ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is the well received action title by Rocksteady. The game offers very detailed environments with a great visual style and high quality. There are known issues with AA using ATI cards. You cannot set the AA level from within the game, and have to force it with the Catalyst Control panel. All settings within the game were maxed out. I used 4xAA with Adaptive Multi-Sampling (the balance between Quality and Performance) from within the CCC.

The AA implementation produces a greater than expected impact on the performance. I know there are ways to tweak the game to use the AA from within the game itself. However, I believe finding the information and implementing it is beyond the average gamer. While an enthusiast (i.e., target market of both the WSGF and this card) might go through the trouble, many mainstream gamers will not. My testing actually ran all the way down through the Radeon HD 5450, and using the "native" options provided the most consistent platform for testing.

The games runs like a demon in normal widescreen on any of these cards, with 4xAA. The HD 5770 almost cracks 60fps at 1920x1200. However, performance takes the expected hits in Eyefinity, and this is what we are really here to test. At the native resolutions of 5760x1200 (3x1920x1200), the game literally crawls with 4xAA on any card. You will have to make some adjustments for playable frame rates, and dropping to 2xAA gives massive speed improvements.

Batman:AA (pun actually not intended) is a unique title. It is made well, and plays well, but technical issues can really hamper performance. The impacts are so great that 5760x1200 is simply unplayable with any card.

The 5850 and 5830 offer a fairly linear scaling between the 5870 and the 5770. Both the 5850 and 5830 offer strong performance at max settings in widescreen, passing 60fps. Both cards also hit 30fps in 5040x1050 at max settings. Turning AA off allows the 5850 to hit 77fps in 5760x1200. Based on the performance scaling, I expect the 5830 to be around 60fps.

Hitting 60fps

Turning off AA allows you to hit 60fps with the 5850. Dropping to 0xAA/High, and we posted 77fps. 2xAA/High clocks in at 48fps. The only difference between Very High and High is turning Ambient Occlusion on or off.

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Battle Forge

Battle Forge is the free-to-play RTS from Electronic Arts. It offers a steampunk/fantasy RTS experience, where armies are build based on "decks" of cards similar to the Magic: The Gathering card game.

Battle Forge is one of ATI's spotlight (my terminology) games for the HD 5000 series cards, as it offers both DX11 and proper Eyefinity support. The game offers a number of DX11 features, and a wealth of options for tuning performance. Specifically, Battle Forge uses DX11 and Shader Model 5.0 to compute HighDefinition Ambient Occlusion (HDAO). For our tests we maxed out all of the settings and forced DX11 through the config.xml file.

The test is actually quite strenuous with the number of objects, effects and particles on the screen at one time. There is a noticeable performance increase as you scale across the cards, and then trend actually continues all the way across a pair of Eyefinity6 cards in CrossFireX.

Again the 5850 and 5830 both offer fairly linear scaling, especially in widescreen. While 60fps isn't attainable in Eyefinity, it may be possible in widescreen with reduced settings.

Hitting 60fps

There is no hitting 60fps on any single card. With the HD 5850, I could only get in the 40's if I set it to 4800x900, turned off AA, stopped forcing DX11, turned off SSAO and set everything to medium. Battle Forge is simply a 30fps game in Eyefinity.

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - DiRT 2

Dirt 2 is the latest iteration of the Dirt rally racing series from Codemasters. Like Battle Forge, Dirt 2 is a spotlight game for ATI with the HD 5000 series. Like Battle Forge it offers proper Hor+ gameplay in Eyefinity and DX11 support. Unless the user goes into the "hardware_settings_config.xml" file and forces DX9, Dirt 2 runs in DX11 mode. Unfortunately Dirt 2 does not offer a DX10 mode. This is unfortunate, as many games show improved performance when running in DX10 vs. DX9.

The true (noticeable) DX11 features come in to play based on the user settings in the in-game graphics options. Several key features are the "Hardware Tessellated Dynamic Water" (achieved through "Ultra" quality water), "Hardware Tessellated Dynamic Cloth" (achieved through "High" quality cloth), and DX11 Accelerated HDAO (through "High" quality HDAO).

The DX11 water and cloth offer more realistic geometry and movement. The DX11 water produces actual waves in deep puddles (as the player drives through), rather than simple "swirls" in the texture surface. The DX11 cloth offers more realistic ripples and waves in the cloth material over the DX9 version. On the other hand, the DX11 HD Ambient Occlusion (HDAO) offers an accelerated computation path.

