Radeon HD 5770 First & Second Edition Performance Comparison
If you’ve been paying enough attention to the Radeon HD 5770 graphics card which was released in October, you’d probably have noticed some tweaks on the heatsink. Pictured below, the first version is a closed turbo cooler, while the new version looks like a third-party cooler.
First version of Radeon HD 5770
Second version of Radeon HD 5770
We thought the second version of cooler was a third-party solution offered by a tiny minority of manufacturers to stand out in the crowd, but later we found that almost all the major AIBs have adopted it, silently.
So far, the leading graphics cards providers including Asus, Sapphire, HIS, PowerColor, XFX, and Unika have employed the new version with a fresh stock cooler. Therefore, we have reason to believe this is a new cooling solution that AMD officially recommends.
The PCB design is hardly different from that of the first version.
The only difference is the additional inductor at the right bottom.
Both versions of Radeon HD 5770 are set at the same clocks as well.
First version vs. second version
first version taken apart
The first version of cooler features more complicated design, enabling it to transfer the heat directly out of the chassis, which helps a lot to build a good air duct inside the chassis. Besides, a metal bar is included to avoid PCB deformation, and the fan boasts 4-pin PWM connector.
second version taken apart
The new version looks much simpler, which has been used on XFX Radeon HD 4870. Such kind of heatsinks fail to send hot air out of the chassis, which would destroy the heat dissipation efficiency inside the case.
8mm heatpipes look massive on such a small heatsink.
FirstD 70×15mm fan which has an annoying sound output at full speed
Considering it’s a downward cooler, the manufacturer didn’t include heatsink for RAM and power supply part. The fan only supports 2-pin power connector, but still supports automatic speed adjustment.
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December 4th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I’d pick the first version in a heartbeat.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Considering I use an open air case I like this new design. I will be upgrading soon to two 5770 and a PDC E6500 at 4GHz.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
While the first version is much more interesting from a cooling/noise point of view, the reason that they are switching to the second model is due to lower cost. Haven’t you noticed how the cards equipped with the second edition cooler tend to be cheaper?
December 6th, 2009 at 5:32 am
“The only difference is the additional inductor at the right bottom.”
– The inductor is present on the first board also – it’s just a different one.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:49 am
The newer version makes sense:
- cheaper
- noticeably cooler GPU card under load (9 °C)
- somewhat hotter case (**almost** 1°C)
What would also be interesting to know would be the noise level comparison.
December 6th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Got the second version running at 1GHz core at 1.225v, cools it really well. Never goes over 55 degrees in games and 65 degrees after running furmark for a while. There’s room to fit decent heatsinks to the RAM and VRM’s under the second version’s cooler if you want to, too.
December 9th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I have bought a HIS 5770 with the new cooler.
Very good temperatures, and I have not problem with case temperature. If you have a 120mm rear fan plus side fan (i haven an Armor+MX), the case temperature is very good.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
What about crossfire, what would be better???
December 12th, 2009 at 7:08 am
A HIS HD5770 “ICEQ+” … WOULD BE PERFECT¡¡¡
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:46 am
I’ve just gotten an Asus 5770 with the second gen cooler, and man, it is silent. It also seems to cool great, although I may have gotten lucky with a nice and cool GPU.
Only thing I hear in my case now is the air being moved, and sometimes the DVD drive – I don’t even hear the video card fan itself, the 120mm Antec Tricool case fans are louder!
As for temps, I haven’t been able to push the video card over 58 degrees Celsius at full load, running FurMark with Xtreme Burning Mode turned on at 1920×1200. All of this in an Antec 902 case, with fans positioned so the CPU cooler catches the most air, with the GPU cooler only getting air that’s been warmed up by the harddisks.
All in all, for the performance and silence I got with this card I’m very happy, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do some proper overclocking on this thing.
December 25th, 2009 at 12:27 am
i own 2 1gen 5770 HD’s and running them OC’ed on furmark i will not get even close to those temps they got. i have max 75C when running it for many hrs. i dont have any exclusive coolers on my comp. only stock cpu,gpu and psu coolers. so everything they say here is bullshit.
December 26th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Hmm, mine 1gen ends up 86*C when running Furmark for a while and I have well cooled case. Rising the fan speed drops the temp straight down. Maybe I should replace the thermal grease. However the memory on top of the card ends up really hot, it needs some heatsinks in order to overclock the memory.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:41 am
the 5770 v2 cools better than the 5770 v1. many people like the v1 because they think it looks better, but the fact is the v2 cooler is better at pulling heat away from the card even if it isn’t vented out of the case. If your case has adequate air flow, such as 1 or 2 case fans, you shouldn’t have a problem with heat staying in the case. The only scenario where I can see the v1 cooler as a viable option would be in a very small micro atx case.
The 5770 runs cool compared to most other cards, and won’t shutdown until it reaches 125c, but the max recommended temp is still 100c. My 5770 idles at 28-32c.. although most will find it to be a few degrees more. Honestly, unless you’re case is setup horribly and you run your computer in a very hot climate, it’s not going to come close to overheating – even when overclocked in most cases.