Results: Far Cry 2, WoW, and Crysis
Far Cry 2

    This expansive and terrific looking game may have been a letdown in gameplay, but it makes for an excellent test.  The Long Ranch demo is used with the internal benchmark program.  Settings are put to High/DX10/HDR with 4X AA and 16X AF.

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MSI R5770 HAWK Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 41

MSI R5770 HAWK Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 42

    From matching performance at low resolutions to flat out spanking the HD 4870, the R5770 has its strongest showing in Far Cry 2.

World of Warcraft

    16 million users can’t (or at least shouldn’t) be wrong.  Arguably, the world’s most popular MMO may not have the spiffiest graphics, but it has improved throughout the years with multiple expansions.  A manual runthrough is performed in the Crystalsong Forest area and captured by FRAPS.  Settings are set to High/Highest with medium shadows, 4X AA and 16X AF.

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MSI R5770 HAWK Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 44

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    None of the cards are particularly stressed by this game, even at the highest resolution.  Still, the older and less bandwidth starved HD 4870 lead the pack.  Considering that this game is designed to be run on much older hardware, it is no surprise that all of these cards perform very well in WoW.

Crysis

    This graphical gem still can’t be played at the very highest resolutions and quality levels by multi-GPU setups, so it is a tremendous workout for single GPU cards.  A manual runthrough at the beginning portion of the game is captured with FRAPS.  Settings are put at High with no AA and 16X AF.

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MSI R5770 HAWK Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 47

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    Throughout testing, the R5770 is just a few frames behind the older HD 4870, even though that older card has nearly double the memory bandwidth available to it.  While the R5770 is not really an upgrade for the HD 4870, neither is it a slouch that can’t compete with the older card.
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