DX11 doesn't necessarily provide earth-shaking changes to gameplay. But, it provides more realistic "movement" in the world's objects - cloth, water, grass, etc. While a DX9 or DX10 game is perfectly enjoyable, the DX11 technology offers better immersion by making the "little things" more lifelike. Additionally, it offers better computation paths through increased parallelism (and better computation paths for DX10), much like DX10 offered better performance (over DX9) in games such as Far Cry 2.

Both cards perfom quite well in widescreen at max settings, and the 5850 cracks 30fps at 5760x1200 Eyefinity. We continue to see a linear performance curve between the 5870, 5850, 5830 and 5770. The 5850 hits 60fps in widescreen, and 30fps in Eyefinity.

Hitting 60fps

I hit 51fps with 4800x900 @ 0xAA. I took everything set at "Ultra" down to "High". I also lowered Post Processing from High to Low. With plenty of options, there are a number of variations available to suit your taste.

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 (and the whole Cry/Crysis series) has long been considered a system killer. If not a killer, then at least a good strong test. As always, we run our test at max settings with 4xAA. The benchmark tool within Far Cry 2 offers settings for High, Very High and Ultra. We chose Ultra with 4xAA. Like we saw with our previous tests of the GTX275, additional VRAM will provide a smoother gameplay experience. While the overall average fps changes very little, there are far more "stops" and "stutters" in the gameplay with a 2GB framebuffer.

As quality and AA increases, the need for a larger framebuffer also increases (there is more data to hold in the VRAM). The Far Cry 2 benchmark tool is unique in that it offers a realtime graph of the fps count, and allows us to see the reduction in these stutters (as evidenced by the reduction in momentary dips in fps). With the increased framebuffer the game is having to swap textures and other graphic information from the HDD to the video memory on fewer occasions, offering a smoother experience.

Now that ATI's partners are offering the HD 5850 with 2GB of VRAM, the "smoothness" impact should be taken into account. In the second graph below, we show the difference with the original 1GB HD 5870 and the 2GB from the HD 5870 Eyefinity6 card.

In our first three benchmarks we saw a linear performance curve between the four cards. Dirt 2 is the first game where the results break this trend. Rather than create clean even "steps" in the performance graph, there is a large gap in performance between the 5850 and the 5830. The 5830 posts numbers quite similar to the 5770, and the reduction in Unified Shaders begins to show a real performance impact.

Hitting 60fps

In Far Cry 2, 56fps can be attained with 0xAA/High. Scores pushed past 60fps by dropping the resolution to 4800x900.

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Grand Theft Auto IV

I initially chose GTA IV based on the fact that it had a built-in benchmark tool, and based on the fact that it was considered a system killer at max settings. Realistically, I don't believe the GTA IV benchmark tool offers a good representation of the actual gameplay experience. The benchmark is very much a "corridor" run on a dense city street, while the game itself is open world and many locations offer variety architecture and/or a distant horizon. Additionally, the benchmark is set during a nighttime setting. While this is potentially good for showing off the game's neon lighting effects, it offers no sun, clouds, atmospheric coloring, lens flare or texture variety in the sky.

Additionally, I found that the game hit a CPU limit of 45/46fps at 1680x1050 on a Radeon HD 5830 - not exactly cutting edge hardware. The one benefit of the game is that the graphics option screen offers a reading of your system VRAM and calculates how much is needed based on your selections. By default it won't let you go over the limit of your video card.

With a couple of command line switches, the game allows you to max everything out well and beyond what your system is "capable of." Down side it that overloading the video card seems to have little effect. I'm not certain if the non-existent limit is due to the horsepower of the Radeon 5000 series, or limitations of the benchmark tool.

The only time I found the limit to be an actual impediment is when I tried to max out the settings on a the Radeon 56/44/54xx series with 512MB of RAM. At that low of a framebuffer, the benchmark wouldn't load. Otherwise, I could overload the 1GB VRAM all I wanted, and the game performed reasonably well. Considering the issue of overloading the VRAM, the addition of the second GB of VRAM didn't effect performance.

As with the Far Cry 2 numbers, GTA IV breaks the even "stair step" pattern seen in Batman, Battle Forge and Dirt 2. The 5870 and 5850 post very similar numbers, while the 5830 and 5770 post similar numbers. Even in widescreen, there is a noticeable performance gap between these two groups.

