Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX

[Skyguy]

Sapphire now brings what promises to be a game-changer of a card to consumers: the Radeon 5770 FleX. What's so special about the FleX? Well, it's the first card that supports Eyefinity out of the box, and no expensive DisplayPort or adapters required at all. This means that your garden variety DVI-connector monitor can now run Eyefinity. Of course, you still need three monitors to begin with, but the implications, both cost and technological, are significant.



Click HERE for the full review.

[smduff]

Stellar Review Jake and what a great card it may lack the horse power by itself, however it would be interesting to see this card run in a crossfire with 5770's already on the market. Which brings another question to mind is it possible to run a CF with current cards like the two 5770's I have, or will they have to be the same Flex cards?

[Doctor_Death]

Good review. Great idea from Sapphire to bad it didn't have a little more horsepower.

[Deton]

smart move...you don't have to be rich to enjoy Eyefinitty.

[Skyguy]

Duff, that's an excellent question. I can't see that another FleX edition would be needed because the one card handles all the outputs. I believe I have a regular 5770, so I'll try to see if Crossfire will work with them paired up in the new Eyefinity setup.

If they work, buying 2 x 5770's would be "about" the same cost as a 5870, give "about" the same performance, and would also allow this new Eyefinity setup. That would be outstanding if possible.

[Deton]

If they work, buying 2 x 5770's would be "about" the same cost as a 5870, give "about" the same performance, and would also allow this new Eyefinity setup. That would be outstanding if possible.

are you sure about this?
don't make me feel bad about owning 5870 huh.... can't afford to get two more mons so I can enjoy the Eyefinity.

[Skyguy]

I stand corrected. 2 x 5770's in Crossfire match a 5850, not a 5870. Sorry about that, had a brain fart as usual.

Nonetheless, I'd like to see if this FleX card can Crossfire with a regular one and work in Eyefinity. I didn't have time before the embargo lifted to test, but I'll work on it tomorrow and report back.

[Alpha-Smit]

I stand corrected. 2 x 5770's in Crossfire match a 5850, not a 5870. Sorry about that, had a brain fart as usual.

Nonetheless, I'd like to see if this FleX card can Crossfire with a regular one and work in Eyefinity. I didn't have time before the embargo lifted to test, but I'll work on it tomorrow and report back.

Hi Skyguy, did you ever get to try out the Crossfire setup with a regular 5770 and a 5770 Flex? I was hoping that I would know whether or not a setup like that would work before investing the cash in yet another 5770 card.

[Skyguy]

Sadly, no. Some things came up and then I had to send the card on.........sorry.

[Alpha-Smit]

Well, no big deal Skyguy.. I suppose I can still use the Flex card regardless of Crossfire support with the regular cards.. I have now ordered one and will post a result when I have received and tested the card some time next week..

[Skyguy]

Please let us know how it goes!

[Alpha-Smit]

I received the 5770 Flex card yesterday, and began testing it last night.

At first everything seemed to be working as intended - I enabled Crossfire in CCC and created an Eyefinity setup with three monitors at a resolution of 3456x2048. Everything was working from the Windows desktop, but when I began testing the 3D performance, I realized the cards weren't running in Crossfire mode even though it was enabled in CCC. After tinkering for a while I decided to try my previous setup up of two identical 5770 cards, and it seems Crossfire is not working at all at the moment (and now that I think about it, it may not have been working for some time already), so my tests so far have been completely inconclusive. I will now focus on getting Crossfire to work at all, before testing the Flex card.

[Deton]

I thought Crossfire is not working with EyeInfinity, perhaps the driver is the culprit. Try different driver.

[Alpha-Smit]

That would be news to me, but it certainly looks like you are right. 10.1 - 10.3 and 10.9 drivers all had the same results: No Crossfire when Eyefinity is enabled (on two identical non-Flex 5770 cards).

The good news is Crossfire IS supported when mixing 5770 Flex and regular 5770 cards. It also seems to be producing the same framerates as two identical cards.

NOTE: I was using a Club 3d Radeon HD 5770 OC edition together with the Sapphire HD 5770 Flex edition card. Two Crossfire bridges were installed. The slightly different clock values didn't seem to matter - although I couldn't tell if it was down-clocking the OC card.

A few restrictions:

For some reason the Flex card MUST be installed in the first PCI-e slot (the one closer to the CPU on most MBs). I tried installing the Flex card in the second PCI-e slot, drawing an HDMI signal from the regular 5770 card in the first slot, but every other frame was blank (black) while the cards were operating in Crossfire mode.

The second restriction as stated before, also applies to two identical non-Flex 5770 cards: Crossfire is NOT supported when Eyefinity is enabled.

[Skyguy]

Thanks a bunch Alpha, that info is greatly appreciated!!