VisionTek Killer HD5770 Combo Card

Manufacturer: VisionTek Products, LLC.
Product Name: VisionTek Killer HD5770 Combo Card
Model Number: VT-40067PC
SKU: 900333
Price As Tested:$199.99

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by VisionTek.

The VisionTek Killer HD5770 Combo Video Card combines a Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 NIC and a HD5770 GPU to offer a complete gaming solution that undercuts the price of buying both separately, also combining the network controller with the video card takes more work off your CPU's shoulders allowing it to be better utilized in other areas of your games. I'm sure you are thinking that the HD5770 is probably not the most powerful GPU out there and that VisionTek could have maybe used something with a bit more grunt but this combination of technologies takes the original VisionTek HD5770 from 7.5 inches to 10 inches long, so it makes sense for obvious reasons. Benchmark Reviews aims to provide you with an unbiased review of the VisionTek Killer HD5770 and report back our findings, keeping you informed on the latest technologies available on the market today.

Buying a Killer 2100 network card and a VisionTek HD5770 1GB separately would normally cost you $279.98 ($219.98 with current Newegg deal), so the $199.99 price tag for the VisionTek Killer HD5770 model 900333 combo card suddenly becomes rather appealing.

For this review we will be comparing the Killer HD5770 to NVIDIA's midrange GTS 450 and GTX 460 video cards in our usual mixture of DX10 / DX11 synthetic benchmarks and current games to get a good idea where it fits in performance and price wise. The Killer E2100 NIC will also be tested to see if there are any real benefits to your gaming pleasure, so without further delay let's move on and get stuck in.

Closer Look: VisionTek Killer Combo

The Killer HD5770 combo card is much larger than the regular Radeon HD5770 coming in with a 10" long PCB, this might be something one would need to consider when looking to purchase such a card. Due to its spec's the Killer HD5770 combo card would be ideal for a HTPC/Gaming PC but due to its size it may not fit in some Micro-ATX / HTPC cases.

The Killer HD5770 combo card has a visually appealing design, this is somewhat wasted when the card is installed into your system even if you have a windowed side panel as this side will be facing down, coolers should be more about function than looks but if a good balance can be found without sacrificing one for the other then all is well.

Looking from the top we can see two CrossFire fingers which means the Killer HD5770 is good for 2- or 3-way CrossFireX, the HD5770 is a relatively low end card but when doubled up it can compete with is bigger brothers. The PCI bracket is vented but I wouldn't think a lot of the hot air will be leaving this way.

The Killer HD5770 requires a 450w (or greater) PSU with one 75w 6-pin PCI-E power connector, or a 600w (or greater) PSU with two 6-pin PCI-e power connectors for CrossFireX mode. You may also notice that there is no active cooling on the VRM section, this isn't good for extreme overclocking as this suggests that there is no overvoltage support, but there should definitely be some headroom for a nice moderate overclock. The design of the shroud directs the intake of air over the heatsink and then towards the front and back end of the PCB thus cooling the other components.

Removing the cooler and shroud reveals a very busy PCB, we will have a look at this in more detail in the next section. It's good to see that VisionTek haven't used too much TIM on the GPU, it is still more TIM than I would personally use but it is nowhere near as extreme as I have seen in the past. The cooler uses a copper plate to make contact with the GPU transferring the heat to the aluminium heatsink which is cooled by the airflow from the fan.

The back of the PCB is well populated, the soldering quality is excellent and the PCB is nice and clean as you would expect, there are also a few chips on this side we will be taking a more detailed look at in the next section, so let's move on and get a more in depth look.

VisionTek Killer HD5770 Detailed Features

In this section we shall take an in depth look a the Killer HD5770 and see what is going on beneath the shroud of mystery.

The fan is a model GA9202H 90mm fan made by a Taiwanese company called Apistek who design and manufacture high quality heatsinks solutions for GPU and CPU applications, so it might well be safe to say that the heatsink was made by Apistek too. Neither VisionTek nor Apistek have any specs on the fan, it is a simple two wire design and the speed is controlled by voltage rather than PWM. The design looks simple but effective, using a mixture of solid surface area and extended fins to actively cool the GPU and allow air to get to the other on board components.

On the PCI bracket we have an HDMI port (with audio), two dual link DVI-I ports and a CAT5 LAN port. The top part is also vented but I don't think much air will be exhausting here due to the design of the cooler but the more ventilation the better, right?

In the image below I have zoomed in on what I consider to be the highlights of this card. On the right we have the all important 40nm Juniper GPU driving the Killer HD5770 with its 800 unified shaders and core clock at the reference speed of 850MHz. Next to that we see that VisionTek have opted for Elpida GDDR5 RAM module's over the usual Samsung chips that we normally see, there are eight units in total (four front, four back) for a total 1GB of memory running at 1200MHz (4.8GHz effective) and these Elpida chips are rated at 5GHz so there is a little bit of headroom for overclocking.

