VisionTek HD 5750 Review - PAGE 16

Temperature

To measure core GPU temperature, we used the hardware monitoring program in RivaTuner 2.24. The idle temperature was taken after leaving nothing running, on Vista's desktop, for a minute. The load temperature was taken after a few hours of running OCCT.

The VisionTek HD 5750 proved to be an extremely cool running card. Both its' idle and load temperatures were way cooler then the competition. Not only was the card extremely cool, it was also extremely quiet. Even when I had the fan set at 100% I could barely here the card running. This would be great for anyone looking to build a silent HTPC. Not only that, but anyone looking to keep their computer quiet.

Power Usage

To measure power usage, we used a Kill A Watt P4400 power meter. Note that the above numbers represent the power drain for the entire benchmarking system, not just the video cards themselves. For the 'idle' readings we measured the power drain from the desktop, with no applications running; for the 'load' situation, we took the sustained peak power drain readings at the end of a 3 hour run of OCCT.

It's no surprise that the VisionTek HD 5750 consumed the least amount of power in our tests. This is, however, a very good thing. We often don't need powerful cards, so it's great if the lower end models don't suck up tons of energy. I was a little dissapointed, because when idle the HD 5750 consumed a bit more power then some of the other cards. Then again the difference is so minimal, it really shouldn't matter.

Conclusion

As far as performance goes the VisionTek 5750 wasn't all that great. However, that's okay, especially considering many users don't need super-powerful cards. The HD 5750 is on the lower end of the new gaming video cards coming out from ATI, which puts it about in the mid range card category of video cards their line-up in general. For this category, the card performs great! It provides you with very decent FPS in most current games, plus the power requirements aren't all that huge.

Not only that but you'll be able to utilize DX11 at a very reasonable price. Not only will you be able to utilize DX11, you'll also be able to use the 5XXX series card's other features. This includes ATI's Eyefinity and Stream technologies.

I'll admit, the overclocking wasn't so great. Then again, not to many users will purchase this card with the intent of overclocking. The users that are looking to get into overclocking will be pleased to see that they will be able to get some decent increases in clock speeds. Plus the fans are very quiet, even when set at 100%.

I'm not going to recommend this card to any hardcore user. However, if you're looking to step up to DX11 while on a strict budget, then the VisionTek HD 5750 might just be the card for you. Plus, two of these babies in Crossfire can crush a ton of games!