ATI Radeon HD 5450 & HD 5570 Review
Test System
The test system used is as follows:
| CPU: | Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S @ 3.5GHz |
| Motherboard: | ASUS P5E Deluxe X48 (Rampage Formula BIOS) |
| Hard Disk: | Western Digital 160GB (WD1600AAJS) |
| Memory: | G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1000 PQ |
| Video Cards: | AMD Radeon HD 5570 1GB AMD Radeon HD 5450 512MB PNY GeForce 9800GT EE 1GB (see Benchmarking Notes) Zotac 8500GT 512MB |
| Video Drivers: | AMD Catalyst Beta 8.69 (RC3) Nvidia ForceWare 196.21 |
| Chassis: | CM Storm Sniper – Black Edition – Mesh Version |
| Operating System: | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
Benchmarking Notes
Throughout the testing, all of the hardware remained the same except for the video cards and the driver software required to run them.
All game benchmarks were run at 1440×900 resolution and in most cases at medium settings unless otherwise stated. Each chart will show the respective conditions.
Disclaimer:
The PNY GeForce 9800GT EE 1GB card used in this review was chosen based on its performance-per-watt affinity. It needs to be said however, that the clock speeds on this Energy Effiicient (EE) model are lower than the reference clocks on a regular 9800GT card. The main specifications are as follows:
| Reference GeForce 9800GT | PNY GeForce 9800GT EE | |
| Core Clock | 600MHz | 550MHz |
| Shader Clock | 1500MHz | 1375MHz |
| Memory Clock | 900MHz (1800MHz effective) | 900MHz (1800MHz effective) |
For the remainder of this review, that card will simply be referred to as “9800GT”.
Now on with the show!
The 5570 consumes 69 watts more power under load and 40 watts more in idle? No way, something must have gone wrong here. The results on other sites are in a different league – single digit watt difference in idle and ~30 watts under load.
Thanks for your comment Howitzer. The fact is exactly as I stated, this is the power draw on the *entire* system. Other sites may have the tools such as power meters that can measure the video card power draw at the slot level. I am only privy to a Kill-A-Watt unit.
The major factor in this is that the 1100W PSU that powers my system has driven up the idle power load quite a bit. Now the difference in the figures will also take into account any additional power draw from the CPU also being under load along with other smaller components like hard drive(s) spinning up and so on.
We do hope to continue improving our testing with better equipment, as our very limited resources will allow.
Thanks for your time. =)