The budget representative of the computer segment, the Radeon HD 5570 video adapter from ATI, has been in the domestic market for several years. The chip is popular both among discrete graphics cards and in mobile solutions. It seems that for several years the developers failed to create something new and more productive in an inexpensive class. In this article, the reader will get acquainted with the popular graphics accelerator and find out its technical characteristics. The reviews, review, and recommendations of IT professionals will help potential buyers make the right choice.
The Pursuit of Happyness
The ATI Radeon HD 5570 was designed to eliminate the rival Nvidia GeForce GT240. Accordingly, the manufacturer to fight in the budget class for the championship released four modifications of the graphics accelerator. All of them differ not only in the amount of RAM, but also in the bus production technology (GDDR3 and GDDR5). To somehow surpass the competitor, ATI technologists had to provide the video adapter with some modern developments that are being implemented in the devices of the gaming segment.
Many laptop manufacturers are interested in the decent performance of a budget device . True, this interest was limited only to the production of compact mobile devices and ultrabooks. But first things first.
Declared Specifications
Four modifications of video cards have only two differences. On the market, a user can purchase a video adapter with a 128-bit bus built using GDDR3 or GDDR5 technology. The second difference is the amount of memory: 512 MB or 1024 MB on board. All other specifications for the ATI Radeon HD 5570 are identical (of course, except for performance).
The graphics core is built on a 40-nanometer process and has an area of 104 mm 2 . At the same time, about 627 million transistors are placed on one chip. The clock frequency of the graphics core is 650 MHz. The most attractive indicator is the power consumption of the video adapter - only 35 watts. It is this parameter that has attracted the attention of many manufacturers of mobile devices, because the low power consumption of the laptop is the key to long-term battery life.
Modern technology through purple glasses
For many owners of a video card based on the ATI Radeon HD 5570 chip, performance characteristics are more important than those implemented at the hardware level. There are a lot of reviews in the media that confirm this fact. However, it is the introduced technologies that are responsible not only for performance, but also for the quality of the transmitted image.
The ATI Radeon HD 5570 graphics accelerator supports DirectX 11 (a direct competitor uses the old DirectX 10 instruction set). OpenGL 4.0 is responsible for the transfer of three-dimensional graphics in the HD 5570 chip (Nvidia only supports the third modification). Fans of GeForce products will certainly blame the manufacturer ATI in the absence of CUDA technology. However, do not forget that the video card is in the budget segment, where low cost is higher than performance.
Artificially created popularity
The worldwide popularity of the Radeon HD 5570 chip, whose specifications do not go beyond the cheapest class in the computer market, is due to Apple. The fact is that a well-known brand has looked after this economical graphics accelerator for its laptops and monoblocks. True, many IT professionals do not quite understand the company's policy when a budget video adapter is installed in high-performance systems based on Intel Core I7.
By the way, Apple technologists should pay tribute - after minor modifications, the video card based on the Radeon HD 5570 chip received an increased memory capacity. The American manufacturer presents its products with two gigabytes of video memory, which can increase due to RAM up to 6 GB. This is a real breakthrough in the computer market. Many other manufacturers followed the example of Apple and provided their laptops with a budget graphics accelerator, however, in all reviews on such mobile devices there is a lot of negative about the performance of the video card in gaming applications.
The right approach for manufacturers
It has long been known that factory-made budget video adapters are completely absent on the world market, and in retail, these products are offered for purchase under completely different brands. The graphics accelerator based on ATI Radeon HD 5570 can be bought under the logo of ASUS, PowerColor, MSI, HIS, Gigabyte and many other companies.
All video adapters from different suppliers have almost identical factory performance, but differ in cost and ease of use, which means low noise and the presence of the necessary interfaces for connecting monitors. In fact, the buyer chooses a purchase not by the number of frames per second in dynamic games, but by the presence of the necessary ports (DVI, HDMI, VGA, DisplayPort) and the quality of the cooling system.
