RV840, RADEON HD 5700 series

• Codename: Juniper (RV840)
• Process technology: 40nm
• 1.04 billion transistors (twice as few as in the RV870)
• Unified architecture with an array of common processors for streaming processing of various data types: vertices, pixels, etc.
• Hardware support for DirectX 11, including new Shader Model 5.0
• 128-bit memory bus: two 64-bit controllers supporting GDDR5
• Core clock: 700-850 MHz
• 10 SIMD cores, including 800 scalar floating-point ALUs (integer and floating-point formats, support for FP32 in compliance with IEEE 754, no FP64 support)
• 10 enlarged texture units supporting FP16 and FP32 formats
• 40 texture address units and just as many bilinear filtering units that can filter FP16 textures at full speed, trilinear and anisotropic filtering for all texture formats
• 16 ROPs supporting antialiasing with programmable sample patterns (over 16 samples per pixel), including FP16 or FP32 formats of the frame buffer. Peak performance is up to 16 samples per cycle (including FP16 buffers), 64 samples per cycle in Z only mode
• Writing results up to eight frame buffers simultaneously (MRT)
• Integrated support for RAMDAC, six Single Link or three Dual Link DVIs, as well as HDMI and DisplayPort

RADEON HD 5770 specifications

• Core clock: 850 MHz
• Unified processors: 800
• 40 texture units, 16 blending units
• Effective memory frequency: 4800 MHz (4*1200 MHz)
• Memory type: GDDR5
• Memory: 1024 MB
• Memory bandwidth: 76.8 GB/sec
• Maximum theoretical fillrate: 13.6 gigapixel per second
• Theoretical texture sampling rate: 34.0 gigatexel per second
• Two CrossFireX connectors
• PCI Express 2.1
• Connectors: DVI-I Dual Link, HDMI, DisplayPort
• Power consumption: from 18 W to 108 W (one 6-pin power connector)
• Dual-slot design
• Recommended price: $159

RADEON HD 5750 specifications

• Core clock: 700 MHz
• Unified processors: 720
• 36 texture units, 16 blending units
• Effective memory frequency: 4600 MHz (4*1150 MHz)
• Memory type: GDDR5
• Memory: 512/1024 MB
• Memory bandwidth: 73.6 GB/sec
• Maximum theoretical fillrate: 11.2 gigapixel per second
• Theoretical texture sampling rate: 25.2 gigatexel per second.
• Two CrossFireX connectors
• PCI Express 2.1
• Connectors: DVI-I Dual Link, HDMI, DisplayPort
• Power consumption: from 16 W to 86 W (one 6-pin power connector)
• Dual-slot design
• Recommended price: $109/$129

AMD uses the still complex (as far as effective yield is concerned) 40nm process technology to roll out mid-end solutions that match previous top HD 4870 in performance. These GPUs have similar complexity, but the new chips are much smaller. Almost all characteristics remain on the level of RV770 (except for the memory bandwidth). The new GPU is certainly more power-efficient, and the new cards consume relatively little power.

The naming principle hasn't changed. The first digit has changed relative to the previous series. RADEON HD 5770 and HD 5750 are designed to replace HD 4870 and HD 4850. Plus the ill-fated HD 4770, which was the experimental product to master the 40nm process technology. As not all problems of the new process technology have been solved, some cards from the previous generation remain in stores, drifting to lower price ranges.

As is always the case with AMD, two modifications differ in GPU/memory clock rates. In this case the cheaper product also has fewer active execution units. That ensures a bigger performance difference, and lets use defective chips for its production. But that's not all. Although both modifications are equipped with GDDR5 memory (so that performance is not limited by memory bandwidth), the cheaper product has two modifications that differ by memory volume: 512 MB and 1 GB.

Such cards as HD 5750 do not always need one gigabyte of local video memory, and this memory volume does not let reduce its price down to $100. Although modern games require high memory volumes, 1024MB of memory being the optimal amount for most games, and 512MB being not always sufficient for some applications, it's the correct solution for the HD 5750. Especially as no one cancels the more expensive modification.

The low model also features a different PCB design and a different reference cooler. The HD 5770 uses the same cooler as the HD 5850 and 5870, but the HD 5750 comes with a simplified cooler. However, it also takes up two slots, and the card consumes only a little less power.

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