On the left hand side we have the E2100 network processing unit which runs at 400MHz and utilizes two Elixir 64MB DDR2 modules for a total of 128MB RAM running at 266MHz. The Killer HD5770 also has its own PLX bridge chip on board, and I can only assume its purpose to be for bandwidth management. The PLX PEX8624-BB50BC F is a 24 lane, 6 port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) switch and should provide all the bandwidth this card may need since it is using more than the 16 PCI-E lanes provided by the PCI-E slot.

Supporting the Killer E2100 NPU (on the reverse side of the card) is the Marvell Alaska 88E1118R 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY with RGMII which is a Ethernet Physical transceiver (Ethernet PHYceiver) Its purpose is physical, analogue signal access to the link which in this case is the E2100 NPU thus completing the NIC (Network Integrated Controller) portion of the card.

The VisionTek Killer HD5770 utilizes a 3-Phase uP6204BJ voltage controller, there is no software or BIOS level voltage control, when the card is idle it uses 0.95v and uses 1.2v at full load.

The last chip to point out is the uP7706U8 memory voltage controller which is fairly standard on Radeon HD5XXX and HD6XXX video cards.

Killer HD5770 Combo Features

The VisionTek Killer^TM HD 5770 card combines exceptional graphics and maximum networking performance for all your favorite online games. It combines AMD's Radeon^TM HD 5770 with DirectX 11 Technology for the most immersive graphics and Bigfoot Networks' Killer^TM E2100 platform for the fastest possible game networking, all in one card, for the ultimate online gaming upgrade.

Game Networking DNA^TM - Bigfoot Networks Killer^TM E2100 platform has exclusive Game Networking DNA^TM technology designed to maximize online gaming performance. Game Networking DNA^TM combines the benefits of a dedicated network processor (NPU), Advanced Game Detect^TM, Windows network stack bypass, Visual Bandwidth Control^TM and other technologies designed to deliver the best online gaming experience possible.

• Multiple Displays - Get the ultimate immersive gaming experience and innovative ‘wrap around' with multi-display capabilities
• Game Networking Performance - Whatever you're playing, the Bigfoot Networks Killer^TM E2100 platform delivers fast networking with a new level of online gaming performance and a competitive edge over standard network interfaces
• Intelligence - The Killer^TM E2100 platform identifies and accelerates traffic to your game with Advanced Game Detect^TM for unmatched online gaming performance
• Visibility - Monitor and manage the health and performance of your gaming rig with at-a-glance Online Gaming PC Monitor^TM

Killer HD5770 Combo Specifications

• Powered by Radeon^TM HD5770
• Core Clock: 850MHz
• Memory Speed: 1200MHz
• Powered by Bigfoot Killer^TM E2100
• 1GB GDDR5 memory
• 400MHz NPU
• Compliant with DirectX 11 and earlier revisions
• Supports OpenGL 3.1
• ATI Avivo^TM HD video and display technology1
• Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay^TM technology7
• PCI Express 2.0 support
• Speed: 10/100/1000 Mbps
• Supported Operating Systems:Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit), Windows Vista (32 & 64-bit), Windows XP (32-bit only)

Source: VisionTek.com

Bigfoot Networks Killer Network Manager

Before we get onto the graphics performance tests we will take a look at the Bigfoot Networks "Killer Network Manager" software suite. There are a few handy features in this software and it is actually quite useful if you want full control over your network traffic. During installation of the bigfoot networks software it downloaded and flashed new firmware to the card. This disturbed me slightly as flashing firmware within the windows OS environment is not something I would usually do no matter how stable I might think the OS is, there should have been a warning or choice at the very least. Thankfully all went well and my card wasn't bricked and I live to tell the tale. After you are set up and running the software will do an internet connection (download and upload) test to gauge your current connection speed (bandwidth).

This is the main screen of the Killer network manager software, from here you can get information about your system and also monitor your network bandwidth usage. If you have FRAPS installed and running you will also get an FPS reading.

In this next screen you can select specific items to monitor from the drop down box and it will write to a line graph, you can also save a log of your results for later use.

This is the application management screen, the most useful part of the software as far as I am concerned. When you first get to this screen the software grabs all of your running programs and gives them a network usage priority of normal (out of Low, Normal, High and Highest) any games automatically get a priority of Highest. You can change the priority of any application with the drop down menu or you can reduce its bandwidth usage by selecting it and dragging the slider on the right hand side (an arrow is visible when the program is active) from full down to zero usage.

