Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Review

Dawn of War II

Even though Dawn of War II has its own in-game benchmarking tool, we decided not to use it. Instead, we played through approximately 10 minutes of the final Space Marine mission “Last Stand” while recording framerates with FRAPS. With a massive amount of enemies rushing your position and additional troops deployed on your side, this mission features some of the largest battles in the single player game. In addition, since the Tyranid swarms appear at regular intervals, this mission is also perfect for comparison testing.

1680 x 1050


*PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HD 5870 WAS THE ONLY CARD TO DISPLAY SERIOUS POP-IN WITHIN THIS GAME. THIS HAD EVERY INDICATION OF BEING A DRIVER OPTIMIZATION. AS SUCH, THESE RESULTS SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT*


1920 x 1200


*PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HD 5870 WAS THE ONLY CARD TO DISPLAY SERIOUS POP-IN WITHIN THIS GAME. THIS HAD EVERY INDICATION OF BEING A DRIVER OPTIMIZATION. AS SUCH, THESE RESULTS SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT*


2560 x 1600


*PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HD 5870 WAS THE ONLY CARD TO DISPLAY SERIOUS POP-IN WITHIN THIS GAME. THIS HAD EVERY INDICATION OF BEING A DRIVER OPTIMIZATION. AS SUCH, THESE RESULTS SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT*


Yes, it's unfortunate but it seems that the drivers we received for the HD 5870 caused some optimizations to go into overdrive and everything from plants to rocks to structures would pop in and out of existence. It was the only card to do so. I would have been more than happy to write a nice little FAIL next to the results but the HD 5870 DID run the game albeit with the above-mentioned issues. Folks, this is why we PLAY games and use our own timedemos.