ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Performance Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Performance Review - While the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition supports up to 6 displays, we are going to be performance testing in the more popular 3x1 configuration. We are going to get a the heart of the video card and see if the 2GB of memory on Eyefinity 6 is really beneficial in Eyefinity resolutions with single GPU as well as CrossFireX.
 
I would like to see benchmarks comparing the E6 and the 1gb cards running 3x30" at 7680x1600
 
Very nice article.
I just received my E6 cards at the end of last week, and I completely agree with your findings.

I found that my E6 cards did indeed give me a much smoother game than my 1GB 5870s.

Metro is a beast of a game, and I found that about all I could get from my E6 Crossfire was DX10, normal at 5970 x 1200. I just don't have the horses to get into DX11 in EF.
Maybe I'll try it again? I'm still not sure ATI has a finalized Crossfire profile for Metro.

Anyway, I am very happy with my E6 cards, and they were nothing to set up. A definate improvement over the 1GB 5870 for use in EF.:p
 
I know I keep reapeating myself. But there are a few games out there that will benefit from the larger frame buffer. One is a directX 9 game Grand Theft auto 4. I would love to see GTA 4 with this card. It is very video card memory hungry. But as you see msot games can only benefit from the extra memory at ultra high resolutiosn when there is enough GPU horsepower. such as two 2GB cards crossfired.
 
I hope this means that the Asus and XFX 4GB 5970's produce similiar numbers like the Eyefinity 6 CrossfireX results. Nice...
 
AlecMoody said:
I would like to see benchmarks comparing the E6 and the 1gb cards running 3x30" at 7680x1600
Click to expand...

Buy those displays and send them over and we will supply the other resources to get it done.
 
We are going to find out today if the 2GB frame buffer makes a difference in single GPU and CrossFireX configurations.
Click to expand...
The 2GB of memory does not correspond to the frame buffer. The frame buffer is a part of memory allocated to store rendered frames before being output to a display.
 
Great review! Now I just need to decide on if I want a 4th monitor to go with my 3x1 setup for additional information while gaming or save some money and get the 1Gb 5870.
 
Nice review.


It makes perfect sense that a pair of 850/1200 cards will stomp all over a pair of 725/1000 GPUs. I'd imagine that the results would be a lot less in favor of 5870e6 Xfire if the 5970 were clocked at 5870 speeds, as mine is. I doubt that the 5870e6 cards are worth the $300 premium, especially if you can get your 5970 to 5870 speeds.

I could not get the 10.3b driver set to work reliably for me with my 5970. Had severe issues with the displayport-connected display dropping out whenever resolutions/3d mode changed. Also, manual fan control just did not work.
 
Does shader based AA in BC2 and Metro 2033 improve with on-card memory or is it just a pure horsepower issue? Or both?

Also, do the E6 cards in Cross-finity allow vsync or is it still disabled? Does it make for a smoother gameplay experience or is there noticeable microstutter? (or macrostutter, as it is with Crossfinity)
 
I'm curious as to whether there's an improvement in GTA IV with the 2GB card.
 
I pre-ordered the Asus Matrix with 2GB RAM but it looks like the bigger RAM doesn't make much difference. Maybe I should change my order to the E6 card, at least I will get more outputs and a few DP adaptors.
 
as I had been saying, the 5870 2gb card is almost useless unless you X-fire and at that point it almost puts the 5970 to shame. Bring on the 5970 4GB's!!
 
Thanks for the review guys! Even though I'd never be able to afford this, it's always fun to see where things can go.
 
mashie said:
Kyle, any word from AMD when 5x1 will be supported?
Click to expand...

+1- been gaming on 3x1 for over a year and a half, this is the next leap for me.

Thanks for the review and information- much appreciated as always
 
alg7_munif said:
I pre-ordered the Asus Matrix with 2GB RAM but it looks like the bigger RAM doesn't make much difference. Maybe I should change my order to the E6 card, at least I will get more outputs and a few DP adaptors.
Click to expand...


I would have gone this route. However, I don't like their connection layout. DVI, DP, and HDMI.

So far, I'm pretty happy with my pair of 5870 E6 cards. I'm surprised at how few bugs I've encountered.
 
Thank you for this! I recently purchased a 5870 1GB reference card and have been tossing and turning wondering about returning it and paying the 70bucks to get a 2GB card. With the recent price hike and all of the reviews I'm now happy with my purchase. Many thanks.
 
Bankie said:
I'm curious as to whether there's an improvement in GTA IV with the 2GB card.
Click to expand...

A lot of people tend to suggest that GTAIV is very cpu limited more-so than GPU limited. If you turn up the resolution high enough or turn the AA settings up enough to the point that the 1GB card runs into memory limitations, you'll definitely seen a perfomance difference.
 
excellent as always, great review!

