Date:
Monday , November 23, 2009
Author:
Matthew Krysiak
Editor:
Brent Justice
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PowerColor HD5770 Video Card Review

Think your old GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4870 is getting a little long in the tooth? They’ve both had a great run, but now it might be time to upgrade. We see how these two video cards compare to the brand new PowerColor HD5770.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum

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We are using the full Steam version of Batman: Arkham Asylum patched to version 1.1. This is an Unreal Engine 3 game and does support PhysX, and we are going to treat that like any other game. Due to support issues, we have to use the ATI control panel to force on AA, while NVIDIA video cards may use in-game AA settings. We have also forced on 16X AF on all video cards. Our run-through in this evaluation is going to be the very first mission, "Intensive Treatment." We found this first level to actually be quite demanding on graphics, and other than the "Scarecrow" level, is one of the more graphically intensive areas. Through most of the game you are indoors, and performance is quite high since it is closed indoor spaces. For more information about Batman: Arkham Asylum’s in-game settings please see our gameplay review.

Highest Playable Settings

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In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 took the top spot and was playable at 2560x1600, 2X AA, 16X AF, and with the exception of PhysX, the highest in-game settings. The PowerColor HD5770 and ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB both tied for second and were playable at the same settings as the GTX 260 but with no AA.

This small difference in AA did have a notable impact on our gameplay experience. Even at only 2X AA the reduction in jagged edges and shimmering is a welcomed improvement. The other interesting point here is that ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB out shown the PowerColor HD5770 by maintaining a 2 average FPS lead. The only explanation we could come up for this was the memory bandwidth differences.

Apples-to-Apples

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For our apples-to-apples comparison we used the same highest playable settings of our showcase video card, the PowerColor HD5770. At these settings, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 maintains a notable FPS lead throughout our run-through and averages in at 42.4 FPS. Next came the ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB with an average 40.0 FPS and then the PowerColor HD5770 with an average of 38.1 FPS.

Image Quality

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In the image above, we are looking at an office space inside the prison. Note the greatly improved aliasing with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260’s 2X MSAA on the desks and chairs.