Radeon HD 5700: Power Consumption, Temperature, Noise, Overclockability

We measured the power consumption of the new RV830-based solutions on a special testbed configured like follows:

• Intel Pentium 4 560 CPU (3.6GHz, LGA775)
• DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G mainboard (ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset)
• PC2-5300 SDRAM (2x512MB, 667MHz)
• Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD HDD (36GB)
• Chieftec ATX-410-212 PSU (410W)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 32-bit
• Futuremark PCMark05 Build 1.2.0
• Futuremark 3DMark06 Build 1.1.0

Following our standard methodology, we used the first SM3.0/HDR test from 3DMark06 to create 3D load. We ran it in a loop at 1600x1200 with forced 4x FSAA and 16x AF. Additionally we loaded the cards by running the OpenGL-based FurMark. The Peak 2D load was created by means of the 2D Transparent Windows test from PCMark05. We’ve got the following results:

The Radeon HD 5700 series shows excellent results even making allowances for our not-quite-new measurement method. The senior model consumes no more than 62W under 3DMark06. None of the previous-generation solutions comparable to the Radeon HD 5770 in terms of performance can beat this. The numbers are somewhat higher in the OpenGL FurMark test, but still acceptable: 81W for the senior model of the new series and 60W for the junior model.

The cooling systems of the Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 behave like that:

The senior model has a rather high GPU temperature due to the high core frequency coupled with the heatsink. Still, we found our Radeon HD 5770 perfectly stable even under a long run of FurMark. The GPU frequency of the junior model is 150MHz lower and the core itself does not work in its full configuration. 60°C is an excellent result for such a complex solution.

The reference point for our noise measurement tests is 43dBA which is the level of ambient noise in our test lab as measured at a distance of 1 meter from the testbed with a passively cooled graphics card inside. When we installed the tested graphics cards, we got the following results:

Just as expected, there is nothing extraordinary about the reference cooling systems of the Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750. The cards are quiet, even though not silent, especially in 3D mode when their fans accelerate. The noise spectrum is quite agreeable to the ear, and this soft hiss does not irritate. People who want complete silence will anyway install a passive cooler while others, unless they are into extreme overclocking with extreme methods, will be quite satisfied with the reference coolers.

As opposed to the Radeon HD 5870, the Radeon HD 5700 series overclocks well. We overclocked our sample of Radeon HD 5770 to 940MHz GPU and 1445 (5780) MHz memory. The Radeon HD 5750 was overclocked to 870MHz core and 1430 (5720) MHz memory. We did this without any special methods, so we expect the Radeon HD 5700 series to get highly popular among serious overclockers. Unfortunately, we could not fix the result with GPU-Z screenshots because the current version of GPU-Z cannot report increased frequencies when the card is overclocked with Catalyst Control Center. This may be due to the PowerPlay technology implementation in the new ATI Radeon HD series.