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Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD Radeon HD 5870 Videocard Review
Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD Radeon HD 5870 Videocard Review - PCSTATS
Gigabyte's GVR587SO-1GD videocard increases the Radeon HD 5870's core clockspeed to 950MHz, the effective frequency of its GDDR5 memory to 5GHz. This beauty of a videocard uses a custom dual-fan heatsink design for better cooling and takes advantage of Gigabyte's Ultra Durable VGA+ manufacturing techniques.
 96% Rating:   
Filed under: Video Cards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Gigabyte May 27 2010   J. Apong  
Home > Reviews > Video Cards > Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD

Eye of the Tiger: ATI Radeon RV870 Cypress GPU

All of ATI's Radeon 5000-series videocards draw from a family of GPUs called 'Evergreen', which is then divided into a smaller GPU lines based on performance.

The fastest line is code named 'Cypress', which is itself broken up into smaller segments based on speed tolerances and how many functional shader processors. This is a practice called "binning" in the tech industry.

Only the 'Cypress' chips that have all 1600 stream processors functioning properly and are completely stable at 850MHz are used in Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards.

The RV850 'Cypress' GPU is produced on a 40nm production process that ATI first introduced in the Radeon 4000-series. Getting down to a 40nm process was important because the Radeon HD 5870 has 2.15 billion transistors on a 334mm2 die, more than double that of last generation's RV770, which had 956 million transistors.

This wealth of transistors comprise the Radeon HD 5870's 1600 stream processors, 80 texture units, 32 raster operators and the 256-bit wide memory interface that connects the RV870 GPU to its GDDR5 memory.

Stock Radeon HD 5870 videocards have 1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1200MHz, however Gigabyte has bumped this speed up 1250MHz, which is then GDDR5-quad-pumped up to an even 5GHz.

All of AMD's Radeon 5000-series of graphics cards share a number of new technologies, the most important of which is support for DirectX 11. This latest revision to Microsoft's graphics hardware standard brings two major additions to the DX11, tessellation and compute shaders.

Tessellation is a method of adding density and complexity to a 3D mesh. It can take a simple, low-poly model and break up the geometry into more complex portions, adding another layer of detail on top of a mesh. The end result is better looking, more detailed graphics with a very low cost in performance.

ATI Radeon HD 5000-series GPUs
ATI Radeon 4870 ATI Radeon HD 5830 ATI Radeon HD 5850 ATI Radeon HD 5870 Gigabyte GVR587SO-1GD
GPU Code Name: RV770 RV870/Cypress RV870/Cypress RV870/Cypress RV870/Cypress
GPU Process: 55nm 40nm 40nm 40nm 40nm
GPU Transistors: 956 Million 2.15 Billion 2.15 Billion 2.15 Billion 2.15 Billion
TDP: 110W 175W 151W 188W 188W
GPU Core Clock Speed: 750MHz 800Mhz 725Mhz 850Mhz 950Mhz
Memory Speed: 900MHz (3600MHz GDDR5) 1GHz(4GHz GDDR5) 1GHz(4Ghz GDDR5) 1.2GHz(4.8Ghz GDDR5) 1.25GHz(5Ghz GDDR5)
Memory Capacity: 512MB/1GB 1GB
1GB
1GB
1GB
Memory Bus Width: 256-bit

256-bit

256-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Stream Processors: 800 1120 1440 1600 1600
Texture units: 40 56 72 80 80
Raster Operators: 16 16 32 32 32

Compute shaders allow DirectX 11-based GPUs to do tasks normally reserved for CPUs. This will play a big role in desktop applications that harness the power of a PCs videocard, as well as enable games programmers use the GPU to compute things like physics and AI. Again, this opens up the possibility for more immersed gaming, but with a miniscule performance penalty when compared to using a CPU. Now let's see just how well ASUS' EAH5850 DirectCU TOP stands up to a little overclocking... but first, power draw.

