ATI’s Radeon HD 5670 – DirectX 11 for $100

When the original Call of Duty game launched in 2003, Infinity Ward was an unknown. Naturally… it was the company’s first title. But since then, the series and company alike have become household names. Not only has the series delivered consistently incredible gameplay, it’s pushed the graphics envelope with each successive release, and where Modern Warfare is concerned, it’s also had a rich storyline.

The first two titles might have been built on the already-outdated Quake III engine, but since then, the games have been built with improved graphical features, capable of pushing the highest-end PCs out there. Modern Warfare 2 is the first such exception, as it’s more of a console port than a true PC title. Therefore, the game doesn’t push PC hardware as much as we’d like to see, but despite that, it still looks great, and lacks little in the graphics department. You can read our review of the game here.

Manual Run-through: The level chosen is the 10th mission in the game, “The Gulag”. Our teams fly in helicopters up to an old prison with the intention of getting closer to finding the game’s villain, Vladimir Makarov. Our saved game file begins us at the point when the level name comes on the screen, right before we reach the prison, and it ends after one minute of landing, following the normal progression of the level. The entire run takes around two-and-a-half minutes.

Throughout all of our results, it will be a common theme to see the HD 5670 place in last, because from a specs standpoint, it’s without question the slowest card. That doesn’t make it a bad offering, though, as it’s also the least-expensive. Given that the HD 5750 512MB retails for $130 on most e-tailers, the performance of both the HD 5670’s performed quite well. Not-so-surprisingly, the 1GB model pulled ahead just a wee bit.

The performance from both cards proved limiting, but as long as you are not ultra-fussy about the smoothest gameplay on the planet, running the game at 1080p with 4xAA should be just fine. If it isn’t, dropping AA will still deliver great-looking gameplay, and a nice Avg FPS boost.