You can also see in real time which programs are using bandwidth and how much they are using, this could be quite effective when troubleshooting things like viruses or malware infections that are spreading or downloading junk to your PC. There is also another drop down menu that gives you the choice to allow or block network connection to each application.

This is the network configuration screen, from here you can change various settings related to your current internet connection. You are able to test your current connection speed for bandwidth management here, the software detected my speed at 22.66Mbs down / 2.19Mbs up. This is good because my current package from my ISP is 20Mbs down / 2Mbs up, so either my ISP is over provisioning or the Killer E2100 NIC is working it's magic.

In the advanced screen you can manage certain aspects of the network manager software, change default application priority and change how and what information is displayed.

Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 Testing

Using the advanced network test in PassMark Performance v7 (Advanced > Networking...), I tested the transmission speed (Mb/s) of the TCP and UDP protocols on the Killer 2100 NIC and compared the results to my motherboard's on-board NIC (RealTek RTL8111E Gigabit Fast Ethernet). The nature of the Killer 2100 NIC is to accelerate game traffic, and since game traffic relies on UDP transmission we would hope to see an increase in speed here...

And that is exactly what the case is here, the Killer E2100 NIC totally wipes the floor on the on-board network controller. The result above is an average reading, TCP results were very tight and stayed within 2Mb/s throughout the tests, but when we tested the UDP transmission speed the top end went over 500Mb/s at times which is quite interesting. These tests were conducted in a controlled LAN environment and so real world results will be somewhat lower but still promising.

VGA Testing Methodology

The Microsoft DirectX-11 graphics API is native to the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System, and will be the primary O/S for our test platform. DX11 is also available as a Microsoft Update for the Windows Vista O/S, so our test results apply to both versions of the Operating System. The majority of benchmark tests used in this article are comparative to DX11 performance, however some high-demand DX10 tests have also been included.

According to the Steam Hardware Survey published for the month ending May 2010, the most popular gaming resolution is 1280x1024 (17-19" standard LCD monitors). However, because this 1.31MP resolution is considered 'low' by most standards, our benchmark performance tests concentrate on higher-demand resolutions: 1.76MP 1680x1050 and 2.07MP 1920x1080 (22-24" widescreen LCD monitors). These resolutions are more likely to be used by high-end graphics solutions, such as those tested in this article.

In each benchmark test there is one 'cache run' that is conducted, followed by five recorded test runs. Results are collected at each setting with the highest and lowest results discarded. The remaining three results are averaged, and displayed in the performance charts on the following pages.

A combination of synthetic and video game benchmark tests have been used in this article to illustrate relative performance among graphics solutions. Our benchmark frame rate results are not intended to represent real-world graphics performance, as this experience would change based on supporting hardware and the perception of individuals playing the video game.

Intel P55 Test System

• Motherboard: ECS P55H-AK (Intel P55)
• System Memory: OCZ Blade ST 2000MHz 4GB Kit
• Processor: Intel Core i5 760
• CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Flex
• Disk Drive 1: 160GB Seagate SATA 7200rpm 32MB cache
• Enclosure: Lancool PC-K63
• PSU: Corsair HX750W Modular
• Monitor: HKC 2219A 22" Widescreen

DirectX-10 Benchmark Applications

• 3DMark Vantage v1.02
  • Extreme Settings: (Extreme Quality, 8x Multisample Anti-Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, 1:2 Scale)
• Street Fighter IV Benchmark
  • Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 8x AA, 16x AF, Parallel rendering On, Shadows High)

DirectX-11 Benchmark Applications

• Aliens vs Predator
  • Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, SSAO, Tessellation, Advanced Shadows)
• BattleField: Bad Company 2
  • Extreme Settings: (Highest Quality, HBAO, 8x AA, 16x AF, 180s Fraps Single-Player Intro Scene)
• BattleForge v1.2
  • Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Auto Multi-Thread)
• Lost Planet 2
  • Extreme Settings: (2x AA, Low Shadow Detail, High Texture, High Render, High DirectX 11 Features)
• Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 Benchmark 1.0.4
  • Extreme Settings: (Maximum Quality, 8x AA, 16x AF, DX11 Terrain Tessellation)
• Metro 2033
  • Extreme Settings: (Very-High Quality, AAA, 16x AF, Advanced DoF, Tessellation, 180s Fraps Chase Scene)
• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
  • Extreme Settings: (High Quality, Normal Tessellation, 16x AF, 4x AA)

Video Card Test Products

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 (715 MHz GPU/1430 MHz Shader/900 MHz vRAM - Forceware 266.58)
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 / Killer NIC (850 MHz GPU/1200 MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst Driver 10.10)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 (850 MHz GPU/1700 MHz Shader/950 MHz vRAM - Forceware 266.58)

DX10: 3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 graphics card performance. FutureMark 3DMark Vantage is the latest addition the 3DMark benchmark series built by FutureMark corporation. Although 3DMark Vantage requires NVIDIA PhysX to be installed for program operation, only the CPU/Physics test relies on this technology.

