Benchmark Results DX10
The results speak for themselves, so there will be no comments made, as clearly none are needed.
Futuremark 3dmark 06 Professional v. 1.1.0
Futuremark 3DMark Vantage Professional v. 1.0.1
Crysis Benchmark Tool 1.05
Far Cry 2
Furmark Benchmark & Burn/Stability Testing Tool V. 1.7.0
Unigine Heaven DX11 Benchmark Tool 2.1 DX10
Lightsmark Benchmark Tool V. 2.0
Resident Evil 5 Benchmark Tool V. 1.0
X3 Terran Conflict Rolling Demo Benchmark V. 1.0
Benchmark Results DX11
Microsoft DirectXDirectX® 11 is a key feature of Windows® 7 and is important for two key reasons: it helps consumers experience better performing games and faster computing. To do this, DirectX 11 brings several new features which collectively improve the graphic fidelity of games and 3D applications while also enhancing the ability of the CPU and GPU to work together more efficiently. This in turn will allow end-users to potentially realize significant increases in performance as application developers harness the power of tessellation, multi-threading and compute shader technology, three key new features of DirectX 11.
DirectX 11 features include:
* Tessellation – Tessellation is implemented on the GPU to calculate a smoother curved surface resulting in more graphically detailed images, including more lifelike characters in the gaming worlds that you explore.
* Multi-Threading – The ability to scale across multi-core CPUs will enable developers to take greater advantage of the power within multi-core CPUs. This results in faster framerates for games, while still supporting the increased visual detailing.
* DirectCompute – Developers can utilize the power of discrete graphics cards to accelerate both gaming and non-gaming applications. This improves graphics, while also enabling players to accelerate everyday tasks, like video editing, on their Windows 7 PC.
Compute Shaders
Compute Shaders are programs that are executed on the graphics processor. With DirectX 11 and DirectCompute, developers are able to use the massive parallel processing power of modern GPUs to accelerate a much wider range of applications that were previously only executable on CPUs. Compute Shaders can be used to enable new graphical techniques to enhance image quality (such as order independent transparency, ray tracing, and advanced post-processing effects), or to accelerate a wide variety of non-graphics applications (such as video transcoding, video upscaling, game physics simulation, and artificial intelligence). In games, Compute Shader support effectively enables more scene details and realism:
* Optimized post-processing effects – apply advanced lighting techniques to enhance the mood in a scene
* High quality shadow filtering – no more hard edges on a shadow, see shadows the way you would in real life
* Depth of field – use the power of the GPU to have more realistic transitions of focal points - imagine looking through a gun sight or a camera lens
* High definition ambient occlusion – incredibly realistic lighting and shadow combinations
Microsoft DirectX® 11
DX 11 Tessellation Examples
Unigine Heaven DX11 Benchmark Tool 2.1 DX11
AVP (Alien Vs. Predator) Benchmark Tool 1.03
Stone Giant DX11 Benchmark Tool
Extreme Overclocking
I was able to get in a few 3D runs shortly with the CPU on dry ice after I posted this review, so I am adding them in now since I was unable to previously
3Dmark 06
Auqamark 03
Temperatures & Sound
Temperatures & Sound
This card is amazingly cool, these are the idle temps after the system has been running idle for 15 minutes in a 70F (21C) ambient room. Temps remain close to this during normal system use, and only increase when running benchmarks or gaming.
The card seems to overheat in certain isolated instances, such as Furmark ran at full voltages and max resolution. Furmark is well known for heating things up past normal extremes, and therefore is not a great example of any real world use of the cards, so I am still confident in the card's cooling ability. I see this as noteworthy, as I was surprised to observe this issue, after seeing how well the card cooled otherwise. While the dual fans do cool the entire card, I am led to believe this issue is directly related to the fact that there are no heatsinks installed on the VRM's. The VRM's should have a heatsink, and memory as well, but that is not nearly as important as the the VRM's. I would expect these things to be a MUST on a card labeled "Super Overclock Edition", while also allowing the user to adjust voltages.
During all my testing and benchmarking for this review, I never saw temps above 80C except during extreme Furmark sessions, mentioned above. These temps above (72-73C) are temps during a 1680x1050 15 minute run of Furmark, with fan manually set to 75%. I set the fan manually, because even at 80C the fan (by default) does not go above 33%, and I did not want to damage the card. This has most likely been adjusted with the current BIOSes. I needed to keep the same BIOS installed that this card shipped with, so all my results would not have any variables. The same reasoning applies to my use of ATI 10.4 Drivers. Once I have published this review, I will install the latest BIOS and see how things go in regards to this issue, I'll update the review accordingly once I do.
The fans are very quiet, at the stock idle speeds I cannot hear them over my 120MM case fans, and this is in an open test bench/case. Although not very scientific, this is the best way I can gauge things like this, and would be how most users would as well. When adjusting fan speeds, the fans becomes audible at 70%, yet remain fairly quiet. Fan speeds of 80-100% are clearly audible, but even at 100% they are still not as loud when compared to other cards I have owned.
Overall this is a great card, I would highly recommend to anyone currently looking to upgrade to take a second, or third look in the 5870 SOC's direction, you will not be disappointed! It may seem pricey, but for the performance and quality this card provides the price is easily justifiable. You just can't beat the solid performance this card offers over the previous generation cards, so if you are looking for something nicer than your current solution, I suggest you look no further!
Pro's
Hand picked GPU - GPU Gauntlet Sorting
Quiet dual fan cooling
Custom 2oz Copper PCB (Non-Reference)
Out of the box overclock
Custom power delivery
Voltage read points
Connector covers (It's the little things that count)
ATI Eyefinity Technology
Con's:
The only con I see is the omission of VRM cooling, which could and should be included at this price point.
The current price of this card at the time of review is $499
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R587SO-1GD Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Again I would like to give a huge thanks to everyone @ GIGABYTE for supplying the 5870 SOC and GA-X58A-UD7 samples used here!!
Also, thanks to everyone @ Mushkin for providing the memory used in this, and upcoming reviews!
Disclaimer: I am not a professional graphics card reviewer, this IS my "first day" :smilies13 So if you do not agree with any of my testing methods please kindly let me know what would work better for you, or things I might change, and I will keep any and all comments in mind for future reviews. Thank you for leaving only constructive comments, please.
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