Review and testing of six video cards AMD Radeon HD 5770, HD6870, HD7870, R9 270X, R9 380 RX 480 : Test | Specs | CPU | Config

For a comparative test, we took AMD Radeon HD 5770, HD6870, HD7870, R9 270X, R9 380 and RX 480 video cards, it will be interesting to know their performance both in old games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and new ones like Battlefield 1.

The oldest video card in our test is PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD5770 1GB GDDR5, This PowerColor product has the PCS + prefix in its name, which implies factory overclocking. This model is equipped with four video connectors – Display Port, HDMI and two DVI. Operating frequencies of PowerColor PCS + HD5770 1GB GDDR5 are 875/4900 MHz, which is only three and two percent higher than the recommended ones. In idle time, like other cards, they drop to 157/1200 MHz. The total amount of video memory is 1000 MB. Eight Hynix H5GQ1H24AFR T2C GDDR5 memory chips are soldered, the memory operates at a frequency of up to 5000 MHz. The next one in our test set is also a video card from PowerColor.

Video card PowerColor Radeon HD6870 1GB GDDR5, was produced at one time in two modifications, the first had a reference cooling system and recommended frequencies, the second was produced in the PCS + version and naturally had a custom cooling system and increased frequencies. WE took option number one for our test. Our variant runs at 900 MHz for the core and 4200 MHz for memory, the memory capacity is 1 GB GDDR 5 standard. Further on our list Radeon HD 7970 in the reference performance. The basis of this video adapter is a video chip made on 28 nm architecture Tahiti XT, it includes 2048 unified processors and 32 rasterization units, and data exchange between the graphics core and memory is carried out via a 384-bit bus.

Video memory of the GDDR5 standard with a total volume of 3 GB is recruited using twelve 256 MB chips manufactured by the company Hynix… The chips are labeled H5GQ2H24MFR T2C. The clock speed of the video processor is 925 MHz, which is 25 MHz higher than the predecessor Radeon HD 6970. Next in the list is the Radeon R7 270X, which appeared in 2014. In our test, this is a model from MSI that runs at reference frequencies. The card has an efficient cooling system, but its cost is higher than that of its counterparts, which can boast, albeit small, but factory overclocked. MSI Radeon R9 270X GAMING 2G works on the basis of the “Pitcairn” chip.

It is manufactured according to the 28-nm process technology, consists of 1280 universal shader pipelines, 32 rasterization units and 80 texture units. The nominal clock frequency is defined as 1120 MHz, which corresponds to the maximum dynamic frequency of the “OC” mode of the utility MSI Gaming App. The memory of the graphics accelerator is 2 GB. It is typed using 8 ELPIDA W2032BBBG-6A-F chips with a capacity of 256 MB each. These microcircuits operate at an effective frequency of 5600 MHz, and data exchange between the memory and the graphics chip is carried out via a 256-bit bus. The fifth video card that takes part in our testing is the Radeon R9 380, we took the model from Asus. Like all STRIX series graphics cards, ASUS Radeon R9 380 received a fairly large list of changes in comparison with the reference characteristics.

So, in addition to the original printed circuit board, proprietary cooling system and improved element base, there is a small factory overclocking. The graphics core in the “OC” mode (in which the tests were carried out) operates at a frequency of 1010 MHz (4% increase over the recommended 970 MHz). At the same time, the video memory operates at 5500 MHz recommended for versions with 4 GB. The video card closes our list Radeon RX 480… At the heart of this video card is the Polaris 10 (Ellesmere) GPU. Polaris 10 consists of four Shader Engine blocks. Each such unit contains nine Compute Units. Each CU contains 64 stream processors and four texture units. This is how the previously announced 2304 stream processors, 144 TMUs and 32 ROPs come out. The clock frequency (Boost Clock) of the GPU is 1266 MHz, it is typical for the reference model. The video card has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on board, operating at an effective 8000 MHz.

Testing

The tests in each game were carried out at resolutions of 1920 × 1080 with maximum graphics quality settings. We did not touch the 4K modes, since most of the test participants do not have enough processing power for it, and the oldest cards (GeForce 500 and Radeon HD 6000 series) even have suitable video interfaces.

The performance of a video card is determined by the number of fps (frames per second) that it can produce in a particular application under certain settings. The performance of the video card in gaming applications is affected by the software installed on the PC, the version of the video driver, and the configuration of the computer.

Specification: Hashrate

Battlefield 1  1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

Deus Ex Mankind Divided 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

Rise of the Tomb Raide 1920×1080 (Very High)-FRS

Call of Duty: Black Ops III 1920×1080 (Extra)-FRS

Fallout 4 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

The Witcher 3 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

Far Cry 4 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

Ryse: Son of Rome 1920×1080 (Very High)-FRS

Bioshock: Infinite 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

Alan Wake 1920×1080 (High)-FRS

DiRT Showdown 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 1920×1080 (Ultra)-FRS

Anno 2070 1920×1080 (High)-FRS

Findings

As we can see from the test results, the performance of mid-range video cards has increased by 500% over the course of six generations. As it turned out, the biggest jump in performance was shown by the latest generation AMD Radeon RX 480 video card and AMD Radeon HD 7870 video card. In addition, tests show that despite the age, the Radeon HD 7870 shows good performance in games in 2015 and 2016, at high settings and Full HD resolution. The fact is that the transition of the process technology from 40 to 28 nm at one time practically doubled the performance of discrete graphics processors, at the same time AMD made significant progress due to the growth of transistor GPU budgets and microarchitecture optimization.

But due to the fact that AMD decided to skip the next node of the technical process – 20 nm, the pace of progress in recent years in this area has been rather modest. As a result, if your video card already carries a GPU manufactured at 28 nm, this is a Radeon HD 7000 and higher, then it is far from easy to determine whether you need to change your video card to something newer, and if so, what exactly … As for the AMD Radeon HD 6870 and ATi Radeon HD 5770 video cards, it is clear from the tests that these video cards do not pull out new games, so it makes sense to update your graphics subsystem.