I wish I could afford an Eyefinity set up, this thing gets me so excited and now my 4890 seems so shitty...
 
anyone know if we have a 4gig e6 version of the 5970's comin? im intending to replace my xfire 2x5870 1gig's with that when they appear should they appear, if not i guess its time to order a pair of 'normal' 5970's

love my 5870 xfire but metro... lol that stupid game has shown what is to come
 
thank you kyle, my FT02 case just turned up in the office to much appreciative cooing, so i am having to make a decision pretty soon on the rest of the gumph to go in it.
 
interesting read. this would suggest that someone would probably benefit with gtx 285's w/2gb as opposed to the 1gb versions as well (when nvidia's surround shows up).

you guys are great. i've been waiting for an article just like this.
 
now, if we can only have a review with resolutions with 3X1 (5700X1200 aka eyefinity) with Xfire 5870s 1 gb vs xfire 5870s 2 gbs That would rock and that would be a nice comparation and see if the 1 gb vs 2gbs on xfire is really needed or at the end is only few FPS.

Cause on this review is the 5970 vs xfire 5870 2gb witch has different clocks on the GPU.

Xfire 5870s 1 gb vs xfire 5870s 2 gbs that's a review that i would love to see, because there are tons of xfire 5870s 1 gb out there and the question is are they going to be needing that extra 1gb with those high resolutions compared to a 2gbs xfires?

forget about 1900X1200 we already know that a single card can destroy those resolutions in most of the cases, :D

The xfire reviews for my taste should be on eyefinity only configs.


:p
 
yuplis3d said:
now, if we can only have a review with resolutions with 3X1 (5700X1200 aka eyefinity) with Xfire 5870s 1 gb vs xfire 5870s 2 gbs That would rock and that would be a nice comparation and see if the 1 gb vs 2gbs on xfire is really needed or at the end is only few FPS.

Cause on this review is the 5970 vs xfire 5870 2gb witch has different clocks on the GPU.

Xfire 5870s 1 gb vs xfire 5870s 2 gbs that's a review that i would love to see, because there are tons of xfire 5870s 1 gb out there and the question is are they going to be needing that extra 1gb with those high resolutions compared to a 2gbs xfires?

forget about 1900X1200 we already know that a single card can destroy those resolutions in most of the cases, :D

The xfire reviews for my taste should be on eyefinity only configs.


:p
Click to expand...

i'd like to see it as well, however, regardless of the slight difference in clocks, i think the tests already show the 2gb to be more than worthwile over the 1gb.
 
yuplis3d said:
now, if we can only have a review with resolutions with 3X1 (5700X1200 aka eyefinity) with Xfire 5870s 1 gb vs xfire 5870s 2 gbs That would rock and that would be a nice comparation and see if the 1 gb vs 2gbs on xfire is really needed or at the end is only few FPS.

Cause on this review is the 5970 vs xfire 5870 2gb witch has different clocks on the GPU.

Xfire 5870s 1 gb vs xfire 5870s 2 gbs that's a review that i would love to see, because there are tons of xfire 5870s 1 gb out there and the question is are they going to be needing that extra 1gb with those high resolutions compared to a 2gbs xfires?

forget about 1900X1200 we already know that a single card can destroy those resolutions in most of the cases, :D

The xfire reviews for my taste should be on eyefinity only configs.


:p
Click to expand...

This review is pretty close to what you want.
It convinced me to buy my two E6 GPUs.


http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/ATI_Radeon_5870_Eyefinity6_-_Featured_Review_-_Page_12
 
It's nice to finally see a review with CrossFireX and the 5870x1200 resolution!

I'm curious why you don't review the 5970 at 850 core 4800 memory, for a more direct comparison to the 5870 in CrossFireX?
This is an enthusiasts site and people have beefy power supplies.
AMD went to great lengths to design the 5970 for overclocking, yet all the review sites are leaving it at stock speeds.
This is from your original review of the 5970:

"The differences are in the clock speeds. Both GPUs will run at 725MHz and the memory will run at 4GHz. The Radeon HD 5870, for comparison, runs at 850MHz GPU and 4.8GHz memory. The reason for these clock speed differences is quite simple. AMD’s design goal with the Radeon HD 5970 was make it perform within a 300 Watt power envelope. In order to do so, these are the clock speeds it must be at stock. Fear not however, AMD thought of us enthusiasts too.

Yes, though AMD designed this video card to operate in a 300W power envelope stock, they gave it room to expand to a 400W envelope by manual tweaking! This is where it gets fun.

AMD has gone to great lengths to design this video card with room to grow. AMD is cherry picking each Radeon HD 5970 GPU to ensure the best potential for overclocking. (Conversely this means that other 5870 GPUs might suffer from "lesser" OCing down the line we would have to assume.) Along with that, they are choosing to use the best components and high-grade material for the Radeon HD 5970. AMD is using digital programmable voltage regulators, pure ceramic super-capacitors and have also included actual circuitry for real-time power monitoring.

The stock cooling system has been designed to accommodate 400W of heat produced by this video card. Since the Radeon HD 5970 operates in a 300W power envelope stock, the cooling system is not burdened at stock frequencies and voltages. AMD have actually designed the cooling system with headroom for voltage increases and clock frequency increases.