3DMark Vantage offers benchmark tests focusing on GPU, CPU, and Physics performance. Benchmark Reviews uses the two GPU-specific tests for grading video card performance: Jane Nash and New Calico. These tests isolate graphical performance, and remove processor dependence from the benchmark results.

• 3DMark Vantage v1.02
  • Extreme Settings: (Extreme Quality, 8x Multisample Anti-Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, 1:2 Scale)

3DMark Vantage GPU Test: Jane Nash

Of the two GPU tests 3DMark Vantage offers, the Jane Nash performance benchmark is slightly less demanding. In a short video scene the special agent escapes a secret lair by water, nearly losing her shirt in the process. Benchmark Reviews tests this DirectX-10 scene at 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 resolutions, and uses Extreme quality settings with 8x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering. The 1:2 scale is utilized, and is the highest this test allows. By maximizing the processing levels of this test, the scene creates the highest level of graphical demand possible and sorts the strong from the weak.

Cost Analysis: Jane Nash (1680x1050)

Test Summary: The Killer HD5770 was able to win over the GTS 450 by 1.28 FPS in the Vantage Jane Nash tests but at a much higher cost, we must remember though that the Killer HD5770 costs more than a regular VisionTek HD5770 (which would cost $8.01 per FPS) but the whole package must be taken into consideration. Significant improvements will only be seen when you lower the resolution or double up in CrossFireX mode.

3DMark Vantage GPU Test: New Calico

New Calico is the second GPU test in the 3DMark Vantage test suite. Of the two GPU tests, New Calico is the most demanding. In a short video scene featuring a galactic battleground, there is a massive display of busy objects across the screen. Benchmark Reviews tests this DirectX-10 scene at 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 resolutions, and uses Extreme quality settings with 8x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering. The 1:2 scale is utilized, and is the highest this test allows. Using the highest graphics processing level available allows our test products to separate themselves and stand out (if possible).

Cost Analysis: New Calico (1680x1050)

Test Summary: The tables have turned in the New Calico Vantage test, here the NVIDIA cards win outright the GTS 450 leads by 1.72 FPS and the GTX460 by a further 7.97 FPS. Once again the price for performance isn't too impressive even when we look at the price of a standard VisionTek HD5770 ($149.99) which would cost $10.98 per FPS.

DX10: Street Fighter IV

Capcom's Street Fighter IV is part of the now-famous Street Fighter series that began in 1987. The 2D Street Fighter II was one of the most popular fighting games of the 1990s, and now gets a 3D face-lift to become Street Fighter 4. The Street Fighter 4 benchmark utility was released as a novel way to test your system's ability to run the game. It uses a few dressed-up fight scenes where combatants fight against each other using various martial arts disciplines. Feet, fists and magic fill the screen with a flurry of activity. Due to the rapid pace, varied lighting and the use of music this is one of the more enjoyable benchmarks. Street Fighter IV uses a proprietary Capcom SF4 game engine, which is enhanced over previous versions of the game.

Using the highest quality DirectX-10 settings with 8x AA and 16x AF, a mid to high end card will ace this test, but it will still weed out the slower cards out there.

• Street Fighter IV Benchmark
  • Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 8x AA, 16x AF, Parallel rendering On, Shadows High)

Cost Analysis: Street Fighter IV (1680x1050)

Test Summary: The Street Fighter IV test comes across a little biased towards the green team, the results for the Killer HD5770 are not very good at all, Street Fighter IV is a very fast paced game so 30 FPS just won't cut it, even 50 - 60 FPS on this test can come over as relatively slow.

DX11: Aliens vs Predator

Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360. Aliens vs. Predator utilizes Rebellion's proprietary Asura game engine, which had previously found its way into Call of Duty: World at War and Rogue Warrior. The self-contained benchmark tool is used for our DirectX-11 tests, which push the Asura game engine to its limit.

In our benchmark tests, Aliens vs. Predator was configured to use the highest quality settings with 4x AA and 16x AF. DirectX-11 features such as Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) and tessellation have also been included, along with advanced shadows.

• Aliens vs Predator
  • Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, SSAO, Tessellation, Advanced Shadows)

Cost Analysis: Aliens vs Predator (1680x1050)

Test Summary: The Killer HD5770 is starting to flex its DX11 muscle here a little bit leading the GTS 450 by a mere 0.63 FPS, the GTS 450 isn't far behind though and still offers a better price to performance deal, even the GTX460 is struggling to muster a decent FPS result in this test.

