the reasons for the choice
i am after the best clocks i can get while at the same time trying to minimise my power use
prior to this i was running essentially the same rig in my sig, but had "upgraded" from a palit 9600gt to a galaxy 9800gt (55nm edition) - more a cross-grade, but i like double the texture shaders, and the 55nm vs 65nm process allowed more headroom for less heat under a thermalright v2 cooler
sadly for me it was the alleged "low power" edition which essentially has no 6 pin extra supply, and while it clocked nicely, the vdroop on the 12v rail (even with the corsair hx650) was alarming to put it mildly
so, having obtained the corsair hx650 i figured go again, and had initially thought that a gts250, essentially a 55nm process clone of the 9800gt, with double the ram would be a nice idea
then someone offered a relatively cheap 5750 on a local forum sale, and i started researching a bit after i missed out as it seemed a good alternative
my only previous "new" ati card had been an agp radeon 9550, and i have a 2nd hand x550, but there was no ignoring my almost decade long nvidia fanbois status had made me ignorant of what ati had been up to lately
hd5770 is a 40nm process and a big step up from the 5750 ! a nice match for my 45nm xeon in terms of thermal load and power requirements
eventually i settled on the xfx version (i believe that at present they are all clones of the reference model).. my influence for brand was that xfx have a great policy for transfer of warranty, maximising upgrade goodness in the event that i decide to move on in the warranty period
the hardware
due to the luck of the draw i got this version :
not a bad lucky dip - the cooler underlying the shroud is a zalman like device with a single chunky heatpipe; there are no extra sinks on the vram, but a spare set of the dinky blue zalman ones that come with the vf7000 soon fixed that - 4 each side of the board
i also deconstructed it and applied some arctic silver to the core; this is standard for me, but it also confirmed that the mounting and available space would allow me to fit the thermalright v2 should i desire more cooling grunt
my only dismay was there is only a 2 pin fan header for the on-card controller, and my soldering skills suck... this means either some scrambling for a different fan lead and some work, or using a 3-pin header from the motherboard, thus losing the virtue of the on-card adjustments (more on that later)
comes with 2 dvi ports, a vga adapter, one display and one hdmi port
twin slot solution; only a single crossfire connection, but for me that's probably one more than i'll use
fitting it
no big deal; if you are on the forum i am sure you can do it
requires a 6 pin auxiliary power supply, but they also threw a molex adapter in the box
it is a fairly short card compared to its big brother 58** series, and far smaller than the gtx line by my viewing of them on line
there is room next to it to hang a cross flow 120mm fan on the zalman extension mount, which i have since done
the thermalright v2 won't allow such a setup, as the heatpipes protrude too far and obstruct the mount
looks like this (presently) :
starting up
if you had an nvidia before you'll need to uninstall the drivers, and probably clean the registry for good measure (ccleaner will do it fine)
the drivers come on an included disk, but the newest are online and a bit of a chunk to download
several reboots later and you're there, although curiously my machine failed to post a screen until i had completely powered down and let it digest the change for a while - dunno if that's a regular experience ?
within the catalyst control centre there is "ati overdrive" which allows you to manually set the fan speed (20% minimum to 100% max) and also to overclock with their tools
to cut a long story short, the clock speeds easily went from default 850/1200 to 960/1445 without a hiccup - the only thing holding back further overclocking goodness was that the sliders had hit the far end of available settings
- i suspect here's more there but i haven't figured out how to dial it up yet 
comments
most impressively, the card draws about 23w idle, and the power supply and fan speed is automagically adjusted according to requirements from 157/300 up to overclock max as defined
even at peak it's 70% the draw of a comparable nvidia gts/x-series, and well under the high end 4-series that ati upgraded from
the fan is inaudible at 20%, barely louder at 35% (auto minimum) and maxes at ~60% when left to choose for itself - not loud, and in fact quieter than many other default cooling solutions at idle from my experiences (the reason i have aftermarket cooling as standard previously)
sure, nvidia can do likewise using rivatuner, but i am really impressed by getting all this to happen without anything more than an initial "go faster" tweak, and then leave it to do its stuff
temp wise it works well - the idle here today is 42c, but considering the ambient temp is 34c then ~10c over ambient is great enough
pumping it up on furmark for a benchie at 100% fan and it hits 79c in the requisite minute - perhaps a bit toasty, and i am still considering some thermalright v2 cooling
for the record, a session on bioshock2 with maxxed out settings at 1920x1200 last night, with the fan on auto (around 50%) never got beyond low 70's
borderlands at 1680x1050 with 4xaa is smooth and gorgeous; i haven't tried it overclocked yet, so maybe it'll go bigger res without taking a hit
it has multi screen capabilities, but for the mid-range gamer that's probably fluff although works well according to reviews
conclusion
priced at just over $200 (australian) for a top brand card which is a power miser, overclocks to the a happy degree straight out of the box and is really quiet, - what can i say ? no complaints here
comparison card on the green team would be probably a gtx260 if you allow for my overclock, and that's about $70 more expensive
the gts250 (9800gt) with a gig of vram is $30 or so less, but it isn't in the same league - perhaps an hd5750 would be the option there, and similar price though cheaper again than the nvidia equivalent
sure, if you are an uber-gamester this isn't your first choice
but if you want a card that saves you money for day-to-day browsing and mail and offers you the chance to let rip for occasional gaming goodness at moderate resolution and high settings, buy this
it won't disappoint you