AMD has also unlocked Overdrive in Catalyst Control Center; you will be able to set the GPU frequency up to 1GHz for both GPUs. You will be able to set the memory up to 6GHz. The options are in the sliders at least, but no guarantee you can achieve that. AMD is also providing an over-voltage utility to add-in-board partners, with which they can design their own programs to gain control over voltage tweaking on the Radeon HD 5970. This means we should see many more utilities from AIBs to control voltage and clock tweaking. Since there is now circuitry for hardware monitoring we will also see these applications provide real-time statistics for the video cards health.

With all of these features there is no questioning that this video card is geared for enthusiasts like us, and contains a lot of potential for higher clock speeds."
 
wadec22 said:
i'd like to see it as well, however, regardless of the slight difference in clocks, i think the tests already show the 2gb to be more than worthwile over the 1gb.
Click to expand...

Well, only one test showed it and that was Alien vs Predator.
 
wow, I knew the 2gb buffers would not be a big improvement at 2.3mp but I didn't think you would have to go to 7mp to see it.
 
trophaeum said:
anyone know if we have a 4gig e6 version of the 5970's comin? im intending to replace my xfire 2x5870 1gig's with that when they appear should they appear, if not i guess its time to order a pair of 'normal' 5970's

love my 5870 xfire but metro... lol that stupid game has shown what is to come
Click to expand...

With the rumored pricing of the 4GB 5970s to be close to $1000, the better value might be a pair of E6 2GB cards that you can buy today for well under $1000 with cashback and other promotional discounts.
 
I've got a question for the gurus here. If I went with the E6 card, would I be able to use the passive mini-displayport to dvi dongles that come with it for connecting a dvi monitor in eyefinity? Or would I need to find active adapters?
 
From what I understand, you get the usual 2 DVI and/or HDMI connections because it still is limited by the number of clock generators in the gpu, every DVI/HDMI after that would have to use an active adapter.

However...


I reserve the right to be completely wrong. :D

Or even partially wrong.
 
Bo_Fox said:
Well, only one test showed it and that was Alien vs Predator.
Click to expand...

i should have been more specific, i meant in xfire. it all eyefinity situations it would seem the 2gb would be a serious advantage over the 1gb.
 
only benchy test will actually show that, that's why i said that i would love to see some benchmarks. Yes in theory is suppose to, but in real life gaming situation we cant tell, i bet crysis and some other games will can show a big difference because of the 2gbs, but in many scenarios maybe not, that what im so curios on seeing the crossfinity 1gb vs 2gbs scenarios.
 
soekev said:
With the rumored pricing of the 4GB 5970s to be close to $1000, the better value might be a pair of E6 2GB cards that you can buy today for well under $1000 with cashback and other promotional discounts.
Click to expand...

yes but i have a gaming cube case with only 2 16x pcie slots and 4 slots in total of space :) already got 2x5870 1gigs in it (the msi's that appeared when they first came out), MOAR POWAH!
 
If you buy 3 5770's for the same price as 1 of this card, would you get better performance for 3 or 6 monitors?
 
nat559 said:
Hi Kyle,

Did you observe any stuttering in your Crossfire+Eyefinity configurations as described in this thread? http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1506951
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd like to know Kyle's experience with this as well nat559. As I've posted in that thread Brent has acknowledged the issue in the E6 review in Bad Company 2 atleast. With the following quote from the Bad Company 2 page:

"With multi-GPU CrossFireX we needed to aim for higher framerates in order for the game to feel smoother. When the average framerates were down around 30-40FPS, the game felt choppy even though the framerate was at 30FPS. We found that by keeping the framerate higher, the game smoothed out and the choppiness was diminished."

That was my experience with CFX + EF for BC2 and other demanding games (Crysis was a mess). It's better above 60fps but still there. That's a deal breaker for me so I sold my extra 5870 and a 5970 I tried out. I wasn't gonna wait around for a fix that might not happen while the cards devalue. A single 5870 is providing me with a far superior eyefinity experience.
 
Spree said:
Yeah I'd like to know Kyle's experience with this as well nat559. As I've posted in that thread Brent has acknowledged the issue in the E6 review in Bad Company 2 atleast. With the following quote from the Bad Company 2 page:

"With multi-GPU CrossFireX we needed to aim for higher framerates in order for the game to feel smoother. When the average framerates were down around 30-40FPS, the game felt choppy even though the framerate was at 30FPS. We found that by keeping the framerate higher, the game smoothed out and the choppiness was diminished."

That was my experience with CFX + EF for BC2 and other demanding games (Crysis was a mess). It's better above 60fps but still there. That's a deal breaker for me so I sold my extra 5870 and a 5970 I tried out. I wasn't gonna wait around for a fix that might not happen while the cards devalue. A single 5870 is providing me with a far superior eyefinity experience.
Click to expand...

I find myself reaching the same conclusion.
 
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