DX11: Battlefield Bad Company 2

The Battlefield franchise has been known to demand a lot from PC graphics hardware. DICE (Digital Illusions CE) has incorporated their Frostbite-1.5 game engine with Destruction-2.0 feature set with Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 features destructible environments using Frostbit Destruction-2.0, and adds gravitational bullet drop effects for projectiles shot from weapons at a long distance. The Frostbite-1.5 game engine used on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 consists of DirectX-10 primary graphics, with improved performance and softened dynamic shadows added for DirectX-11 users.

At the time Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was published, DICE was also working on the Frostbite-2.0 game engine. This upcoming engine will include native support for DirectX-10.1 and DirectX-11, as well as parallelized processing support for 2-8 parallel threads. This will improve performance for users with an Intel Core-i7 processor. Unfortunately, the Extreme Edition Intel Core i7-980X six-core CPU with twelve threads will not see full utilization.

In our benchmark tests of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the first three minutes of action in the single-player raft night scene are captured with FRAPS. Relative to the online multiplayer action, these frame rate results are nearly identical to daytime maps with the same video settings. The Frostbite-1.5 game engine in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 appears to equalize our test set of video cards, and despite AMD's sponsorship of the game it still plays well using any brand of graphics card.

• BattleField: Bad Company 2
  • Extreme Settings: (Highest Quality, HBAO, 8x AA, 16x AF, 180s Fraps Single-Player Intro Scene)

Cost Analysis: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (1680x1050)

Test Summary: Now is when we see some better looking numbers, the Killer HD5770 is still trailing by 4.7 FPS but playing at either of these resolutions is acceptable in the single player mode, there are some scenes of heavy action where you will notice the lag but overall it is playable. The multiplayer is somewhat different due to the more dynamic nature so some settings such as Anisotropic Filtering and Anti-Aliasing need to be lowered.

DX11: BattleForge

BattleForge is free Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) developed by EA Phenomic with DirectX-11 graphics capability. Combining strategic cooperative battles, the community of MMO games, and trading card gameplay, BattleForge players are free to put their creatures, spells and buildings into combination's they see fit. These units are represented in the form of digital cards from which you build your own unique army. With minimal resources and a custom tech tree to manage, the gameplay is unbelievably accessible and action-packed.

Benchmark Reviews uses the built-in graphics benchmark to measure performance in BattleForge, using Very High quality settings (detail) and 8x anti-aliasing with auto multi-threading enabled. BattleForge is one of the first titles to take advantage of DirectX-11 in Windows 7, and offers a very robust color range throughout the busy battleground landscape. The charted results illustrate how performance measures-up between video cards when Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) is enabled.

• BattleForge v1.2
  • Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Auto Multi-Thread)

Cost Analysis: BattleForge (1680x1050)

Test Summary: Battleforge with all the settings cranked up looks very nice indeed and even though the FPS results look rather low the gameplay is still acceptable, you will still want to lower your resolution for the best results though. Once again the GTS 450 takes the lead over the Killer HD5770 by 5.2 FPS and the GTX460 outperforms that by another 15.3 FPS.

DX11: Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2 is the second instalment in the saga of the planet E.D.N. III, ten years after the story of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. The snow has melted and the lush jungle life of the planet has emerged with angry and luscious flora and fauna. With the new environment comes the addition of DirectX-11 technology to the game.

Lost Planet 2 takes advantage of DX11 features including tessellation and displacement mapping on water, level bosses, and player characters. In addition, soft body compute shaders are used on 'Boss' characters, and wave simulation is performed using DirectCompute. These cutting edge features make for an excellent benchmark for top-of-the-line consumer GPUs.

The Lost Planet 2 benchmark offers two different tests, which serve different purposes. This article uses tests conducted on benchmark B, which is designed to be a deterministic and effective benchmark tool featuring DirectX 11 elements.

• Lost Planet 2 Benchmark 1.0
  • Moderate Settings: (2x AA, Low Shadow Detail, High Texture, High Render, High DirectX 11 Features)

Cost Analysis: Lost Planet 2 (1680x1050)

Test Summary: Lost Planet 2 is a tough cookie to crack, in our tests we had to use relatively low settings just to get some acceptable numbers. This game wants high level hardware to play maxed out. None of the cards tested could play this benchmark at high settings and deliver an acceptable FPS result so visual quality has to be sacrificed. The GTX 460 only just does a good job and the Killer HD5770 is once again left behind by the GTS 450 by 4.8 FPS.

DX11: Tom Clancy's HAWX 2

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2 has been optimized for DX11 enabled GPUs and has a number of enhancements to not only improve performance with DX11 enabled GPUs, but also greatly improve the visual experience while taking to the skies. The game uses a hardware terrain tessellation method that allows a high number of detailed triangles to be rendered entirely on the GPU when near the terrain in question. This allows for a very low memory footprint and relies on the GPU power alone to expand the low resolution data to highly realistic detail.

