ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - H.A.W.X.

H.A.W.X. is one last title that ATI has been showing off with regards to its Radeon 5000 line. While the other titles are Hor+ and offer cutting-edge DX11 features, HAWX is quite the opposite. While it is a Hor+ title, it is only a DX10 title and runs quite well on a wide variety of hardware. While you can't hit 60fps on a 5700 or 5600 card with any great detail, 30fps is rather easily attainable.

The well running and scalable title makes it a natural fit when showcasing both lower-end hardware pushing three panels, and high-end hardware pushing six panels. It also comes as no surprise that the additional VRAM largely goes unused, considering the title runs capably on lower hardware.

One note in the HAWX benchmark. Above 1920x1200 the game simply would not allow 4xAA. While the scores provide that the title could handle it, the option simply is not available. Though it isn't our norm, we chose to accept 2xAA so that we could get consistent readings across the spectrum of hardware.

The 5850 and 5830 offer a clean stair step performance curve between the 5870 and 5770, in both widescreen and Eyefinity. Both cards break 60fps in widescreen and 30fps in Eyefinity, all at max settings.

Hitting 60fps

I was able to get 56fps by turning each of the DX10 effects down a notch. This means Shadows and Sun Shafts at Low, and SSAO at Medium. I hit 69fps by turning SSAO down to Low.