Radeon HD 5550

They make noise, too.

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ermi
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Radeon HD 5550

Post by ermi » Sat May 08, 2010 3:29 pm

I'm looking for something between the 5450 and the 5570 for mostly HTPC purposes. Of course, with passive cooling and preferably single slot.

The 5550 seems like the perfect solution.

However, it turned out to be a rather hot card, if this review of the Sapphire 5550 Ultimate is anything to go by.

I have a 4670 Ultimate in one of the PCs with pretty much no ventilation (besides the PSU and CPU fans) and so I know that the Ultimate cooler is pretty decent even under those conditions. Naturally, I was expecting the low end 5xxx series to be even cooler.
But I'll wait for some more reviews before making final judgments.

I also spotted the HIS 5550 Silence and the Club3D 5550 Noiseless Edition.



I was going for the 5450 originally. But then I read in the Anadtech review that the 5450 can't handle some advanced video processing like for example the 5570 can. I still don't know how relevant this actually is or if it even comes into play for 1080p resolutions.
But in general I'd like the HD video acceleration part covered flawlessly.
Last edited by ermi on Mon May 10, 2010 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Spod
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Post by Spod » Mon May 10, 2010 6:40 am

The 5450's shortcomings mainly occur when taking interlaced 1080i content (like most broadcast HD content) and upscaling it to 1080p or higher resolution. You can do the vector adaptive de-interlacing, but if you do, you can't do the other post-processing features like de-noise and edge enhancement. At least, that's what I gather.

I'm using an Asus silent 5570 in an Antec NSK-2480 HTPC with the two stock fans on low and no CPU fan on the Ninja Mini. So far I've had no heat problems, but I'll check temps and post back here.
Compared to the Sapphire, the low-profile HIS has a fairly tiny heatsink - ideal if you're space limited, but it'll need some case airflow. In contrast, the Club3D cooler looks huge, with well spaced fins, and might be the best if you're worried about it getting too hot with minimal airflow. But that's just me looking at pictures - actual testing may turn out differently.

ermi
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Post by ermi » Mon May 10, 2010 1:24 pm

Spod wrote:The 5450's shortcomings mainly occur when taking interlaced 1080i content (like most broadcast HD content) and upscaling it to 1080p or higher resolution. You can do the vector adaptive de-interlacing, but if you do, you can't do the other post-processing features like de-noise and edge enhancement. At least, that's what I gather.
Yeah, that's what I read as well.

Anyway, I ordered the 5450 now (Sapphire, 512MB DDR3). I'll probably live without that extra post-processing, if I ever watch 1080i on/through my PC, anyway.

Parappaman
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Post by Parappaman » Tue May 18, 2010 12:38 pm

I did read somewhere that overclocking the 5450 can improve a lot its ability to fluently deinterlace high resolution videos.

Spod
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Post by Spod » Wed May 26, 2010 4:21 am

Spod wrote:I'm using an Asus silent 5570 in an Antec NSK-2480 HTPC with the two stock fans on low and no CPU fan on the Ninja Mini. So far I've had no heat problems, but I'll check temps and post back here.
A bit late, but I've finally got round to checking some temps - it's idling at 44ºC, so nothing to worry about there. If anyone wants load temps, pm me and I'll check!

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