Caffeinated Man Productions

Introduction

The ATI 5850 is ATI’s response to Nvidia’s GTX 285. Both cards perform similarly, but the 5850 has the advantage of DirectX 11. This review will look at how the 5850 performs in various games ranging in genre and age. We will compare the 5850 with Nvidia’s 9800GTX KO. We are doing this comparison because 9800GTX KO and lower users are reaching the point where upgrading might be something on their mind, and this review will show how big of a boost, if any, you would get.  That being said by no means think that we imply that these 2 cards are similar.  the 5850 is an entire generation ahead for the 9800GTX+ and it shows.

All tests are performed using the highest possible settings for the game and at a resolution of 1680×1050. Some tests have different settings and will be stated if this is the case. The 5850 used in this review is the Sapphire 5850 with 1 GB of GDDR5 ram. The 9800GTX used is the EVGA 9800GTX KO with 512 MB of GDDR3 ram. Below is a comparison between the two graphic cards. Note that the 9800GTX KO is a slightly faster version of the 9800GTX+ and due to this will be referred as a 9800GTX+ during this review.

Test setup

Far Cry 2

“Far Cry® 2, the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, will take you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world: Africa! More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry® 2, the true sequel to the award-winning PC game, will provide you with an unprecedented gaming experience.

Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out “The Jackal,” a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfill your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.”

Source: http://farcry.us.ubi.com/index.php?page=story

For this test we used the official benchmark tool that came with Far Cry 2. We chose the ranch medium ‘level’ for the test.

Test Results:

“Building on 10 years of constant engine development, ARMA II boasts the most realistic combat environment in the world. It models real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, features a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects. The simulation of a combat environment is so effective, the engine forms the basis for training simulators used by real armies the world over.

Although ArmA II is set in the fictional ex-soviet state of ‘Chernarus’ the gameworld is actually a 225 square kilometer chunk of the real world! ARMA II’s highly detailed landscape is a meticulous facsimile of real terrain, modeled using extensive geographical data. This recreated region is brought to life with spectacular environmental effects and populated with dynamic civilian settlements and wildlife. Wild animals roam the atmospheric forests while the people of Chernarus try to live out their lives among the war-torn streets.”

Source: http://store.steampowered.com/app/33900/

For ArmA 2 we did two tests. One with everything on highest, the other with everything on highest plus 3d resolution set to 200%. We did the benchmark in the first training level.

Test 1 – Highest all – 100% 3d resolution

Test 2 – Highest all – 200% 3d resolution

“Company of Heroes is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Relic Entertainment. It was released on September 12, 2006, and was the first title to make use of the Games for Windows label. A standalone expansion, Opposing Fronts, was released on September 25, 2007. A second standalone expansion, Tales of Valor was released in April 2009.

Company of Heroes is set during World War II. In the single-player campaign the player commands two U.S. military units during the Battle of Normandy and the Allied capture of France. Depending on the mission, the player controls either the Able Company of the 29th Infantry Division or Fox Company of the 101st Airborne’s 506th PIR (of the Band of Brothers fame).”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_of_Heroes

The benchmark test we performed was simply running the performance test in the options tab.

Test Results:

“Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Frankfurt, published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy.[4] A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008 and follows similar events as Crysis but from a different narrative perspective.[5][6] Crysis, Crysis Warhead and a multiplayer expansion called Crysis Wars were re-released as a compilation pack titled Crysis Maximum Edition on 5 May, 2009.

The game is based in a future where an ancient alien spacecraft has been discovered beneath the ground on an island near the coast of the East Philippines.[7] The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of United States Delta Force operator Jake Dunn, referred to in-game by his call sign, Nomad. Nomad is armed with various futuristic weapons and equipment, most notably a “Nano Muscle Suit” which was inspired by a real-life military concept.[8] In Crysis, the player fights both North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in various environments on and around a tropical island in the Pacific near Korea.

The game has been noted for its visual quality and is widely used as a benchmarking tool for graphic enthusiasts.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis

For this benchmark we played the first level of Crysis starting from when you first land in the water.

Settings:
8X Anti-aliasing
Very high preset

Results:

“Flight Simulator X marks the tenth version of the popular line of simulators. It was officially released to the US market on October 17, 2006. According to Microsoft’s Web site for the game, a standard edition features everything from navaids to GPS and airways. It also includes 18 planes, 28 detailed cities, and 40 highly detailed airports. The deluxe version features 24 types of aircraft, 38 highly detailed cities, and 45 highly detailed airports.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_X

For FSX we decided to benchmark 4 different tests. 2 of the tests have light bloom enabled, the other 2 do not. For each test all settings except for traffic are set to the highest possible setting. We have one add-on installed – REX 2.0, and those settings are also set to highest. No frame cap is set, and resolution is 1680×1050. For each test we took off, circled the airport, then headed toward the major city (if any) nearby. The plane used was the f-18 included in Acceleration expansion pack.

Test 1 – Ames Iowa – No light bloom

Test 2 – Seattle, Washington – light bloom enabled

Test 3 – Seattle, Washington – no light bloom

Test 4 – Logan International – light bloom enabled

As you can see from the tests, there is a significant increase in performance in rural areas such as Ames, but performance is very similar near larger airports and cities.

“Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption was announced on May 9, 2006 at E3. It is an expansion of Star Wars: Empire at War. The expansion adds several new maps and units, as well as an additional storyline revolving around the conquest of Tyber Zann and new types of gameplay, including playing as the Zann Consortium, a powerful crime organization and syndicate. It was released on October 24, 2006 in North America.”

Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Empire_at_War:_Forces_of_Corruption

For this test we used a custom map that had 15-20 times more units then the game cap on the map at one time (picture below)

Test Results:

“Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X is an arcade video game based loosely on air combat developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in United States on March 6, 2009. A Wii version has been announced.

The story of the game takes place during the time of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. H.A.W.X is set in the near future where private military companies have essentially replaced government-run military in many countries. The player is placed in the shoes of David Crenshaw — an ex-military elite pilot who was recruited by one of these corporations to work for them as one of their pilots, fighting whoever and whenever he is told to. Crenshaw later returns to the US Air Force together with his team, trying to prevent a full scale terrorist attack on the United States which was initiated by this military company.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy%27s_H.A.W.X

For this test we used the first level included in the demo.

Test Results:

“3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 performance of your graphics card. We’ve been making 3DMark for over 10 years, with each new edition using the latest 3D technology to determine real-world performance.

A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system’s 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system.

3DMark is widely used by the PC industry, press and media as well as individual users and gamers, for comparing performance levels between whole systems or even specific components. “

Source: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmarkvantage/introduction/

For this test we used the “Performance” Preset. This set the settings the ‘High’ and a resolution of 1680×1050. Only GPU based tests were performed.

Test Results:

I have four words to describe overclocking the ATI Sapphire 5850 – Pain in the butt.

Some brilliant mind over at ATI decided to put this thing called “Powerplay” into the Catalyst drivers. What this does it down clock your GPU when it’s not in use (now that’s not a bad idea, however…) If you overclock (or underclock) your card by just 1 MHz, you will start getting severe artifacting in 2d environments (windows) and 3d games that are not very intensive. This is probably the bane of the 5800 series. However there is hope!

MSI and apparently Asus have tools for changing voltage levels going to your GPU. In turn this change takes priority over Powerplay, so you won’t get the artifacting problem if you change the voltage settings in these specific tools. However you need to have a card from MSI or Asus to do this (or flash their bios onto your card). So if you intend to try to get a little more value out of your card, be sure to grab a MSI/Asus one.

Because of this I was unable to overclock. I have however looked into what others have been able to get, and from my understanding it is very possible and easy to reach 5870 performance levels on overclocks using a 5850 with the factory cooler.

It is also worth noting that the Catalyst drivers have a cap of 775MHz GPU Clock and 1125 MHz Memory Clock in the ATI Overdrive tool. If you use a 3^rd party tool you can exceed these limits, but again you need to have a card from that specific card maker.

It is worth noting that we uninstalled our old Nvidia drivers, and then ran driver sweep to erase any traces of the old drivers.

ATI has always gotten a bad rep for their drivers. I personally have never used their drivers prior to the 5850, so I assumed it was just Nvidia fan boys trying to 1 up ATI. I was wrong, Very, Very, Very, Wrong.

First, we went to ATI’s site and got the latest 9.12 drivers. Installed them and went to configuring.

ATI Drivers (Known as Catalyst Control Center, CCC) is the most un-organized, waste of time pit ever created. It took me well over an hour to get my dual monitor set up to work properly (1 screen is 1680×1050, the other is 1280×1024) I could get the 2^nd one to use 1280×1024, but for whatever reason Catalyst thought my main could only go up to 1400×960 or something like that. I some how ended up getting my resolution set properly after trying both the advanced and basic catalyst settings numerous times, and I am still not sure how I got it to work.

We decided to try to benchmark some games for this review right away and booted up a few of the games. After about a half hour we got a BSOD. Over the next 3 days we got 6-7 BSOD’s while gaming, watching shows on Hulu, or just being idle. A full uninstall of the ATI Drivers, driver sweep, reinstall, uninstall, reinstall, it finally stopped the BSOD’s. Whether you want to blame ATI or something else for them is your call, but before installing the 5850 I have never had a BSOD on this computer.

The 5850 is a wonderful Graphic Card. Its performance is great, and the added bonus of DirectX 11 practically sells the card. However due to Catalyst and Powerplay I have found this GPU to be less than perfect. If we were to compare ATI’s drivers to Nvidia’s there would be no doubt that Nvidia’s is far superior. We can only hope that ATI gets the act together and fixes the numerous issues with catalyst including Powerplay.

On a price vs. performance view of the card I would say that it’s a good buy. It was originally intended to sell at around $260, but supply and demand have pushed it to $310. If you can wait for the prices to drop down to the intended price, I would suggest you do so. The performance is great, but I don’t see any games that will require this beast for a few more months – most notable being Battlefield: Bad Company 2 coming out in March, which is a DX11 game.

Overclocking is only viable on MSI/Asus cards or on cards that the owner flash’s the bios with an unlocked one. Otherwise catalyst and Powerplay make it impractical.

Pros-
Price vs. Performance – This card is as fast as the GTX 285, but $80 less
Overclocking Capabilities – It is very possible to surpass the 5870 performance level
DirectX 11
Future Proof – This card should last you 18-24 months before you need to turn the settings down some, but by then you can just through another in and crossfire it and be fine
ATI Eyefinity – didn’t use this as its intended for people with 3+ monitors. It essentially allows you to connect 3-6 monitors to display a game. This link will explain it. http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity.aspx

Cons-
Catalyst Drivers
PowerPlay
Price inflation from demand
Limited Overclock on Catalyst

Caffeinated Score

1 Point off for Catalyst Control Center being un-organized and poorly made
1 Point off for PowerPlay and Overclock Cap

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