Hitting 60fps

Considering the problems I had trying to improve performance on my Eyefinity6 review, I didn't bother going through the effort here. Below is what I reported from that review:

"I worked for a while to get an fps improvement on this benchmark tool. Even cutting the settings to 1/2 or 1/3 of max, and I had only increased 2fps to 30fps total. I'm sure that lower settings would make an impact in the real game, but I'm not seeing it here. I'm also do for a re-format and re-install. Don't think I will be carrying over GTA IV into the benchmark lineup, given its limited impact."

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - H.A.W.X.

H.A.W.X. is one last title that ATI has been showing off with regards to its Radeon 5000 line. While the other titles are Hor+ and offer cutting-edge DX11 features, HAWX is quite the opposite. While it is a Hor+ title, it is only a DX10 title and runs quite well on a wide variety of hardware. While you can't hit 60fps on a 5700 or 5600 card with any great detail, 30fps is rather easily attainable.

The well running and scalable title makes it a natural fit when showcasing both lower-end hardware pushing three panels, and high-end hardware pushing six panels. It also comes as no surprise that the additional VRAM largely goes unused, considering the title runs capably on lower hardware.

One note in the HAWX benchmark. Above 1920x1200 the game simply would not allow 4xAA. While the scores provide that the title could handle it, the option simply is not available. Though it isn't our norm, we chose to accept 2xAA so that we could get consistent readings across the spectrum of hardware.

The 5850 and 5830 offer a clean stair step performance curve between the 5870 and 5770, in both widescreen and Eyefinity. Both cards break 60fps in widescreen and 30fps in Eyefinity, all at max settings.

Hitting 60fps

I was able to get 56fps by turning each of the DX10 effects down a notch. This means Shadows and Sun Shafts at Low, and SSAO at Medium. I hit 69fps by turning SSAO down to Low.

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 is the classic first person shooter. It is a DX9 title. At this point DX9 doesn't really tax graphics hardware with any of its "features," and any benchmarking comes down to a pushing raw pixels. Half-Life 2 does not like the extra video RAM provided by the Eyefinity6, and until you get to Eyefinity and beyond it doesn't like CrossFireX.

The Source Engine is no match for the 5850 and 5830, even at Eyefinity. Widescreen resolutions produce results in excess of 120fps, while Eyefinity is near or above 60fps.

In Eyefinity, the 5870, 5850 and 5830 offer fairly linear steps. However, the 5770 performs very similar to the 5830. In widescreen the 5770 actually outperforms the 5830. This is a result of the higher clockspeed on the 5770, and the Source Engine not needing all of the Unified Shaders at these low resolutions.

Hitting 60fps

The 5850 and 5830 perform amazingly well, with only the 5830 failing 60fps at 5760x1200.

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Heaven Demo

The Unigine Heaven Demo is unique in that it is the only demo which allows for the following components in one package.

• Synthetic Demo (i.e., a demo designed to "test" a system)
• Comparable tests of DX9, DX10 and DX11
• Is Hor+ (rather than limited to a few predefined aspect ratios)

The ability to compare DX9, DX10 and DX11 in the same environment allows for the unique ability to see how the different cards perform across these different comparable environments.

Both cards offer linear performance in widescreen across DX9, DX10 and DX11. They hit 30fps in DX9, and post respectable numbers in DX10 and DX11 (considering the strenuous native of the test). The cards also offer a linear performance curve in Eyefinity for DX9. Framerates for all cards (HD 5870 included) are very low.

The 5870 is barely able to run Eyefinity at max settings for DX10 and DX11, and the 5850 and 5830 are unable to run the test.

Hitting 60fps

It is not possible to hit 60fps with this benchmark on a single GPU at Eyefinity resolutions. Considering it is meant to test/tax your system, that is to be expected. Here is what I was able to achieve:

• DX9: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 30fps, med shaders - 25fps
• DX10: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 27fps, med shaders - 23fps
• DX11: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, tessellation enabled, low shaders - 20fps, med shaders - 20fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Heaven Demo DX9

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

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The Unigine Heaven Demo is unique in that it is the only demo which allows for the following components in one package.

• Synthetic Demo (i.e., a demo designed to "test" a system)
• Comparable tests of DX9, DX10 and DX11
• Is Hor+ (rather than limited to a few predefined aspect ratios)

The ability to compare DX9, DX10 and DX11 in the same environment allows for the unique ability to see how the different cards perform across these different comparable environments.

