Sapphire Radeon HD 5550 Ultimate

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by Rob Williams on May 10, 2010 in Graphics & Displays

This past February, AMD quietly launched the Radeon HD 5550 alongside the much more touted HD 5570. At about $10 less than that card, the HD 5550 is an unusual breed. To help put all of the pieces together, Sapphire sent us its “Ultimate” edition of the card, which uses reference clock speeds, but features a very effective passive cooler.

Page 4 – Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

When the original Call of Juarez was released, it brought forth something unique… a western-styled first-person shooter. That’s simply not something we see too often, so for fans of the genre, its release was a real treat. Although it didn’t really offer the best gameplay we’ve seen from a recent FPS title, its storyline and unique style made it well-worth testing.

After we retired the original title from our suite, we anxiously awaited for the sequel, Bound in Blood, in hopes that the series could be re-introduced into our testing once again. Thankfully, it could, thanks in part to its fantastic graphics, which are based around the Chrome Engine 4, and improved gameplay of the original. It was also well-received by game reviewers, which is always a good sign.

Manual Run-through: The level chosen here is Chapter I, and our starting point is about 15 minutes into the mission, where we stand atop a hill that overlooks a large river. We make our way across the hill and ultimately through a large trench, and we stop our benchmarking run shortly after we blow up a gas-filled barrel.

After what we saw with MW2’s performance, Bound in Blood’s was to be rather expected, and for good reason… the framerates come out about the same.

Graphics Card
Best Playable
Min FPS
Avg. FPS
ATI HD Radeon 5870 1GB (Reference)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
58
82.863
NVIDIA GTX 480 1.5GB (Reference)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
58
82.711
ATI HD 5770 1GB CrossFireX
2560×1600 – Max Detail
59
87.583
NVIDIA GTX 295 1792MB (Reference)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
37
80.339
ATI HD 5850 1GB (ASUS)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
51
69.165
ATI HD 5830 1GB (Reference)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
35
54.675
NVIDIA GTX 285 1GB (EVGA)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
45
54.428
NVIDIA GTX 275 896MB (Reference)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
41
51.393
ATI HD 5770 1GB (Reference)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
28
45.028
NVIDIA GTX 260 896MB (XFX)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
35
44.023
ATI HD 5750 1GB (Sapphire)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
27
38.686
NVIDIA GTX 250 1GB (EVGA)
2560×1600 – Max Detail
25
33.751
ATI HD 5670 512MB (Reference)
1920×1080 – Max Detail
38
47.23
NVIDIA GT 240 512MB (ASUS)
1920×1080 – Max Detail
29
39.446
ATI HD 5570 1GB (Sapphire)
1920×1080 – Max Detail
24
32.931
ATI HD 5550 1GB (Sapphire)
1920×1080 – Medium Detail
19
28.775

Again, like MW2, we had to lower our detail settings, and even then, the situation wasn’t ideal. If you plan on using this card at 1680×1050, you’ll have a slightly better experience, but there’s no way anyone will want to play with higher-than-medium details with this card, unless your goal is 1280×1024.

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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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