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Card Layout: Enough talk, let's have some fun. I don't know about anyone else, but I love the smell of a new graphics card in the morning. It smells like victory. Or, at least that is what I imagine victory smells like.
If you have seen the HD5870 already, then you already generally know what the HD5770 looks like. While the HD5750 will be going with a more traditional look, the HD5870, HD5850, and HD5770 all have this new style of completely enclosing the card in a nice black shroud. It is one of the most original looks I have ever see in a GPU, and I think it's rather eye-catching.
Probably the most striking aspect of the design is the rear-end. It somehow reminds me of the backside of a futuristic hover car. I do like how the solitary six-pin plug is neatly tucked into the "exhaust".
The side is also stylishly designed with the "ATI Radeon" decal that will be easily readable when installed in a windowed case.
One difference between the HD5770 and the HD5870 is the bottom. While the HD5870 is also covered on the bottom, the HD5770 went with the traditional route of showing the PCB.
Since Qimonda went belly up, the HD5770 has gone with Hynix for its GDDR5. According to the Hynix spec page, these are rated for 1.5V.
One of the big changes with this generation is the connector layout. For ages, we had either dual DVI ports with a proprietary TV-out plug in the middle, or a VGA and a single DVI surrounding the TV-out. Now, the VGA and TV-Out ports are gone, and we have dual DVI ports, an onboard HDMI and a DisplayPort connector. The future is here, and these cards are catering to the fact that HDMI TVs are cheap enough that they are in fact, the mainstream connector of choice. Oh, S-Video, how I will miss you. Not.
Last but not least, the side of the card that will be facing the motherboard. Not surprisingly, this side is mostly bare.
For a quick comparison, we have the HD5770 lined up next to the HD4890 and HD5870, and as you can see, the HD5770 is miniscule in comparison. While it is still a dual slot card, the HD5770 should pack a pretty mean punch and still fit into just about any cramped mid-tower case. It may even find its way into an HTPC or two....
I couldn't really resist, so here is another money shot of the HD5770 palling it up with its bigger brother and predecessor.
Finally, the bundle. Most of Sapphire's bundles in the past have come with free software offerings from Cyberlink and Futuremark, this one comes with a free copy of DiRT-2, that is, when it comes out. To redeem the game, all you have to do is enter the key on the card into your Steam account, and you will have access to the game as soon as it is released. Not a bad deal at all, and since DiRT-2 will be one of the first DirectX 11 games out there, it just may make it into the benchmarking suite. The bundle also includes what we would expect, including a Molex to PCI-e power adapter, a Crossfire bridge, a DVI-VGA adapter, manual, and driver CD.
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