AMD Radeon HD 5570 1 GB

Another in the HD 5xxx series, what is the Radeon HD 5570 1 GB good for? An ideal model for your living room machine set up for films and occasional gaming?

Size, noise and heat generation

At just 16.8 cm, this is a very small card. It’s also a "low profile" card, which means it’s half the height of the standard card. This is practical when it comes to machines that only support this type of format.

The first nasty surprise comes with the cooling system. In contrast to the 5450, there’s a fan and it’s noisy. Even at idle, it’s very noisy and slightly high-pitched (45.1 dB(A)). In gaming, noise levels rise to 48.1 dB(A).

Low temperatures of 41°C at idle and 66°C in intense 3D activity make this even more of a shame. Why such a cooler?

Energy consumption

Users like to keep energy consumption on their living room computer down as low as possible. They’ll be pleased to learn that this model benefits from the excellent economy of the Radeon HD 5000 series. Our set up uses just 72W in total in idle. Given the processor we’re using, don’t expect to go much lower. In load, energy consumption goes up to 144W, also excellent.

Gaming performance

We tested this model at 1280x1024 and at 1680x1050 pixels and you’ll find all our readings in the face-off. Generally speaking, the 5570 is closer to the 5670 (between 30 and 40% down) than the 5450, which is quite a long way further down.

For all that, can you do any gaming with it? Not really. Occasional gaming on less demanding titles such as World of Goo or Sims 3 is ok. Though for Sims 3 you do apparently have to reduce some of the graphics settings to get sufficient fluidity. For titles that are visually more impressive and where rapid movement is required (combat/action) you’re not going to get much joy. unless you really lower your graphics settings. Otherwise you’re in for a jumpy ride. If you do play such titles, best to put in a touch more cash and go for a model up the range a bit.