Both cards offer linear performance in widescreen across DX9, DX10 and DX11. They hit 30fps in DX9, and post respectable numbers in DX10 and DX11 (considering the strenuous native of the test). The cards also offer a linear performance curve in Eyefinity for DX9. Framerates for all cards (HD 5870 included) are very low.

The 5870 is barely able to run Eyefinity at max settings for DX10 and DX11, and the 5850 and 5830 are unable to run the test.

Hitting 60fps

It is not possible to hit 60fps with this benchmark on a single GPU at Eyefinity resolutions. Considering it is meant to test/tax your system, that is to be expected. Here is what I was able to achieve:

• DX9: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 30fps, med shaders - 25fps
• DX10: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 27fps, med shaders - 23fps
• DX11: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, tessellation enabled, low shaders - 20fps, med shaders - 20fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Heaven Demo DX10

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

None

The Unigine Heaven Demo is unique in that it is the only demo which allows for the following components in one package.

• Synthetic Demo (i.e., a demo designed to "test" a system)
• Comparable tests of DX9, DX10 and DX11
• Is Hor+ (rather than limited to a few predefined aspect ratios)

The ability to compare DX9, DX10 and DX11 in the same environment allows for the unique ability to see how the different cards perform across these different comparable environments.

Both cards offer linear performance in widescreen across DX9, DX10 and DX11. They hit 30fps in DX9, and post respectable numbers in DX10 and DX11 (considering the strenuous native of the test). The cards also offer a linear performance curve in Eyefinity for DX9. Framerates for all cards (HD 5870 included) are very low.

The 5870 is barely able to run Eyefinity at max settings for DX10 and DX11, and the 5850 and 5830 are unable to run the test.

Hitting 60fps

It is not possible to hit 60fps with this benchmark on a single GPU at Eyefinity resolutions. Considering it is meant to test/tax your system, that is to be expected. Here is what I was able to achieve:

• DX9: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 30fps, med shaders - 25fps
• DX10: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 27fps, med shaders - 23fps
• DX11: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, tessellation enabled, low shaders - 20fps, med shaders - 20fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - Heaven Demo DX11

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

None

The Unigine Heaven Demo is unique in that it is the only demo which allows for the following components in one package.

• Synthetic Demo (i.e., a demo designed to "test" a system)
• Comparable tests of DX9, DX10 and DX11
• Is Hor+ (rather than limited to a few predefined aspect ratios)

The ability to compare DX9, DX10 and DX11 in the same environment allows for the unique ability to see how the different cards perform across these different comparable environments.

Both cards offer linear performance in widescreen across DX9, DX10 and DX11. They hit 30fps in DX9, and post respectable numbers in DX10 and DX11 (considering the strenuous native of the test). The cards also offer a linear performance curve in Eyefinity for DX9. Framerates for all cards (HD 5870 included) are very low.

The 5870 is barely able to run Eyefinity at max settings for DX10 and DX11, and the 5850 and 5830 are unable to run the test.

Hitting 60fps

It is not possible to hit 60fps with this benchmark on a single GPU at Eyefinity resolutions. Considering it is meant to test/tax your system, that is to be expected. Here is what I was able to achieve:

• DX9: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 30fps, med shaders - 25fps
• DX10: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, low shaders - 27fps, med shaders - 23fps
• DX11: 4800x900, 0xAA, 2xAF, tessellation enabled, low shaders - 20fps, med shaders - 20fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat is the new Crysis.

Prior to the game's release, the developer put out a benchmarking tool to test your system configuration. It offers a number of different options for utilizing DX9, 10 or 11 code paths. It also offers options for varying levels of HDAO and Shadow Quality. The demo itself isn't very pretty to look at (lots of dirt and dirt-colors), but it does put a beating on your system.

Though the 5850 and 5830 perform admirably in widescreen resolutions, they simply cannot handle S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Eyefinity. This should come as no surprise, as even the Eyefinity6 in CrossFireX never hit 30fps at 5760x1200. Like the Heaven demo, the CoP demo is intended to tax your system. Both of these are strong examples of how much more data is being pushed through an Eyefinity setup.