The Tom Clancy's HAWX2 benchmark uses normal game content in the same conditions a player will find in the game, and allows users to evaluate the enhanced visuals that DirectX-11 tessellation adds into the game. The Tom Clancy's HAWX2 benchmark is built from exactly the same source code that's included with the retail version of the game. HAWX2's tessellation scheme uses a metric based on the length in pixels of the triangle edges. This value is currently set to 6 pixels per triangle edge, which provides an average triangle size of 18 pixels.

The end result is perhaps the best tessellation implementation seen in a game yet, providing a dramatic improvement in image quality over the non-tessellated case, and running at playable frame rates across a wide range of graphics hardware.

• Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 Benchmark 1.0.4
  • Extreme Settings: (Maximum Quality, 8x AA, 16x AF, DX11 Terrain Tessellation)

Cost Analysis: HAWX 2 (1680x1050)

Test Summary: HAWX 2 is a strange game in that you need to look very close to see the difference in quality settings, the main difference is in the terrain but this is easily overlooked as you are busy fighting with the controls just to fly in a straight line. During the benchmark I noticed some lag here and there even with a score of 40 FPS but it wasn't nothing major, the game itself is perfectly playable at these settings, now I just need to master the controls.

DX11: Metro 2033

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows. Metro 2033 uses the 4A game engine, developed by 4A Games. The 4A Engine supports DirectX-9, 10, and 11, along with NVIDIA PhysX and GeForce 3D Vision.

The 4A engine is multi-threaded in such that only PhysX had a dedicated thread, and uses a task-model without any pre-conditioning or pre/post-synchronizing, allowing tasks to be done in parallel. The 4A game engine can utilize a deferred shading pipeline, and uses tessellation for greater performance, and also has HDR (complete with blue shift), real-time reflections, color correction, film grain and noise, and the engine also supports multi-core rendering.

Metro 2033 featured superior volumetric fog, double PhysX precision, object blur, sub-surface scattering for skin shaders, parallax mapping on all surfaces and greater geometric detail with a less aggressive LODs. Using PhysX, the engine uses many features such as destructible environments, and cloth and water simulations, and particles that can be fully affected by environmental factors.

NVIDIA has been diligently working to promote Metro 2033, and for good reason: it's one of the most demanding PC video games we've ever tested. When their flagship GeForce GTX 480 struggles to produce 27 FPS with DirectX-11 anti-aliasing turned two to its lowest setting, you know that only the strongest graphics processors will generate playable frame rates. All of our tests enable Advanced Depth of Field and Tessellation effects, but disable advanced PhysX options.

• Metro 2033
  • Moderate Settings: (Very-High Quality, AAA, 16x AF, Advanced DoF, Tessellation, 180s Fraps Chase Scene)

Cost Analysis: Metro 2033 (1680x1050)

Test Summary: Metro 2033 is hard on all video cards, and in our tests none of the video cards did very well at all. The motion was choppy and when the beasts came after you it was hard to shoot them for the lag. Once again the only way the Killer HD5770 is going to play this game at these settings is by lowering the resolution or doubling up in CrossFireX mode.

DX11: Unigine Heaven 2.1

The Unigine Heaven 2.1 benchmark is a free publicly available tool that grants the power to unleash the graphics capabilities in DirectX-11 for Windows 7 or updated Vista Operating Systems. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode, emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

The distinguishing feature in the Unigine Heaven benchmark is a hardware tessellation that is a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that developers can gain a more detailed look of their games almost free of charge in terms of performance. Thanks to this procedure, the elaboration of the rendered image finally approaches the boundary of veridical visual perception: the virtual reality transcends conjured by your hand.

Although Heaven-2.1 was recently released and used for our DirectX-11 tests, the benchmark results were extremely close to those obtained with Heaven-1.0 testing. Since only DX11-compliant video cards will properly test on the Heaven benchmark, only those products that meet the requirements have been included.

• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
  • Extreme Settings: (High Quality, Normal Tessellation, 16x AF, 4x AA

Cost Analysis: Unigine Heaven (1680x1050)

Test Summary: Unigine heaven is also quite hard on video cards, only the best video cards will be able to run it smooth at the highest settings, certain parts of this benchmark put more work on the GPU than others and those that don't actually look smooth and playable but most of the time it is frame skipping. The Killer HD5770 is left trailing behind the GTS 450 by 2.2 FPS.

