Discussion: WSGF Reviews of the ATI 5000-series

[skipclarke]

Eyefinity 6, with benchmarks for 5970, 5870 and E6 in CFX.

5850 & 5830, with benchmarks for 5870 and 5770 as well.

5770 & 5750, with benchmarks for the 5830 and 5670.

5670, 5550, 5450 with benchmarks for the 5750.

5870 E6, 5870, 5850 & 5770 - all in CFX.

[dinmaster]

wow awesome information, i got the information i wanted from the ati side of graphics. thanks for the great review!, now i got to find a 480gtx sli 5040x1050 resolution review so i could compare. :bowdown

[Special_K]

With the issues we have had on this site running 2x3 setups do you really think they will be able to fix the crosshair settings and make it not on a bezel? Don't you think it will look a bit distorted always having the bottom monitors looking straight ahead and the top monitors always looking up? I just don't see this eyefinity 6 taking off so well. Even on their site, it just shows a rendered "pop out of the screen" image that doesn't represent any game because if they showed the crosshair on the bezel, everyone wouldn't want to buy it. That's just my 2 cents. Until they get that fixed...

[magoo25]

Excellent review, thank you for that. Very well done.
It must have been an arduous task.

It's really cool to see how these cards scale across the demands of AA and EyeFinity.

I have been looking far and wide for a 5870 E6 review with CrossfireX, and here it is.
It's all I needed to convince me to pick up two E6 cards today!

Now to sell my original 5870s. :mrgreen:

[Sideeffect]

Thanks for the review it was very interesting.

With the issues we have had on this site running 2x3 setups do you really think they will be able to fix the crosshair settings and make it not on a bezel? Don't you think it will look a bit distorted always having the bottom monitors looking straight ahead and the top monitors always looking up? I just don't see this eyefinity 6 taking off so well. Even on their site, it just shows a rendered "pop out of the screen" image that doesn't represent any game because if they showed the crosshair on the bezel, everyone wouldn't want to buy it. That's just my 2 cents. Until they get that fixed...

I think that would have to be adapted by the game creators on a per game basis to move the crosshair. I don't see that likely to happen for a niche market like 6 screens in many games. Perhaps ATI could use something similar to Bezel Management to adjust the viewable centre area but it would mean rendering even more pixels and lowering performance. Also it would cause problems with the HUD being lowered or raised so I don't see that happening either. I think 5 screens in portrait will be the popular choice for people who want more than 3 monitors.

[suiken_2mieu]

Great review, it kinda solidified my plans. I was stuck between 3x2 and 5x1. I'm going to go 5x1.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Awesome work.

I've been working with the folks at Ergotech about a stand for 5x1-Landscape. They sent me a longer center bar, so that I could fit all three middle monitors on the flat surface. From there, the outer monitors sit on the wings and angle toward the center. There are a few more details I'd like to look at, but I think we have something cool in the works. Once we get it all put together, Ergotech has said this will be their first WSGF-branded SKU. Cool, eh?

This is particularly sweet. :D

You've got a typo in that last ErgoTech, however. "Erogotech". ;)

As soon as there is a functioning 5x1 driver, I'm there. Oh, and as soon as I have money coming in again, too...

[skipclarke]

wow awesome information, i got the information i wanted from the ati side of graphics. thanks for the great review!, now i got to find a 480gtx sli 5040x1050 resolution review so i could compare. :bowdown

I'm not sure when you'll find that. I've been under NDA with NVIDIA for a couple months but haven't heard anything about the 3D Surround support being available yet. The NVIDIA solution for Surround is not hardware based, it is software like SoftTH. There will be somewhat of a performance hit, no one knows how much. And, the NVIDIA Surround solution will require two cards.

Considering that a single 5870 will hit 40-60fps in most of our test at 5040x1050 @ 4xAA, I'm not sure there is any case to be made for a solution that requires two cards (no matter the vendor). A 5850 or 5830 would still provide playable rates (albeit at slightly reduced settings) at 5040x1050.

From what I would deduce, the SLI Fermi setup would leave you with horsepower to burn and not provide a good return for the investment. Now, if you are interested in the 3D aspect, that would change the cost/benefit.

An "GX2" card from NVIDIA that offered three connections on one card would provide support at a lower cost, but my tests with ATI cards show that multi-GPU isn't really needed at 5040x1050. There were big gains in moving to SLI or "GX2" at 5040x1050 under the TripleHead2Go, but the current generation of video cards seem to have plenty of horsepower.

