Today we are taking a look at two new graphic card offerings from AMD.  Both the ATI Radeon HD 5450 and 5570 are intended to fill a gap in the low end DX11 compliant market.  Both cards are low profile, so their intended uses extend to the HTPC (home theater PC) use as well.    The HD 5450 512 MB will retail for around $49-$59 and its slightly “bigger brother” the 5570 will be retailing for around $79-$85 (both depending on memory setup and display output included by the various manufacturers).   Both cards are supporting the new ATI Eyefinity feature, a multi-monitor solution from a single card.

The ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 graphics card delivers up to 104 GigaFLOPS of compute power, delivering unprecedented performance for under USD $60

• Provides the full Windows® 7 experience  with DirectX® 11 support.
• Increases your productivity with 3 displays with ATI Eyefinity Technology
• ATI Stream technology to help reduce CPU utilization, improve video playback performance with applications such as Adobe Flash, and help deliver video enhancements that produce better visual quality with sharper, more vibrant images.
• Ultra-low power and passive cooling for silent computing
• Provides Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for the ultimate media PC

The ATI Radeon™ HD 5570 graphics card delivers up to 520 GigaFLOPS of compute power, delivering unprecedented performance for under USD $85

• Is a low profile graphics card which is perfect for small form factor or home theater PC’s
• Provides the full Windows® 7 experience  with DirectX® 11 support.
• Plays the latest games across 3 monitors with ATI Eyefinity Technology
• ATI Stream technology to help reduce CPU utilization, improve video playback performance with applications such as Adobe Flash, and help deliver video enhancements that produce better visual quality with sharper, more vibrant images.

As you can see in the above picture, both cards are low profile solutions if you remove the D-Sub connection.  Unfortunately, ATI did not provide the low profile bracket so we could not show you this feature.  We are certain that it is something that will be included in the final retail versions.

Another thing to note between the two cards, both are similar in length coming in at around 6.5 inches, much shorter than more high-end cards.  Neither should have any problem fitting into just about any case that allows expansion cards.  The biggest physical difference is the cooler on the 5570 is much larger than the 5450.  That said, the 5570 still has a rather small cooling solution.  Both only need a single slot.

Both cards have HDMI out (including audio) making both cards great choices for a home theater PC.  The 5450 operates at a measly 19 watts under load, making it a very cool card.  Our version came with a small fan, but there will also be passive cooling versions as well.  The 5570 while keeping the same form factor does operate at a slightly higher wattage under load around 35 watts.  Still very cool compared to some higher end cards.  Through our tests, neither card reached core temps any higher than 50c, staying far below in most situations.  Your mileage may vary based on the cooling layout of your PC, though.

Both cards do not require external power from the PSU.

Benchmarks

Test system:

• CPU – Intel i7 920 (stock speeds)
• Mobo – Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P
• Ram – 6 Gig Corsair 1333 Mhz DDR3

3D Mark Vantage – Performance preset

World of Warcraft

The first benchmark in World of Warcraft was taken from a stationary position in a busy area in the main city Dalaran.  All graphical settings were maxed out except Shadows at 25%.

Dalaran    1440×900    4x Multi Sample, Full Texture Filtering,

Dalaran    1280×720    1x Multi Sample, no Texture Filtering

The second benchmark in World of Warcraft was taken from a flight from Dalaran to Valiance Keep.  We felt this gave the test a wide variety of situations to process- open ranges, dense forest, various shader effects. All graphical settings were maxed out except Shadows at 25%.

Flight    1440×900    4x Multi Sample, Full Texture Filtering

Flight    1280×720    1x Multi Sample, no Texture Filtering

Left 4 Dead 2 – Hotel Level – Chapter 1

We ran our tests in Left 4 Dead 2 by playing through the first chapter of the first zone in the game.  All graphical settings were maxed.

Hotel Chapter 1        1440×900    4x MSAA, 16XAF

Hotel Chapter 1        1280×768    Bilinear, no AF

Unreal Tournament 3 – Team Deathmatch – Arsenal

We tested Unreal Tournament 3 by playing 5 minute matches in the level Arsenal with Team Deathmatch. All graphical settings were maxed.

Team Deathmatch, Arsenal            1440×900    Max Settings

Team Deathmatch, Arsenal            1280×720    Max Settings

Conclusion and Final Opinions

5450

As you can see through the benchmarks, the 5450 is operating at approximately half the level the 5570 does in gaming situations.  That said, if you keep the resolution moderate (720p) and keep the graphical settings on the lower side, it is still a capable gaming solution.  This card is probably best for the occasional gamer.   This card is perfect for a home theater PC with it’s HDMI output and low power consumption and heat output.  With a cost around $50, this is a very good deal for a DX11 compliant card.

5570

The 5570 is a much better gaming solution than the 5450.  Coming in at around $85, this card provides solid performance at higher resolutions, even with anti-aliasing features enabled.  This of course comes at a sacrifice of a slightly higher power consumption and heat output than the 5450.  That said, it is still a low power card and the heat output is more than manageable for a small form factor case or HTPC case.  HDMI out, DX11, ATI Eyefinity and Stream features make this a feature filled GPU at a very affordable price.

We highly recommend both cards.  ATI has filled a gap in the low end, sub $100,  DX11 market with two great cards.

Thank you to AMD for providing the samples for this review.