Hitting 60fps

Hitting even 30fps isn't possible on the 5850 or 5830 with DX10 or DX11 effects. I was able to crack 30fps by dropping all the way back to DX9 code path and features.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1:

• Day - 21fps
• Night - 18fps
• Rain - 19fps
• Sun Shafts - 16fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (Daylight)

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

None

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat is the new Crysis.

Prior to the game's release, the developer put out a benchmarking tool to test your system configuration. It offers a number of different options for utilizing DX9, 10 or 11 code paths. It also offers options for varying levels of HDAO and Shadow Quality. The demo itself isn't very pretty to look at (lots of dirt and dirt-colors), but it does put a beating on your system.

Though the 5850 and 5830 perform admirably in widescreen resolutions, they simply cannot handle S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Eyefinity. This should come as no surprise, as even the Eyefinity6 in CrossFireX never hit 30fps at 5760x1200. Like the Heaven demo, the CoP demo is intended to tax your system. Both of these are strong examples of how much more data is being pushed through an Eyefinity setup.

Hitting 60fps

Hitting even 30fps isn't possible on the 5850 or 5830 with DX10 or DX11 effects. I was able to crack 30fps by dropping all the way back to DX9 code path and features.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1:

• Day - 21fps
• Night - 18fps
• Rain - 19fps
• Sun Shafts - 16fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (Night)

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

None

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat is the new Crysis.

Prior to the game's release, the developer put out a benchmarking tool to test your system configuration. It offers a number of different options for utilizing DX9, 10 or 11 code paths. It also offers options for varying levels of HDAO and Shadow Quality. The demo itself isn't very pretty to look at (lots of dirt and dirt-colors), but it does put a beating on your system.

Though the 5850 and 5830 perform admirably in widescreen resolutions, they simply cannot handle S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Eyefinity. This should come as no surprise, as even the Eyefinity6 in CrossFireX never hit 30fps at 5760x1200. Like the Heaven demo, the CoP demo is intended to tax your system. Both of these are strong examples of how much more data is being pushed through an Eyefinity setup.

Hitting 60fps

Hitting even 30fps isn't possible on the 5850 or 5830 with DX10 or DX11 effects. I was able to crack 30fps by dropping all the way back to DX9 code path and features.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1:

• Day - 21fps
• Night - 18fps
• Rain - 19fps
• Sun Shafts - 16fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (Rain)

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

None

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat is the new Crysis.

Prior to the game's release, the developer put out a benchmarking tool to test your system configuration. It offers a number of different options for utilizing DX9, 10 or 11 code paths. It also offers options for varying levels of HDAO and Shadow Quality. The demo itself isn't very pretty to look at (lots of dirt and dirt-colors), but it does put a beating on your system.

Though the 5850 and 5830 perform admirably in widescreen resolutions, they simply cannot handle S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Eyefinity. This should come as no surprise, as even the Eyefinity6 in CrossFireX never hit 30fps at 5760x1200. Like the Heaven demo, the CoP demo is intended to tax your system. Both of these are strong examples of how much more data is being pushed through an Eyefinity setup.

Hitting 60fps

Hitting even 30fps isn't possible on the 5850 or 5830 with DX10 or DX11 effects. I was able to crack 30fps by dropping all the way back to DX9 code path and features.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1:

• Day - 21fps
• Night - 18fps
• Rain - 19fps
• Sun Shafts - 16fps

ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (Sun Shafts)

Article Type: 

Review

Teaser Icon: 

None

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat is the new Crysis.

Prior to the game's release, the developer put out a benchmarking tool to test your system configuration. It offers a number of different options for utilizing DX9, 10 or 11 code paths. It also offers options for varying levels of HDAO and Shadow Quality. The demo itself isn't very pretty to look at (lots of dirt and dirt-colors), but it does put a beating on your system.

Though the 5850 and 5830 perform admirably in widescreen resolutions, they simply cannot handle S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Eyefinity. This should come as no surprise, as even the Eyefinity6 in CrossFireX never hit 30fps at 5760x1200. Like the Heaven demo, the CoP demo is intended to tax your system. Both of these are strong examples of how much more data is being pushed through an Eyefinity setup.

Hitting 60fps

Hitting even 30fps isn't possible on the 5850 or 5830 with DX10 or DX11 effects. I was able to crack 30fps by dropping all the way back to DX9 code path and features.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1:

• Day - 21fps
• Night - 18fps
• Rain - 19fps
• Sun Shafts - 16fps