VisionTek Killer HD5770 Temperatures

Benchmark tests are always nice, so long as you care about comparing one product to another. But when you're an overclocker, gamer, or merely a PC hardware enthusiast who likes to tweak things on occasion, there's no substitute for good information. Benchmark Reviews has a very popular guide written on Overclocking Video Cards, which gives detailed instruction on how to tweak a graphics cards for better performance. Of course, not every video card has overclocking head room. Some products run so hot that they can't suffer any higher temperatures than they already do. This is why we measure the operating temperature of the video card products we test.

To begin my testing, I use GPU-Z to measure the temperature at idle as reported by the GPU. Next I use FurMark's "Torture Test" to generate maximum thermal load and record GPU temperatures at high-power 3D mode. The ambient room temperature remained at a stable 26.6°C throughout testing. FurMark does two things extremely well: drive the thermal output of any graphics processor higher than applications of video games realistically could, and it does so with consistency every time. Furmark works great for testing the stability of a GPU as the temperature rises to the highest possible output. The temperatures discussed below are absolute maximum values, and not representative of real-world performance.

Although my ambient temperature is a little high for this time of year the Killer HD5770 still sits 15.4°C above, the cooler is effective but not as effective as the reference design's cooler. A heavy load from FurMark raises the temperature to 80°C and also raises the fans speed from 40% to 63%, putting the fan on manual and cranking it up to 100% saw the temperature drop to 77°C but the noise level at max speed is in the realms of annoying. I think I would rather have an extra 3°C and have a semi quiet fan.

While we are talking temperatures I thought it best to point out that the VisionTek Killer HD5770 has four different temperature readings in GPU-Z. AMD Overdrive reports back GPU Temp. #1 (which is somewhat lower) thereby making you think your GPU is cooler than it is. FurMark reports between back a result somewhere between GPU Temp. #2 and GPU Temp. #3. In the above tests I had GPU-Z make a log of the results, temperatures used for results were taken from the GPU temperature reading (third from top).

VGA Power Consumption

Life is not as affordable as it used to be, and items such as gasoline, natural gas, and electricity all top the list of resources which have exploded in price over the past few years. Add to this the limit of non-renewable resources compared to current demands, and you can see that the prices are only going to get worse. Planet Earth is needs our help, and needs it badly. With forests becoming barren of vegetation and snow capped poles quickly turning brown, the technology industry has a new attitude towards turning "green". I'll spare you the powerful marketing hype that gets sent from various manufacturers every day, and get right to the point: your computer hasn't been doing much to help save energy... at least up until now.

For power consumption tests, Benchmark Reviews utilizes an 80-Plus Gold rated Corsair HX750w (model: CMPSU-750HX) This power supply unit has been tested to provide over 90% typical efficiency by Ecos Plug Load Solutions. To measure isolated video card power consumption, I used the energenie ENER007 power meter made by Sandal Plc (UK).

A baseline test is taken without a video card installed inside our test computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows-7 and rest idle at the login screen before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the login screen. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a chart with the isolated video card power consumption (not system total) displayed in Watts for each specified test product:

A reference Radeon HD5770 is rated at 18W idle and 108W under load, our sample is somewhat different and is expected use slightly more than that. At idle the Killer HD5770 used 43W (162-119) and at full load used 114W (233-119). It seems that the network controller is pulling some extra Watts at idle and making the video card look more power hungry than it might be, at load the Killer HD5770 only uses a further 6W over the reference design.

VisionTek Killer HD5770 Overclocking

The clocks on the Killer HD5770 are already quite high so I wasn't expecting to have much headroom to play with clock speeds, also working against me was the lack of over voltage support. Armed with my lack of confidence I went ahead to try and break any barrier that was put in front of me, first I fired up AMD Overdrive in the Catalyst Control Center and noticed that the GPU clock had a cap of 960 MHz but within not too much time I had hit that wall and AMD Overdrive still called it stable, it wasn't until I fired up FurMark that I found out otherwise.

Several restarts and runs of FurMark later and a switch from AMD overdrive to MSI Afterburner found a stable GPU overclock of 910MHz (+60MHz). After tweaking the GPU I moved on to the memory, a little research showed that the Elpida RAM chips used on the Killer HD5770 were rated at 5GHz (1250MHz) so I knew there was a little headroom to play with. Armed with this I proceeded to crank up the memory speed till I hit a wall at 1315MHz (+115MHz).

Armed with a moderate overclock we went back to the bench and ran through the entire test suite. Overall there is an average 10% increase in scores (at 1920x1080 resolution) which amounts to an average 1.5% to 2% increase in frames per second. We also re ran temperature tests at the overclocked speeds at the same ambient temperature of 26.6°C. The Killer HD5770 idled at 50°C (fan speed 43%) and at full load it was 84°C (fan speed 64%), at 100% fan speed we saw the temperature drop to 82°C but once again the fan noise was too much to bear for the sake of 2°C.

