Shootouts

Radeon HD 5770 Roundup - ASUS vs. Gigabyte vs. HIS

By Kenny Yeo - 22 Jun 2010

Introducing the Cards

The ASUS EAH5770 CuCore

Our first contender is the ASUS EAH5770 CuCore. As its name suggests, the card uses copper extensively in its custom-design cooler. As the photos below show, the core of the cooler heatsink is a big block of copper, which is in turn surrounded by an elaborate aluminum heatsink. ASUS says such a design will allow heat to be transferred quicker from the GPU core to the heatsink, resulting in lower operating temperatures.

While the cooler's design seem sound, in theory at least, the specifications of the card disappoint mainly because it retains ATI's reference clock speeds, which means 850MHz at the core and 4800MHz DDR. Here's a reference card from PowerColor to measure up against the ASUS card:-

The ASUS EAH5770 CuCore looks distinctly different from a reference card thanks to its customized CuCore cooler.

For video output, users can choose from a single DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort.

Removing the cooler, we can clearly see the copper core that forms the heart of the card's customized cooler.

 

The Gigabyte HD 5770 Super Overclock

Bolstering Gigabyte's latest Super Overclock line of customized and overclocked graphics cards is the HD 5770 Super Overclock. This card stands out from the rest mainly because of its clock speeds, 900MHz at the core and 4800MHz DDR, which happens to be the highest of trio.

What's also interesting is that chips that go into making the HD 5770 Super Overclock are cherry-picked using a process Gigabyte calls “GPU Gauntlet”. According to Gigabyte, it is a stringent selection process where each chip is specifically selected to offer not only the highest overclocking performance, but also highest level of power efficiency.

That aside, the card also gets the Ultra Durable VGA label that signifies quality components being used. And this includes additional copper in the PCB for better power and thermal efficiency, top-quality memory chips from Samsung/Hynix, Japanese-made solid capacitors and ferrite core based chokes.

The Gigabyte HD 5770 Super Overclock has a custom cooler that employs a larger fan as well as four thick copper heat pipes.

Similar to a reference card, the Gigabyte HD 5770 Super Overclock has two DVI ports, a single HDMI port and a lone DisplayPort.

Here we can clearly see the four thick copper heat pipes sprouting from the heatsink core. The heat pipes help spread heat evenly to various parts of the heatsink for better heat dissipation.

 

The HIS HD 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo

HIS' revered IceQ cooler makes its comeback in the company's latest Radeon HD 5770 card. Already in its fifth edition, the IceQ 5 cooler on this card looks remarkably similar to older IceQ coolers we've seen. However, HIS states that minor tweaks have been made to make the card run cooler.

And as the “Turbo” in the name indicates, the card comes factory-overclocked - 875MHz at the core and 4800MHz DDR at the memory. It's not as aggressive as the Gigabyte HD 5770 Super Overclock, but we should see some improvement in performance over a bone stock reference Radeon HD 5770 and the ASUS EAH5770 CuCore.

The HIS HD 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo looks very much like any other HIS card employing their unique IceQ coolers.

Video output options are similar to the Gigabyte card - two DVI ports and a single HDMI and DisplayPort.

Again, we see the use of triple copper heat pipes to quickly draw away from the GPU core and to spread it to other parts of the heatsink.
 

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