immersive gaming. The maximum resolution is 3X 2560x1600.

What else is new with DirectX 11?

• Tessellation- "A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again. All the figures fit onto a flat surface exactly together without any gaps or overlaps."
• Shader Model 5.0
• Direct Compute 11- "Microsoft DirectCompute is an application programming interface (API) that takes advantage of the massively parallel processing power of a modern graphics processing unit (GPU) to accelerate PC application performance in Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. DirectCompute is part of the Microsoft DirectX collection of APIs. Other DirectX APIs include Direct3D, Direct2D, DirectWrite, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, and DirectSound."
• HDR Texture Compression

• ATI Stream Technology - ATI has sent their OpenCL GPU SDK to the Khronos Group for certification. ATI is stating that by the end of this month it will be released. Programs using the OpenCL SDK will take advantage of the power of Microsoft Direct Compute for better GPU acceleration.
• CyberLink announces "the companies are expanding their existing engineering engagement with a strategic focus on Microsoft DirectX 11 DirectCompute, taking advantage of the capabilities of AMD’s new DirectX 11-capable graphics architecture"
• Three DirectX 11 games before 2010 and two more before Q1/2010. Battleforge by EA Games is available now.

Specifications

Features

1. Microsoft DirectX 11 Support

2. ATI Eyefinity Technology, support up to 3 displays. *

3. ATI Stream technology**

4. Microsoft Windows 7 Support

5. 40nm Process Technology

6. 2nd Generation TeraScale Engine

7. PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface

8. Advance 1GB/256-bit GDDR5 memory interface

9. HDMI 1.3 support with Deep Color and 7.1 High Bitrate Audio

10. On chip HDCP Support

11. ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance. (Use up to four discrete cards

with an AMD 790FX based motherboard)

12. ATI Avivo HD Support

• ATI Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD) for Blu-ray™ and HD Video.
• Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT)
• DVD Upscaling
• Dynamic Contrast
• Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support

13. Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay™ technology including memory clocks

14. Dolby® TrueHD and DTSHD Master Audio TM Support

*Driver version 8.66 (Catalyst 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity technology and to enable

a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector

**Requires application support for ATI Stream technology

System Requirements

• PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
• 450 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
• Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products
• Minimum 1GB of system memory
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
• DVD playback requires DVD drive
• Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive
• For an ATI CrossFireX™ system, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per graphics card (optional) are required

Maximum Display Resolution:

• D-Dub(VGA): 2048 x 1536 @85 Hz.
• DL-DVI-I: 2560 x 1600@60Hz
• HDMI:1080P
• Display Port: 2560 x 1600@60Hz
• Eyefinity: 7680 x 1600@60Hz*

*Grouped with 3 monitors supporting resolutions at 2560 x 1600 with one of them supporting Display Port input.

NOTE:

1. Resolutions are limited by the performance of the attached monitor.

2. Driver version 8.66 (Catalyst 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity technology and to enable a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector

Operating System

• Windows XP(32Bit/64Bit)
• Windows Vista(32Bit/64Bit)
• Windows Media Center Edition 2005
• Windows 7

Testing

To benchmark the video card, we will use our suite of popular games and also a synthetic benchmark created by FutureMark. For testing purposes, all scores will be posted on a graphical chart, which will progress from lowest to highest resolutions. All benchmarks will be on their own individual pages to eliminate confusion. Graphs will measure Frames per Second (FPS) in each resolution, except for 3DMark Vantage, which will reflect an overall score.

Test System(s):

Benchmarks:

• 3D Mark Vantage
• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Resident Evil 5
• Battleforge
• Left 4 Dead

Resolutions:

• 1024x768
• 1280x1024
• 1680x1050

Temperatures:

All Temperatures taken with IR Thermometer and will be read in Celsius.

3D Mark Vantage

3DMark Vantage is a benchmark suite that was designed to test performance of video cards. The overall score obtained when running the benchmark will measure your system's gaming performance.