Silence is the key to health
The most low-end product in the budget segment, many consider the HIS video adapter, based on the Radeon HD 5570. Owner reviews claim that the graphics accelerator is not designed to run many popular games. It is more interesting among home users who need a computer to work with multimedia and surf the Internet. The video card differs from other market representatives by the installed passive cooling system.
If there are no rotating components, then you can simply forget about noise. IT professionals, in their reviews, recommend that potential buyers pay more attention to the HIS product. The fact is that the huge aluminum alloy radiator grill is not only located almost around the entire perimeter of the motherboard, but also provides the ability to mount the cooler on top. Quite an interesting solution for fans of upgrading computer devices.
World sales leader
The Club3D company, which has few fans in the domestic market, has become the leader in sales of video adapters based on the Radeon HD 5570 chip. Overclocking the graphics core to increase performance and beautiful packaging seemed attractive to many customers. Foreigners are quite difficult to understand, because for Russian-speaking users in a budget class, an inexpensive device will be interesting. The beautiful appearance of the package and the increase in chip performance by overclocking by 5% in no way explain the increased cost of the video card by 2 times.
Another thing is the ASUS brand. It is he who owns the entire computer market in Russia (judging by the annual reports of manufacturers on sales). Classic appearance, proprietary cooling system, the presence of the necessary interfaces and good performance indicators. Expect something more from a representative of an inexpensive segment is simply not necessary.
Toy for experiments
Gigabyte did quite interesting, presenting to the market its solution based on the Radeon HD 5570 graphics accelerator. A review of the video card leads professionals to the idea that the manufacturer created a kind of toy for fans to experiment. It's all about the cooling system - technologists paid special attention to it. The aluminum radiator covers not only the graphics core and memory modules, but also the batteries. A giant low-frequency fan is installed on top.
The manufacturer did not overclock the video adapter at the factory, but provided the owner with this opportunity. To do this, he provided the device with specialized software that comes with the video card in the kit. As practice shows, the result directly depends on the high-quality purge of the system unit. Fast heat dissipation and the flow of chilled air do not allow the video card fan to make much noise, and the graphics accelerator demonstrates decent performance in games.
When it comes to gifts
PowerColor products are no stranger. This is one of the few brands on the market that provides the market with its solutions complete with popular computer games. A video card based on the Radeon HD 5570 chip was no exception - customers are invited to test the performance of the graphics accelerator by playing one of the most popular toys (FarCry, Crysis or WarCraft).
Interestingly, such a kit is in no way reflected in the market value of the video adapter. That is, it really is a gift, not a sale. There are no complaints about the work of the graphics accelerator - it works quietly, can be overclocked, and supports popular video devices.
Funny device
XFX has always tried to stand out in the graphics card market, trying to provide the customer with a unique device. This fate also befell the Radeon HD 5570 graphics accelerator. The manufacturer installed a proprietary cooling system with a turbofan located in a protective casing. But the dimensions of this casing are so tiny that they provide cooling only to the graphics core and memory modules, which are located in close proximity to the crystal.
The company cooler, preliminary overclocking at the factory and colorful design led to the fact that the cost of the product is slightly higher than that of other representatives. Yes, the increase in performance is noticeable (when compared with video cards from other brands), but it is not directly proportional to the cost. Once again, the manufacturer offers potential buyers a preference for appearance rather than high performance at low cost. Do not forget that the owner sees the video card only once - before installing it in the system unit. And performance is constantly watching.
Finally
A video adapter based on ATI Radeon HD 5570 is presented in a budget class, which means that a potential buyer does not have the right to demand high performance in games or overclocking potential. The maximum that can be achieved is the launch of a resource-intensive toy with minimal quality settings. Accordingly, you should not trust the manufacturers who provide dynamic games as a gift when buying.
When it comes to working with multimedia (watching videos, working with photos, processing 3D objects), the benefit of the video card in question increases. Especially when it comes to a device with 1 GB of memory that uses GDDR5 technology: supporting the necessary functionality, working with DirectX 11 and Bly Ray, full compatibility with all HD video and graphics codecs.