World in Conflict
With the switch over to DX10 based tests, I had hope for some verification of the results we gleaned from out sythetic tests. Sadly the ASUS Radeon HD 5850 card didn’t deliver. It still managed to post numbers similar to what we got from the HD 4890 cards we tested a while back, but it was able to rest in its happy hunting ground between one HD 4890 and two CrossFire HD 4890 cards.
Crysis
I was hoping that of all the titles we used for benchmarking, surely the hardy and downright unforgiving engine found in Crysis would provide some separation in the numbers. I was quite nearly vindicated; the numbers were still a little mixed but they were different.
In our Crysis benchmarks, the ASUS Radeon HD 5850 managed to out-perform both the single and CrossFire HD 4890 setup at the lower of our two test resolutions. The higher resolution produced numbers similar to what we saw with the synthetic benchmarks. So I guess to really see the benefit of this card you need to push it hard. Really hard.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
I really don’t know what to think about the ASUS EAH5850/G/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 video card. I do read other reviews, and as far as I can tell, it should be playing second fiddle only to its slightly more powerful sibling, the HD 5870. However I can’t ignore our performance numbers, which paint a different picture.
The Radeon HD 5850 seems to be all over the map on our lower end game benchmarks. This may be due to those tests now being CPU limited, but it would appear the HD 5850 really distinguishes itself when under stress. ASUS does go out of their way to provide a solid package and a stable card. It even overclocks with a minor amount of nudging and those that dare can take the voltages up with capabilities programmed right into its specially tweaked BIOS using their SmartDoctor utility.
In the end, the ASUS HD 5850 presents a conundrum. Our tests show it to have middling performance, but the community at large says “hey this card is great”. I still need to side with the numbers I’ve posted, and hope I can figure out what exactly is going on with this card. The package, build quality, and overall performance does warrant a high rating, but no award can be given due to the question mark above the head of this card in terms of performance. Hopefully we’ll be able to have a second look when drivers are a little more mature. That’s the only thing that one can point their fingers at for this moment.
Pros
- Excellent bundle
- Solidly built card
- Second only to 5870 is terms of raw specs
- Overclocking and Voltage Tweak abilities out of the box
- Price
Cons
- Wildly fluctuating performance numbers (Driver Related?)
Overall Rating: 8.0/10.0
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