3DMark consists of four tests, two for graphics and two to test your CPU, one for AI and one for Physics. Hi Tech Legion will test a video card using any of the four settings offered by 3DMark which are:

• Entry 1024x768
• Performance 1280x1024
• High 1680x1050
• Extreme 1920x1200

Comparison

Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum is the newest of the Batman series of video games. The Joker has escaped and is holding the Asylum hostage. It is up to you (Batman) to stop the Joker's evil plot and bring order back to the Asylum.

Settings

• No AA
• No Physics

Comparison

Resident Evil 5

The fifth installation of the Resident Evil Series, which is a first person shooter. You are a member of the World Bioterrorism Team and are sent out to stop a new infestation of the virus created by the Umbrella Corporation.

Settings

• AA 8x
• Levels: High

Comparison

Battle Forge

Battle Forge is an MMORPG that is free to play with its download. You choose from mythical characters and battle until your opponents are conquered. Battle Forge is the first game to support Direct X 11.

Settings

• AA x4
• Default High

Comparison

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is an FPS where four uninfected people are left in a city where everyone else has turned into zombies. The action in this game is intense - zombies come at you from all angles. You can play Left 4 Dead via Stream and can choose whether to play your own campaign or play with others.

Settings:

• AA: 4x
• Ansi: 8x

Comparison

Putting it all Together

I chose to benchmark the Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 against the EVGA GTS 250 1GB Superclocked Edition due to the price point of both video cards. These are both 1 GB video cards and prices are within 4 dollars of each other.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5770

• Idle: 42C
• Fan Speed Idle: 35%
• Load: 75C
• Fan Speed Load: 50%

Benchmarks

• 3DMark Vantage: Was run with Physx on using the GTS 250. Although the 5770 was overtaken at the entry level resolution, the 5770 did shine at higher resolutions.
• Batman Arkham Asylum: A controversial game, due to the inability to use in game AA unless you are using an NVIDIA based video card. To level the field, all physics and AA were turned off. The game still looked amazing and the advantage went to the Sapphire 5770.
• Resident Evil 5: 17 FPS better on the Intel system and 21 with AMD.
• Battle Forge: The first Direct X 11 game, graphics are definitely nicer using the ATI Card but not much of a difference in frame rates.
• Left 4 Dead: another distinctive show of performance over the GTS 250.

Conclusion

Price Point

Price: $159.00 USD

Class: Mainstream

A price point of $159.00 USD places the Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 DirectX 11 Video card in the Mainstream Gaming category.

Performance

If considering an upgrade from your old graphics card, you won't be upset with the performance of the Sapphire HD 5770. It will outperform other video cards in its price point. You will also be able to take advantage of DirectX 11 and the enhancements that come with it.

Reviewer's Opinion

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computing is becoming more popular. We are now using our graphics cards to transcode and upconvert HD video, since parallell processing (GPU) is much quicker than serial/sequential processing (CPU), and a GPU can have hundreds of cores and can process simultaneously, where a CPU processes one at a time. DirectCompute, which is part of the Windows 7 OS, will utilize the Sapphire HD 5770 DirectX 11 video card to deliver a better overall GPU computing experience.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 is the first video card that supports DirectX 11 in the mainstream category. If you are purchasing a new system or are thinking of upgrading from your older DirectX 9 or 10 video card the Sapphire 5770 is an affordable solution. Many of us have been holding on to Windows XP since there were so many pitfalls that came with Vista when it was released, and we have been waiting patiently for an operating system that can deliver. On October 22, 2009, Microsoft will be launching Windows 7, which has received very good reviews. For those of us who have waited for a more stable, compatible operating system from Microsoft, it's time to upgrade. With that upgrade, you should also consider the new Sapphire HD 5770 Direct X 11 video card to take full advantage of what Windows 7 has to offer.

Pros

• Direct X 11 Compatible
• Affordable Upgrade
• CrossFire Ready
• Eyefinity Multi Display Capable

Cons

• Fan is rather loud at speeds over 50%