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As we said months ago when we reviewed the Sapphire HD5770 Flex, our card was one of the first off the production line so when it arrived with us there was no retail packaging.
The package contains a Sapphire ‘Flex' cable which converts HDMI to DVI output – this is exactly the same as the cable we noticed in our Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate review (single card review here and CrossfireX review here). Sapphire also bundle a Crossfire dongle, a DVI to VGA adapter and a power converter cable which allows you to hook the card directly to a molex feed on a PSU.
Everything else in the box is just as people would expect with a driver CD and installation guide included. Obviously if you have access to the internet at home we suggest you avoid the CD drivers and get the new versions direct from AMD.
The Sapphire HD5770 Flex Edition is the same size as a reference HD5770 – a two slot design with a 7.5 inch length. The core and memory speeds are also reference with 850mhz on the core and 1200mhz on the ram. The plastic shroud cooler looks similar to other Sapphire products but we are glad to see it has been left plain black, giving it a somewhat ‘serious' look. The fan deserves a mention as it is a two wired ball bearing design with an impeller angled fan to enhance airflow and reduce noise.
Is it fully Crossfire compliant, and today we will be testing this out with another Sapphire card.
As with the reference design, the Flex HD5770 only requires a single 6 pin PCI power connector to operate. The HD5770 has been tested on Kitguru many times and it is an efficient, cool running board.
The heatsink under the shroud is a hefty aluminum/copper hybrid with heatpipes which will aid temperature control.
As we can see, there is a single DVI (top gray), dual link DVI (bottom white), HDMI and Displayport out. All of these can be used at the same time to power four screens. The only catch is that the fourth screen has to be Displayport connected.
This means we can have a four monitor 1920×1200 configuration or two monitors at 2560×1600 with one on the DL DVI port and the other on Displayport. Single link DVI and HDMI are both limited to 1920×1200.
A quick recap: The 40nm Juniper Core is 170mm2 and has over a billion transistors. This Flex edition is supplied with Samsung GDDR5 K4G10325FE-HC04 6th generation ICs. These are rated at a stock voltage of 1.5 and 1250mhz maximum speed.
Well this makes a lot more sense to me than 2 XFX 5970 Black Editions. you could basically get this setup and a full PC with screens for the same price as two of the XFX cards.
Sure performance is much higher, but is it really needed? not sure I could tell the difference between 2aa and 8aa and 50fps or 150fps.
Great idea, the HD5770s have dropped alot from 170 ish to 130 or so in recent months, makes for a good pairing.
Only thing that put me off the XFX cards (well apart from the price) was the power drain and noise levels. A great showcase of XFX engineering capabilities, but not very realistic.
Still, good for different audiences. Wonder how many Flex editions sapphire have sol,d I saw it took them quite some time to get them to market after the first batch of reviews.
I already have plans to sell my monitor and get three matching screens. Then next year get a new system. I dont think its a great time to buy HD5770, not with new range out very soon.
Any ideas if Sapphire will bring out a new 6770 (or whatever they will call it) with Flex support? I might hang on till the new cards are out. I already have a HD5770 but might sell it.
I really rate the flex. its all about pricing and they aren’t charging much more for the 3 screen technology support. Displayport monitors still cost major cash. This opens the path to cheap, but good panels.
It is hard to argue with the price of that system (well apart from the 980x). using a 920 or 950 would drop the system price by 500 quid. Overall well worth approaching this angle. I was impressed with XFX 5970 CFx article, but the money outlay was ridiculous.
Really like these cards, the price is right !
Its hard to knock the price for the performance. Just a bit time to be buying 5 series cards I think
The flex was destined to be 180-190 quid. months ago. 140 seems a good deal, especially for a work environment. While im not sold on it as a gaming platform, with 2 cards it seems quite good.
They are sure to make a 6770 with flex support like this. the 5770 flex came out too late really. a bit like the nvidia boards in recent weeks. its too little to late.
very good review, those screens look great for the price. Cant get over that for 150 quid. I remember spending 800 on a 22 inch crt years ago.
lol yah, I spent a grand on a CRT for my first macintosh, a long time ago. its a good time to buy tech
The GTX 460 killed the 5830 and caused probs for 5850. HD5770 seems to be doing well at this price.
What a great system idea. handles most games well too.
I think people who spend over 500 on a video card are nuts. you dont need it.
500? I think people who spend over 300 are nuts. its not needed unless you are waving the epenis or trying to break benchmark figures. most games run fine on a GTS450.