Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 Launch Review and Radeon Value Card Roundup

- 9th Feb 2010

Review Menu

Final Words and Conclusion

Sapphire Radeon HD 5570
It is always interesting to see how a new product fits into the marketplace and with the Sapphire 5570 we have a card which looks to be very impressive. Depending on the region of purchase it will compete against the GT240 or GT220 and when comparing gaming performance to the latter the Radeon 5570 is the clear winner. In comparison with the GT240 the two cards are very closely matched which means we must look further than framerates.

The GeForce cards offer the ability to use CUDA enabled applications for GPU computing and although they support PhysX, often these low end models are not powerful enough to utilise the feature. The Radeon offers a better HDMI audio solution with full HD audio quality. The 5570 also offers good GPU computing performance and has the ability to run DirectX 11 games giving it the most advanced, useable feature set.

HIS Radeon HD 5450
When we first reviewed the 5450 we stated that in the sub £40 price range this GPU was well worth buying however above this point it hits a price range where other cards could outperform it in games. As this model features 1GB it is taken into this higher price range and finds itself competing with the GeForce GT220, a card which it is unable to compete with in gaming framerates.

That does not mean that the HIS 5450 is a failure, simply that if maximum gaming performance is the aim of the purchase then shopping around to find the best deal on the GT220 is a good idea.

The 5450 is actually very capable of gaming at 1280x720 as our results show and its potential as a HTPC card is excellent. Firstly we have the silent cooling solution (something most cheap GT 220’s lack) and then we have some good transcoding performance, free through the inclusion of ATI’s Avivo Video Convertor. Finally there is the ability to accelerate high definition content and output Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio over HDMI.

XFX Radeon HD 5670
Of the three cards being tested today the XFX 5670 is the first which can really be considered a "gamers" product. It allowed us to play at 1920x1080 in all of the games we tested. In addition to this we were able to run with high detail levels, in some cases use anti-aliasing/anisotropic filtering and in the case of DiRT 2, enable DirectX11 features for enhanced image quality.

This great gaming performance is backed up by the ability to use full Eyefinity (thanks to three digital display outputs) and take advantage of HTPC functionality through the on-board HDMI port. No convertor is required to make this card HDTV compatible, simply plug in a HDMI cable and we have access to 7.1 audio and video.

Summary
The Sapphire 5570 offers us a great balance of gaming performance and HTPC functionality. The HIS 5450 is best suited to light gaming but makes a fantastic HTPC card and XFX cater for the same audience but give us gaming functionality without compromise, right up to 1920x1080.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 1GB