AMD’s Radeon HD 5830: A Filler Card at the Wrong Price
by Ryan Smith on February 24, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Power & Temperature
Since AMD isn’t doing a reference Radeon HD 5830, non-performance data is of limited value. Even with the variety of cards among AMD’s partners, the power draw of the 5830 cards should be within a few watts of each other and vary only with the difference in their fans so long as they use a 5870 PCB. On the other hand temperature data is going to heavily depend on the cooler used, and noise data is completely useless here since it entirely depends on the cooler used.
So we have power and temperature data for you, but please keep in mind that this temperature data is really only useful as a frame of reference – retail cards could be quite dissimilar.
At idle, the power usage is just as AMD promised: it’s a hair under the 5850, by a single watt to be exact. As far as high-end cards go, this is the least power hungry among them when idling.
Under load the story is quite a bit more interesting. We know the 5830 is rated for a TDP between the 5850 and 5870 that’s much closer to the 5870, but the power draw doesn’t reflect that. Here it’s 17W over the 5850, and nearly 70W off the 5870. We’ve double checked and the card isn’t throttling (a very possible situation given the higher voltage used) so we’re not quite sure what to make of these results. The 5830 is apparently more alike the 5850 than the 5870 when it comes to power consumption, which is certainly a good thing since it means it edges out the 4870 and 4890, and is well ahead of the GTX 275.
With an eye on the fact that this temperature data is going to be heavily dependent on the cooler used, for our sample card we certainly have some interesting results. Under idle this is the coolest of our high-end cards, which is no surprise given the use of the 5870’s big cooler and the lower idle power usage of the 5830. On the other hand under load, even with the otherwise minor difference in power draw compared to the 5850 and the bigger cooler it’s 5C hotter, which is actually more in-line with what we would have expected. However it still stays below the 4800 series and the 5870, both of which get warm enough that they really have to rev up their fans.
It’ll be interesting to see just how good the vendor coolers end up being. With the relatively low load power usage, the 5830 doesn’t have to be a particularly loud card.
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Scali - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
I'm not talking about developer tools...That's the whole point.
Developers have had access to OpenCL for quite a long time...
But if I were to release an OpenCL application today, it won't work on regular end-users with AMD video cards. These end-users would need to install the SDK to get their hands on the OpenCL runtimes.
That's a ridiculous situation, especially since you can only download the SDK after you've registered as a developer with AMD.
It's just not acceptable.
With nVidia on the other hand... all the end-user needs to do is install the official WHQL drivers from November or later, and they're up and running. No need to register anything, no need to install an SDK... Just a driver update (if they haven't updated already).
The most ridiculous part is that AMD wanted to make everyone believe that they were all for OpenCL, and that they were going to push the standard, and that nVidia was trying to block it with their proprietary Cuda SDK.
As it stands, AMD is the one blocking OpenCL at this point.
And then we're not even getting into issues such as performance and supported featuresets...
Ryan Smith - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
If you read further, 10.2 are the base drivers that the SDK is built/tested against. The Catalyst 10.2 driver set does not include AMD's OpenCL driver - that only comes in the SDK.Scali - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
A few months ago, I expressed this problem on another forum, talking about 'lack of OpenCL support' from AMD.AMD's Mike Houston was quick to reply that "The Radeon HD5770 [my card] supports OpenCL".
Yea, I know the CARD does... but the DRIVERS don't... At least, not for developers.
So I wasn't amused with Mike Houston's reply. He knows what I mean, and he knows that I know that the hardware supports OpenCL.
Then he started harassing me in a PM, explaining how great AMD's support is and how they work with various ISV's etc.
Then he asks me what they could possibly improve.
So I told him that for starters, they could release the runtimes to end users.
He didn't reply... then the 10.1 drivers were released, and I emailed him, saying that OpenCL was still not bundled.
Then 10.2 came along... still no OpenCL.
So I've mailed Mike Houston again. I don't expect an answer this time either.
So that is how they treat their customers and registered developers... They just give arrogant, cheeky replies when you point out a real issue with OpenCL adoption... then they harass you in PM (apparently they don't dare to do it in public.. so they know their conduct is questionable)... and then they ignore you.
The least you can do is be honest about your shortcomings, and remain friendly towards your customers/developers.
Scali - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
I actually did get a reply this time... but not a very useful one.The roadmap for OpenCL is only available to ISVs under an NDA. I'm not sure why it has to be a secret though... unless you have something to hide perhaps?
Aside from that he said that they wanted to have the end-user release co-incide with the release of OpenCL applications from these ISVs.
Doesn't tell us a lot, since we don't know which ISVs they are, what products it is about, or when they are expected to release.
But it doesn't strike me as if AMD is on the verge of releasing OpenCL to end-users. Sounds more like it's still months away.
Too bad for AMD, the first applications with OpenCL support are already available... such as GPU Caps Viewer, which recently had OpenCL tests added. The latest SiSoft Sandra suite also has OpenCL support in its GPGPU benchmarks.
piroroadkill - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
Disappointing, I'd expect it to beat the 4890 in all tests, even by just a hair.As the title says. Wrong price.
Paladin1211 - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
It's nVidia to blame. I think ATI might soon show its HD 6870 at $1000 and HD 6890 at $2000.Come on nVidia, come on...
Leyawiin - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
Thanks for the informative review Ryan. You made me feel better about my purchase last week of a Gigabyte GTX 260 Super Overclock (based on Anandtech's review of it btw). Saved money, got better performance and I don't need DX11 at this point.Paladin1211 - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
Thanks for the informative review Ryan. You make me feel much better about my purchase last October of an HD 5850 (based on Anandtech's review of it btw). Saved money, got better performance and I really need DX11 at this point.poohbear - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
why did you guys use outdated catalyst drivers for this review??? The 10xx series catalysts were supposed to provide performance increases for the 5xxx series, soit makes no sense that u use such old catalyst drivers?Ryan Smith - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
9.9 would have been used for the 4xxx cards.