The benefits of multi-GPU become more apparent (and a better investment) at 5760x1200 and above. Again, I haven't tested Fermi in Surround and I haven't seen any benchmarks for it. But I am still steering you towards a single card solution for ATI as well, and would even advise you to consider the 5850 or 5830 for the best "bang for your buck."

[bahnzii]

Great review!! Your review gave me the info I needed to see if CF would be worth the extra cost, you convinced me.
I hope ATI and Dell are giving you some free goodies because you have helped to sell U2410's and now CF 5870/2gb's :cheers

The 5x1-P comments were the most interesting to me. That is the setup I think I will upgrade to in the future when bezels are even smaller, that and I think I will need a bigger desk :shock:

[SakkBoi]

Thanks for the review Ibrin. Your comments about the 2GB 5870 versus the 2x1GB 5970 have cemented even more my plan to wait for the 2x2GB 5970. Given ATI's admission that the crossfire bridge isn't up to the demands of extremely high resolutions, I think that the 2x2GB 5970 is going to be a much smarter buy than two 5870 2GB cards. And it will be the same cost as well.

Edit: To the people who will say that 5970 is already crossfire: Yes it is, but there has been some indirect evidence that the internal crossfire on the 5970 is not as limited as the external connector-based crossfire between two different cards. ATI was able to release drivers for simultaneous crossfire and eyefinity for the 5970 well before the ones that enabled this in other cards. And their comments regarding that were very telling. Something along the lines of them being in complete control of the internal crossfire hardware environment on the 5970 versus not being in control when the motherboard is involved between two different cards (two different PCI-E connectors I guess that would mean). Sounds like a load of bull to me and probably means that the delay was really due to them needing to implement the PCI-E based communications as a workaround where that wasn't needed for the 5970 (because its internal crossfire bandwidth is much greater than the external solution).

[Kinesis]

Thank you for the excellent write up/review,I was wondering if we're able to tri(quad?) fire the 5870 E6's or and mix&match these with a 5970 4gb card?

[spammeister]

I was kind of hoping that the extra 1GB of memory would have made a bigger difference, but it seems my October 5870 purchase at a non-inflated price was still the smart thing to do.

[skipclarke]

I hope ATI and Dell are giving you some free goodies because you have helped to sell U2410's and now CF 5870/2gb's :cheers

The 5x1-P comments were the most interesting to me. That is the setup I think I will upgrade to in the future when bezels are even smaller, that and I think I will need a bigger desk :shock:

I do indeed get free goodies from ATI (all the cards :shock: ). Nothing from Dell, but that's okay. I'm actually looking to sell my U2410's, since I have six matching for 5x1-P. You interested? Would love to sell them over the forum and save the eBay fees...

And yes, you will need to get a bigger desk.

Thanks for the review Ibrin. Your comments about the 2GB 5870 versus the 2x1GB 5970 have cemented even more my plan to wait for the 2x2GB 5970. Given ATI's admission that the crossfire bridge isn't up to the demands of extremely high resolutions, I think that the 2x2GB 5970 is going to be a much smarter buy than two 5870 2GB cards. And it will be the same cost as well.

You may very well be right here. The $479x2 is right at the expected ~$1000 of the 5970 4GB. It would be interesting to see if the "internal CFX" offers a better experience than the E6 CFX. There is also the possibly better heat management and power draw on the 5970 4GB. Each E6 uses 6+8 pin. The 5970 4GB uses 6+8+8 pin, so you're "saving" a 6-pin worth of power.

When you're looking to pay this much on a GFX card, the extra $50 for a better thermal solution, custom hardware and less heat draw sounds pretty good. Didn't one of them use a custom low-voltage 5970 as well?

I'm trying to get a 5970 4GB, but the cards are expected to be in short supply and on limited quantity. Also, considering these are custom designs from ATI's partners, I'm not sure there are any reference designs that ATI can send my way.

It was actually hard to get the 5970, as ATI had low stock internally. They can't keep them on the shelves (so they tell me), and folks ask the question, "Why do we need to give a $600 video card to this site to test/review, when they already sell themselves?" Valid point. Considering one of the partners is doing only 1000 of the 5970 4GB cards for $1000 each, not sure it's worth it for them to send one my way. Would be nice though.

Thank you for the excellent write up/review,I was wondering if we're able to tri(quad?) fire the 5870 E6's or and mix&match these with a 5970 4gb card?

