ATI Radeon HD 5830 performance overview

ATI rolled out its Radeon HD 5830, a new DX11 card with a $239 pricetag. This card is the little brother of the Radeon HD 5850, it has the same amount of transistors but only 1120 stream processors (vs 1440) and 16 ROPs (vs 32). The 1GB GDDR5 has the same clockspeed though, and the GPU's clock has been raised to from 725MHz to 800MHz to compensate the loss of stream processors.

Lets take a look at some reviews to see how this new model performs, first up is an article from Anandtech. The site concludes the card costs too much money and that it's a disappointment after the well received 4830.

At the risk of sounding petty over $20, a $240 5830 is $20 too much. If this were priced at $200-$220 it wouldn’t be a clear choice for the 5830, but it wouldn’t be such a clear choice against it. For $240 you can try to shop around for a 4890 and save $40-$60 while getting a card that will perform better at most of today’s games, or save even more by going with a 4870 that will slightly underperform the 5830. Alternatively you can save up another $60 and get the 5850, a card that is faster running and cooler running at the same time. There is no scenario where we can wholeheartedly justify a 5830 if it’s going to be a $240 card – this really should have been the new $200 wonder card.

PC Perspective writes it's a tough call, the Radeon HD 5830 has the advantage of DX11 and Eyefinity, but for current-gen gaming the $15 cheaper GeForce GTX 260+ may be the better option.

When I look at those prices what stands out for me? First, none of these cards appear to the run-away winner really. The $70 price jump between the HD 5830 and the HD 5850 is pretty steep since it is an increase of about 30% of the price of the HD 5830. However, is the HD 5830 really $70 better than the HD 5770? I don't think so either. Here's the stinger: is the $205 GeForce GTX 260+ a better option than the $239 HD 5830? If we are looking ONLY at current generation gaming performance, then I have to say yes, it is. But when we look at the added features like DX11 support and Eyefinity, can the HD 5830 be the better option for some or most people? Again, I yes it can.

For a third opinion we head over to HotHardware, they conclude the Radeon HD 5830 is clearly a solid performer, but tricky to recommend.

Although it's clearly a solid performer, the Radeon HD 5830 is a tricky recommendation. If you've got a monitor with a native resolution of 1680x1050, it may be advisable to save a few bucks and go with the 5770, which was right on the 5830's heals at that resolution throughout testing. If you've got a monitor that supports a native resolution of 1920x1200 or higher though, the additional investment necessary to score a Radeon HD 5850 may be worth it. See our L4D2, H.A.W.X., and ET:QW results if you need more convincing.

Regardless, the Radeon HD 5830 is clearly the best card to purchase at its price point. Unless you've got to have PhysX support, we'd trade the GTX 275's slight performance advantage overall for the Radeon HD 5830's support for DX11 and superior power consumption/thermal characteristics.