XFX Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 Review

A Closer Look at the XFX Radeon HD 5750 1GB

The HD 5750 is actually the first of the HD 5000-series to not carry a version of the same tried and true full-length reference heatsink. The cooling design here is more of a fansink with a large 80mm fan in its center that reminds us a lot of the one used on the HD 4770. On a side note, we were really hoping for a single-slot design for optimal use in an HTPC but that wasn’t meant to be.


The sticker which XFX used looks extremely good next to the bright red fan and black PCB. Below the main shroud we can see that the heatsink is made of powder-coated aluminum fins that- with the help of the fan- are supposed to disperse the heat produced by the core. This design means that all of the heat generated by the core will stay within your case but considering how efficient this card is, there won’t be much excess heat to deal with. In addition, we can see that the memory stays naked and open to the elements without having the need for additional heatsinks.


While the HD 5750 is considered an efficient card, it still requires more power than the PCI-E slot can provide so it needs a single PCI-E 6-pin power connector.

The backplate is tailor-made for Eyefinity compatibility but let’s be honest here: this card just can’t provide the graphics horsepower necessary to drive a game across a trio of LCDs. This setup really has the look of ATI trying to cram Eyefinity down our throats whether the card can support it or not. The HD 5750 could be a perfect HTPC card but the dual slot backplate and accompanying heatsink make compatibility for smaller HTPCs a near impossibility. Give us a DisplayPort Connector and a pair of DVI ports (along with a DVI to HDMI adaptor) on a single slot backplate and we'll be in heaven.


The back of the card doesn’t really hold much of interest other than a quartet of memory chips. The memory modules used are H5GQ1H24AFR units from Hynix which are also found on the HD 5770. These ICs are rated for 1.25Ghz (5Ghz QDR) speed at 1.5V and are set up in a 128MB x 8 pattern on the HD 5770.


Not one of the ATI’s HD 5000-series cards is the same size and so far, the HD 5750 is the shortest of the lot at only 7 ¼” long which is perfect for most mATX HTPC cases.