Videocard Power Consumption

Here's how this videocard stacks up in real life against a various other videocards for power draw. PCSTATS measures total system power draw and compares that in 3D loaded (max value recorded in 3DMark06) and idle states (at Windows desktop). The power supply used in each test is an A-PFC compliant PC Power and Cooling 750W model.

PCSTATS Benchmark ReportVideocard Power Consumption (Total System Power Draw)
Idle at Desktop Watts Ranking
Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 177
Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 153
Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 222
MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 165
Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 109
ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 93
Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A (rev.A) 138
Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A 137
Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 120
MSI R4830 T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 108
Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB 135
Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB Crossfire 180
Asus EAH4770 FML/DI/512MD5/A 105
Asus EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A 101
Gigabyte GV-R435OC-512I 79
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 195
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 160
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 150
ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 104
Gigabyte GV-N285OC-2G1 113
Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I 105
ASUS ENGTX260 MT/HTDI/896MD3-A 135
Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA 112
Sparkle GTX260 Core 216 140
ASUS ENGTS250 DK 120
ASUS ENGTS250 DK in SLI 170
ASUS EN9600GT DI/512MD3/A 86
Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI 96
nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 166
Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 152
Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 151
ASUS EN9400GT DI/1GLP 85
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 196
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 183
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 165
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 140
3D Loaded: Watts Ranking
Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 421
Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 390
Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 610
MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 330
Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 217
ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 197
Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A (rev.A) 244
Asus EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A 225
Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 202
MSI R4830 T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 177
Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB 186
Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB Crossfire 279
Asus EAH4770 FML/DI/512MD5/A 158
Asus EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A 153.3
Gigabyte GV-R435OC-512I 109
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 549
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 333
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 252
ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 247
Gigabyte GV-N285OC-2G1 277
Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I 230
ASUS ENGTX260 MT/HTDI/896MD3-A 277
Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA 215
Sparkle GTX260 Core 216 262
ASUS ENGTS250 DK 214
ASUS ENGTS250 DK in SLI 316
ASUS EN9600GT DI/512MD3/A 148
Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI 160
nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 313
Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 220
Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 221
ASUS EN9400GT DI/1GLP 109
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 345
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 315
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 277
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 213

Even with factory overclocking, more transistors and more shader processors than any other single-GPU videocard in this chart, Gigabyte's GVR587SO-1GD videocard is actually quite energy efficient thanks to be produced on a 40nm production process. The videocard draws 217W under load, less than a Radeon HD 4890. At idle power draw is 109W for the entire test system, which is closer to what you find from economical low wattage videocards, rather than the power guzzling extremism you'd expect from high end videocards.

This frugal power consumption bodes well for overclocking, and its time to see how far PCSTATS can take Gigabyte's cherry picked RV870 GPU...

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Contents of Article: Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD
 Pg 1.  Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD Radeon HD 5870 Videocard Review
 Pg 2.  Special Memory, NEC Capacitors and Voltage Read Points
 Pg 3.  Quad Heatpipe dual-fan heatsink design
 Pg 4.  — Eye of the Tiger: ATI Radeon RV870 Cypress GPU
 Pg 5.  Videocard Overclocking Report
 Pg 6.  Test System Specs: Radeon HD 5870 vs Geforce GTX 480
 Pg 7.  Videocard Benchmarks: 3DMark06
 Pg 8.  DX10 Videocard Benchmarks: 3DMark Vantage
 Pg 9.  Videocard Benchmarks: FEAR
 Pg 10.  DX10 Videocard Benchmarks: Crysis
 Pg 11.  DX10 Videocard Benchmarks: Call of Juarez
 Pg 12.  DX10 Videocard Benchmarks: Lost Planet
 Pg 13.  DX11/DX10 Videocard Benchmarks: STALKER
 Pg 14.  AA/AF Videocard Benchmarks: Crysis
 Pg 15.  GPGPU Videocard Benchmarks: Sandra 2009
 Pg 16.  Heavyweight VGA Champion of the World

 
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