I haven't. I might try the 5970+5870 in the future. I don't have a 5970 4GB card, so I can't try that plus the E6 2GB.

I've got some other articles I want to write first from the testing I've already done. Honestly, I've been doing almost nothing but benchmarking for a couple of months. I'm pretty burned out on it at the moment.

I know folks on the forums have had problems with Tri-Fire. I will ask ATI about that. The next thing I'd "like" to bench/review/unbox would be one of the 5970 4GB cards.

I was kind of hoping that the extra 1GB of memory would have made a bigger difference, but it seems my October 5870 purchase at a non-inflated price was still the smart thing to do.

Looking at your rig specs, I think your choice was very good indeed. My goal wasn't to "sell the E6" but to get the truth out there. It's as much a benefit to my readers to prevent the "what ifs" and any false buyer's remorse, as it is to point you to a worthy upgrade.

That is really the goal of testing everything across the 5000-series spectrum and creating the Eyefinity Buyers Guide - to help people be comfortable and secure in the purchases they have or will make.

[thales100]

Excellent review, it helped me to choose my next GPUs - a pair of GTX 480. :mrgreen:

[burritoboy9984]

Great review, def. helped me make my mind up about 2x3 vs 5x1. Ibrin, did you by any chance measure the width of your setup in 5x1P? Looking at going 5x1P in the future (perhaps September, as a birthday present to myself), and my desk is only 65", so I was wondering if perhaps I needed to go with a smaller monitor, perhaps some 22's. Also, have you heard anything about whether or not there will be faster, more powerful E6 cards coming in the future? Or should I try to snag a couple of E6's (for crossfire) in the coming months?

Thanks!
-Erik

[skipclarke]

Excellent review, it helped me to choose my next GPUs - a pair of GTX 480. :mrgreen:

What swayed you?

Great review, def. helped me make my mind up about 2x3 vs 5x1. Ibrin, did you by any chance measure the width of your setup in 5x1P? Looking at going 5x1P in the future (perhaps September, as a birthday present to myself), and my desk is only 65", so I was wondering if perhaps I needed to go with a smaller monitor, perhaps some 22's. Also, have you heard anything about whether or not there will be faster, more powerful E6 cards coming in the future? Or should I try to snag a couple of E6's (for crossfire) in the coming months?

There is some variance based on how much you angle in your outer monitors. Putting them all "flat" with no angle is the widest. My 3x2 with 22" that had about 45" degrees on the angle were 51.5" inches across. Interestingly enough the 5x1-P with 22" were the exact same width.

The left-center and right-center monitors were 22.5 degrees off the center, and the outer monitors were 22.5 degrees off of those. The overall angle between the outer and center monitors was still 45 degrees, but with a more "curved" effect. Flattening it out a bit put them at 53 inches across.

Your bigger concern is depth. You need a good couple feet to make sure you're comfortable looking at everything. I will measure depth in a bit. I like the 22" 16:9 panels due to a smaller dot pitch and lighter weight.

You may want to consider an IPS panel, as turning it off-axis can produce some color saturation issues. I don't want to make any definitive judgments until I can address my depth issues (I'm getting a keyboard drawer so I can back up a bit). I did get better viewing when turning my monitors counter-clockwise, versus clockwise.

I haven't heard anything about a more powerful E6 card. But if I had, I probably couldn't tell you anyway. :wink: However the E6 is the last stock offering in ATI's 5000 series. You may get some overclocked/watercooled/custom cards from ATI's partners in the future. We're already starting to see those in other SKUs (4GB 5970, Eyefinity5 5770, silent 5570, etc.).

[doublejj0305]

Awesome Job!!! Just ordered 2 of these cards.

[Hydralisk_X]

Good review. I'm not too worried about 2 GB for now. My only conceivable upgrade is dropping a 2nd 5870 into my rig.

[thales100]

[quote]Excellent review, it helped me to choose my next GPUs - a pair of GTX 480. :mrgreen:

What swayed you?


I dont know, maybe the 2Gb VRAM was fooling me.

[GeneralAdmission]

The NVIDIA solution for Surround is not hardware based, it is software like SoftTH.

Wow. Yet another piece of information I had no idea about, despite reading a number of 3DVS articles. That seems to answer the question as to why SLI is required for the technology--a single GPU probably couldn't cut it in terms of performance.

Every day brings me closer to a switch to ATI...