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KitGuru has been following Sapphire's excellent Flex series since it was introduced last year with their customised HD5770 FleX Edition. This card proved a good seller for Sapphire and they decided to expand their range with two new additions – the HD6870 Flex Edition which we reviewed earlier this month and the lower end HD5670 Flex Edition which we are looking at today.
Many of you might be wondering what a ‘FleX' Edition, actually is. Generally when you purchase an AMD Eyefinity capable graphics card, you only have two DVI output signals, meaning that you need to purchase a higher cost DisplayPort supported monitor. The FleX boards can support three DVI panels, out of the box, without the need for a DisplayPort monitor or active adapters. The first two monitors are connected to the DVI outputs, just like normal. The third DVI monitor is then connected to the HDMI output with the passive adapter which is supplied.
When you consider that three high quality, 24 inch DVI monitors can be bought in the UK for a total of £450 inc vat, this is the cheapest and most effective way to enter into high performance multi screen gaming. This is however the market that the Sapphire HD6870 Flex Edition is targeting. We reviewed this product and tested it across one, three and even four screens – check out the review here.
The Sapphire HD5670 FleX Edition isn't specifically designed for multi screen gaming, so you might be wondering what exactly is the point of re-releasing a HD5670 with FleX technology incorporated?
After speaking with Sapphire over the last few weeks, we shared the views that many non gamers might want access to multiple screens, without having to spend extra on DisplayPort panels. If you aren't a diehard gamer and mainly use your computer for office work, design and video editing, then why pay extra for the other cards?
The HD5670 Flex Edition is the lowest priced model in the FleX range and today we are going to test it across a variety of real world situations. We are well aware that very few people have an overclocked Intel 980X with 12GB of 2133mhz ram running via a 512GB SSD drive, so today we are aiming at a lower price point. What if you built a system with an AMD Fusion E350 motherboard and wanted to use it across 3 or 4 screens? Would the Sapphire HD5670 FleX enhance your productivity while offering 5760×1080 and 7680×1080 output?
Specification
Output
- 1 x Dual-Link DVI
- 1 x HDMI
- 1 x DisplayPort
- 1 x Single-Link DVI-D
GPU
- 775 MHz Core Clock
- 40 nm Chip
- 400 x Stream Processors
Memory
- 1024 MB Size
- 128 -bit GDDR5
- 4000 MHz Effective
Even a 3 screen setup is a pipedream for me, but I can see this card behind used in a lot of design studios.
I like the idea of the flex cards but why on earth aren’t AMD doing this without Sapphire having to make customised products? Is there additional circuitry involved? obviously there is, but it seems like such a weird thing for AMD not to include. displayport monitors are a lot of cash.
Well I wont be buying this card, but its just made me part cash with cyberlink power dvd 10 ultra. my system might be more responsive with it running instead of crappy WMP.
Well its good to see they went to arctic cooling for the cooler. wish more companies would do that.
This is exactly what I want. I spend most of my working life video editing and ive already persuaded the boss to get me two more screens. Shall make sure we order a couple for the offices.
Decent enough card, but will anybody buy a card from the last generation in 2011? might be hard for Sapphire to sell this as people all want 6 series cards.
I agree that AMD need to do a card like this themselves, clearly isnt that difficult,.
I liked the flex 6870, decent gaming performance and you can add three screens. This would be ideal for workstations in a design or editing environment. I think you sold it well Zardon considering the relatively weak gaming performance,. certainly worked well with the fusion mobo.
Id actually get this for my workstation. I dont game on it, and id like the out of the box screen support. I opted for an ilyama screen at 200 quid, another 2 wouldn’t cost that much for the deskspace.
Wonder why they opted for a 5000 series card? Why not aim for the 6970 or even 6950? 6870 isnt a bad card, but even it can struggle, especially with 3 screens.