ASUS Radeon HD 5770 1GB Voltage Tweak Edition Review

Conclusion

By now you should all know that the $150 to $200 price segment is and always has been crowded with products which are all vying for the attention of a budget-minded consumer. Before the release of the HD 5700-series, we had the HD 4850, HD 4770 and GTS 250 all clustered around the same price point. Fortunately, the addition of the HD 5770 1GB provides a clear performance lead over all those cards so any confusion about what to buy if you have around $150 to spend has been pretty much cleared up.

If you take a quick look back through the battery of tests we put this card through, it should be apparent that when compared to the closest NVIDIA competition in terms of price (the GTS 250 1GB), the ATI card reigns supreme. In some cases it actually beat the much more expensive GTX 260 216. While the performance of the HD 5770 1GB is hard to fault, what is most surprising is how much power it consumes when it puts the rubber to the road so to speak. Its idle power consumption in particular stands out as a real shining point, especially in this category. The simple fact of the matter is that many people who end up buying the HD 5770 will probably put it into a system that serves multiple uses; from gaming to word processing. This is the kind of situation ATI’s 5700-series thrives in since they are so versatile by offering great idle efficiency for more mundane tasks but can still give excellent gaming performance.

We have to remember that today also marks the release of the HD 5750 1GB and 512MB cards. Considering the 1GB version of the HD 5750 is priced a good 20 percent lower than the HD 5770 1GB, there was a real chance that the higher-end $160 card would be upstaged in the price / performance category by its little brother. To be honest with you, the HD 5770 really doesn’t have anything to worry about since the mere $30 premium it commands over the HD 5750 1GB translates into a world of difference when it comes to framerates. So much so, we would gladly invest the additional money for this card over the HD 5750 1GB.

Even though every card available at launch will be based on the ATI reference design, the board partners are that ones that add additional features in order to differentiate their cards from those of the competition. In ASUS’ case, they give the ability to expand their HD 5770’s overclocking abilities by leaps and bounds. While it works quite well, the ASUS SmartDoctor software used for this task is clunky and its interface is far from user-friendly. Sure, it gives basic sliders for voltage and clock speeds but just navigating through the screens can be a tedious and tiresome affair. That’s not to say we don’t appreciate its inclusion since it does add a new dimension to the overclocking of this particular card and it is covered under the ASUS warranty.

The HD 5800-series started ATI’s surge into the DX11 market and with the HD 5770 1GB complimenting those high-end cards, their lineup seems complete. The only thing that’s missing is a card bridging the gap between the card reviewed here today and the $269 HD 5850 1GB. Until that comes around and regardless of the expectations many had for it, the HD 5770 provides the perfect combination of price, performance and efficiency for today’s budget-minded gamer.



Pros:
- Great performance
- Efficient
- Extremely quiet
- Voltage tuner software turns this card into a beast
- Warranty covers voltage adjustments done in Smart Doctor.


Cons:
- Unknown performance in DX11 titles