If you ask for advice on picking a video card whether it be at your local PC shop or online, you’re going to get a number of recommendations. If it’s the PC shop, they’ll likely push something on the shelves. If it’s online, you’ll get some suggestions before it quickly turns into an ATI vs. nVidia fanboi fest. And, nothing is more counter productive than a “my card pwns your card” contest. Around here, we look for the best all around features, design and performance worthy of the price tag. Call it, perspective, if you will.
Some cards are designed for video and basic PC use. Other cards are designed for gaming. The difference here is that the performance based gaming card tends to offer both sets of features, thus the loftier price tag. We’ll be taking a look at one of those performance based video cards based on ATI’s HD 5870. GIGABYTE puts their own spin on it and gives it some tweaks.
Features and Specifications
As you may or may not know, ATI was the first to make the evolutionary jump to the 40nm fabrication process. They didn’t come off the bench swinging desperately for a big hit. Resourceful engineers got the GPU where they wanted and it evolved into the current HD 5800 and 5900 series GPUs. What this simply means is a smaller die, less power consumption, more performance in areas graphics lovers can appreciate and DirectX 11.
DirectX 11 adds a feature called, Tessellation, to the graphic experience. In a nut shell, Tessellation is the rendering of much smaller details on top of the current DX10 experience. For example, this new process adds new detailed effects to facial features or items you interact with in a game. We’re interested in how much of a performance hit the frame rates will take when this enabled. We’ll show you that later in testing.
Our particular HD 5870 GV587UD-1GD video card is one of three available models. Aside from the reference design GV587D5-1GD-B model, our test sample looks very similar to the brand new GV587SO-1GD which is the “super overclocked” card. The SO just has fancier stickers and higher than stock frequencies. What makes this one not so reference you ask? Here’s the simple answer.
Beginning with the obvious, our GV587UD-1GD sports the newly designed “Inclined Cooling Fan” aftermarket heat pipe cooler. It offers dual cooling fans that are slightly tilted away from each other most likely so that warm air is pushed outward, rather than towards the GPU. The copper based heat pipe cooler will easily manage temperatures much better than the reference card design. Given how poorly reference coolers perform, this is a very welcomed improvement and sets this card apart from others.
GIGABYTE adds in their Ultra Durable VGA (UDV) technology which includes the use of a 2 ounce copper PCB, solid state capacitors, lower RDS MOSFETs, Ferrite cores with metal chokes. Simply put, the components are intended to provide and manage power more efficiently, which can improve power use and sometimes even overclocking.
The GV587UD-1GD also offers ATI Eyefinity Technology. Gamers and graphics enthusiasts alike can enjoy up to three monitors from the single card. The big deal about this feature is that it’s hardware based compared to the competition. There are 2 x DVI, 1 x HDMI, and 1 x Display port built into this card.
What’s In The Box?
While GIGABYTE has created their own spin on the reference design, they didn’t do a whole lot with the included bundle. Inside, you’ll get the manual, a software DVD, DVD to VGA adapters, some four pin molex to 6 pin adapters, and an extra CrossFire bridge in case you end up ponying up for two of these puppies for CrossFireX action. It would have been nice to have seen some more customization in the bundle which may include some games, or even some benchmarks.
A New and Improved HD 5870?
When reference cards launch from nVidia or ATI, companies like GIGABYTE evaluate whether they can make their own improvements to the design. Even though the HD 5800 GPU isn’t by any means the hottest on the market, engineers opted to build a new GPU cooler. The card is not any heavier than the stock reference card. In fact, it probably shaved off a couple ounces without the heavy plastic shroud. It’s definitely much lighter than a geForce GTX285 which tops out at around one pound.
As mentioned earlier, the fans blow the heat away from the GPU, rather than into it. The cooling solution unfortunately negates the possibility of adding heat sinks of your own to the “kick ass” Tier 1 Samsung memory chips. That’s fine though since they are Tier 1 which tend to do just fine without extra cooling. Plus, the bulk of the performance gains come from overclocking the core clock and shader clock. If you’re that set on breaking some records, you should use liquid cooling anyways.
The one draw back to a heat sink design like this is that it means heat will be dispersed both inside (and outside) your computer case. We don’t think it will be a big issue for anyone unless you have really poor ventilation. On the plus side, if you have a side panel cooling fan blowing cool air directly on the video card, it will help cool those heat pipes which are carrying away the bulk of the heat. Again, we think this is a worthy trade off.
Taking a look at the PCI bracket side of the card, you get a better glance at the video out ports. The stacked DVI ports are actually a welcomed change over the nVidia cards. Big fingers don’t manage well with side by side DVI ports and large DVI connector cables. This is one time being different works. Both the HDMI and DisplayPort are side by side as well. It would have been nice to see them separated like the DVI ports though. Perhaps we’ll see this small idea implemented as some of the aftermarket HDMI cables are ridiculously thick. The little vent in the PCI bracket is actually pointless since it’s too small to make any difference with ventilation.
The Test System
Since we’re dealing with a DirectX 11 video card, it only seems fitting to use a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate installation. Sure, we got Pro too, it’s just that the DVD was on top and includes more of the software tools to support a little HD video and movie testing.
- Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield Processor
- GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD6 “Shelby GT” Motherboard
- Kingston HyperX 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Memory
- GIGABYTE GV587UD-1GD (HD 5870) 1GB GDDR5 Video Card (as tested)
- ZOTAC Geforce GTX 285 Video Card
- ZOTAC Geforce GTX 295 Video Card
- ZOTAC Geforce GTX 470 Video Card
- Patriot Memory 128GB TorqX SSD
- Antec CP-850 Power Supply
We realize that’s a lot of geForce(s) and hope to remedy that soon. However, with this particular little ATI build, we got ourselves one heck of a gaming system that thinks it’s a work station. I mean, there are three monitors on the desk and lots of DDR3 memory primed and ready. Onward with the benchmarks!
Benchmarks
Since we’re solely looking at graphic performance, we’ll be using Unigine Heaven Demo, 3DMark Vantage, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Crysis, and BioHazard 5 Demo. This should answer questions on DX9, DX10, and DX11 performance. Vertical Sync was forced off since we don’t want the frame rate to stop short of max.
3DMark Vantage
Starting off with the staple of synthetic 3D benchmarks and using the default performance settings, the HD 5870 muscles out an impressive 16,455 GPU score. 3DMark is still one area ATI video cards do well. Let’s see if it continues to do well.
Unigine Heaven Demo
We used the Heaven Demo by Unigine because it offers both DX 10 and 11 benchmarks. The HD 5870 GPU seems to love DX10 even more so than my power hungry GTX 295. What’s interesting here is that both the HD 5870 and GTX 470 scored almost the same DX 11 frame rate even after three passes to get the average. Since the other two cards don’t support it, you don’t see any scores.
Crysis
Crysis is another DX 10 video game that we still consider a GPU killer. After turning the settings up to high across the options, we see it still manages to give our cards a hard time. Personally speaking, the graphics on the HD 5870 just seemed to offer a little better color and detail.
BioHazard 5
For this benchmark, we used 8x AA, highest settings, and motion blur to give the cards a challenge of some sort. With the exception of Area 1, the rest of the demo was pretty close. The HD 5870 produced 16 average frames more than the GTX 285 still available.
Battlefield Bad Company 2
This brings us to the newest DX 11 video game out: Battlefield Bad Company 2. The thing that many news pieces state is that there is suppose to be less of a performance hit going from DX 10 to DX 11. Here, we see it’s right at about 10 frames per second still producing very playable frame rates. Might we add that the DX 11 Tessellation makes the game look a great deal more improved in our single player benchmark especially in the most detailed of areas. That’s also why our frame rates aren’t very high due to the high detailed settings. If you turn up Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic features, expect the frame average to drop considerably.
Is It a Power Hungry Heater?
Well, yes and no. On one hand, the copper heat pipes look hot. On the other hand, are they too hot to handle? Thankfully, GIGABYTE’s solution easily manages to keep temps quite low. Idle temps were about 37 C and while fiddling around the desktop, the temps bounced between 40 and 43 C. During full load 3D testing, the GPU didn’t top 60 C which is actually quite surprising. This is all without the associated fan noise created by the stock cooling solution.
Speaking of fan noise, the Inclined Dual Fans didn’t top 35 dBA during the card’s worst desktop beating. It’s really nice having a card this quiet that can perform so well. It was completely drowned out by the GTX295 and GTX280 in other machines next to the work station. This means that simply replacing that hair dryer of an nVidia card with one of these puppies will not only improve performance, but drop the noise level too.
Almost true to the number in the HD 5870’s specifications, power consumption figured in at about 30 watts. Full load was right at 189 watts. That’s only a couple watt variance from specs and is mostly like due to the selected test platform. Compared to any of the test cards, the HD 5870 is extremely energy efficient and that’s good for mother earth and eco friendly gamers. Can we put it any simpler than that?
Final Thoughts
What GIGABYTE’s HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Video Card does on an LCD monitor with 1920 x 1200 resolution was nothing short of graphical bliss. The card produced more than playable frame rates as well as sharper, finer graphical details. This added a renewed experience to the gaming experience thanks to DX11 and Tessellation. It’s really funny when you find yourself subconsciously trying to avoid environmental distractions like bugs and flying debris. And, yes, DX10 performance was also excellent. The other thing that was kind of interesting to note was just how noticeably sharper image quality was compared to any of the nVidia cards in both 2D or 3D modes. This makes the card excellent for both productivity and entertainment tasks alike.
Even though this video card weighs in at a hefty $499 US MSRP price tag, you will at least get your money’s worth. This is thanks to GIGABYTE’s greatly improved card design which gives you some street cred over your standard reference design. This is made possible thanks to ATI’s efforts to polish up their newest 40nm GPU that requires surprisingly less power. Cooling the GPU is very easy for the specially designed Inclined Cooling Fan setup and heat pipe cooler.
Overall, being that it’s not a whole lot more than a stock reference card, definitely consider it if you want something quieter and cooler than your standard garden variety HD 5870.
Pros:
- Great HD 5870 performance
- Efficient “Inclined Dual Fan” and heat pipe cooling
- Low fan noise at all times
- Triple display and EyeFinity support
- Excellent 2D and 3D image quality
- No complaints when it comes to performance
- A great alternative to “stock-looking” reference based cards
Cons:
- You pay for the performance
- Can we get a black PCB?
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 (GV587UD-1GD) Video Card – Photo Gallery