Combo Video Card Final Thoughts

The VisionTek Killer HD5770 combo card isn't the most powerful video card the world has seen and maybe VisionTek and Bigfoot Networks could have paired the E2100 NIC with a GPU that has more grunt, but at the end of the day due to size and cost constraints maybe the HD5770 was the right GPU to use. When looking at the price of the card one immediately thinks of something more powerful that they could get for the same price (GTX460 or HD6950) but that is where you would be going wrong. I think this card will only cater for a niche market, those looking in particular for a network upgrade at the same time as a graphics upgrade or those building a mid range PC that doesn't need to have the biggest most powerful video card or run games at the highest resolution.

Significant improvements to our test results (average 34% improvement) were achieved when the screen resolution was lowered from 1680x1050 to 1280x1024 (standard for 17" to 19" monitor), I would also expect to see higher FPS results if the HD5770 was run in CrossfireX mode. So one could buy the Killer HD5770 now and get a graphics and network upgrade and later down the line purchase another HD5770 to boost performance or just buy this and another Radeon HD5770 (without NIC) and roughly get the performance of a HD5870 for around the same price.

VisionTek Killer HD5770 Conclusion

Important: In this section I am going to write a brief five point summary on the following categories; Performance, Appearance, Construction, Functionality and Value. These views are my own and help me to give the VisionTek Killer HD5770 Combo Video Card a rating out of 10. A high or low score does not necessarily mean that it is better or worse than a similar video card that has been reviewed by another writer here at Benchmark Reviews, which may have got a higher or lower score. It is however a good indicator of whether the Killer HD5770 is good or not. I would strongly urge you to read the entire review, if you have not already, so that you can make an educated decision for yourself.

The graphics performance of the Killer HD5770 is low as expected when running at high resolutions with the visual quality settings set to high, but to be honest anyone that wants to run at those resolutions won't be looking at a single Radeon HD5770 any way. Turning the resolution down had a positive effect on frames per second so a single Radeon HD5770 is aimed at someone who has nothing bigger than a 19" monitor. Theoretically "gaming" network performance is exceptional as our testing shows but in practice results are likely to vary, many factors go into what makes you lag in a game and it has been a while since I have had network lag due to being on a high speed broadband connection. You should always choose a server that is closer to you if you want lower ping, but that is a whole other matter altogether.

The appearance of the Killer HD5770 is very nice indeed, red being my favorite color of course. Everyone's view is different though but thanks to the visual nature of this review you can make up your own mind. The red PCB really stands out and the design of the cooler shroud is rather nice too.

Construction of the Killer HD5770 is very good indeed, the cooler assembly is a perfect fit and was easy to remove and then replace. The Killer NIC adds another 2.5 inches length to the standard VisionTek HD5770 making the Killer HD5770 a 10 inch beast, this is worthy of noting if you are looking at this card as an upgrade as some cases won't allow for a 10 inch long video card.

The Killer Network Manager utility added a great deal of functionality to a very original product. You really have full control over application level access to the internet, if there is a program using too much bandwidth you can block it outright or just lower its bandwidth allowance. You can also monitor other aspects of your PC within the software too. The Killer E2100 NIC got a very high result for UDP transmission protocol during our tests which means game traffic has more bandwidth.

You can pick up the VisionTek Killer HD5770 Combo Card (model 900333) for $199.99 at Newegg. When you compare this price to the individual prices of a Killer 2100 Network Card ($129.99) and a standard VisionTek HD5770 ($149.99) the $199.99 price tag becomes quite appealing. There is no other product like this available so comparison to anything else is rather difficult indeed.

The VisionTek Killer HD5770 combo card is best suited to a lower resolution of 1280x1024 unless you plan on running two in CrossFireX mode. I think this particular video card is designed for MMORPG / RTS players after watching the promo videos for the original Killer Xeno network card. I would like to see the Killer E2100 paired up with a much more powerful GPU before I could make any real recommendation, as the HD5770 is a little underpowered.

Pros:

+ Network Controller on-board.
+ Very high UDP transmission (395.41Mb/s)
+ Good innovation
+ Excellent build quality
+ Very nice looks
+ Supports CrossFireX
+ Good value compared to buying separately
+ Includes HDMI audio/video output
+ Two Dual link DVI-I ports for multiple displays

Cons:

- Combination of NIC and GPU makes card very long.
- High idle power consumption
- Would have been better with a more powerful GPU
- Hot air from GPU exhausted into case
- No over voltage support
- Fan is annoying at 100%

Ratings:

• Performance: 7.50
• Appearance: 9.00
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.50
• Value: 9.00

Final Score: 8.80 out of 10.

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.

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