For nearly 25 years, Micro-Star International has made computer components and solutions for various markets. Along with all-in-one PCs, notebooks, desktops and servers, MSI produces computer components, including graphics boards. MSI carries a strong portfolio of both NVIDIA and AMD ATI graphics cards, including the latest generation Fermi and Evergreen series GPUs.

Today we're looking at the MSI HD 5770 PMD1G. This rev2 HD 5770 features a different cooler than the initial rev1 reference Sapphire card we tested last year, at the launch of the 5700 series. The center mounted 8cm axial style fan cooler is the biggest change from the externally exhausted blower fan cooled reference design.

MSI Radeon HD 5770 PMD1G

MSI Radeon HD 5770 Specifications

Product	MSI HD 5770 PMD1G
Core	40nm 'Juniper'
STREAM Cores	800
SIMD	10
Core Clock	850MHz
Memory Clock	1200MHz
Frame Buffer	1024GB
Memory Bus Width	128-bit
Power [Idle/Load]	18W/108W
Price	~$160 USD

Our investigation will look at the power and performance of the MSI HD 5770 PMD1G, in single and Crossfire configuration. For comparative purposes, we're going to pit it against the HD 5870, in HIS Radeon HD 5870 iCooler TurboV form, to see if there is a benefit to buying two, cheaper, midrange performance cards vs. a single high end enthusiast part.