slow PowerColor HD5570 w/ 320 shaders = rebadged HD5550?

I got here a brand-new PowerColor Radeon HD5570 1Gb GDDR3 (model: AX5570-1GBK3-HV2) and putting it through benchmarks just to see how it compares..

I was surprised to notice that it scores nearly 20-50% than reference HD5570 benchmarks I can find on the web, so I decided to check more carefully... details as follows.


GPU-Z info shows the following:


These are the scores I got while running 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage:

Test Setup:
Core 2 Duo E6420
Asus P5L-MX (945G chipset),
4Gb DDR2-667 (dual-channel)
Win7 SP1 (32-bit)
PowerColor Radeon HD5570 Catalyst 11.12

(default benchmark scores after a clean boot, no antivirus background tasks nor the like
3DMark03 (1024x768) = 15315
3DMark05 (1024x768) = 9779
3DMark06 (1280x1024) = 4613 (SM 2.0 score = 1550 ; HDR/SM3.0 score = 2146)
3DMark Vantage (Performance preset 1280x1024) = P3186 ; GPU score = 2986

When I compare the scores with HD5570 scores on the Internet, it seems a bit slower (sometimes much slower) -- I understand most benchmark reviews use a very fast CPU system (whereas here it's an old E6420 only), but then I don't think the E6420 should be bottlenecking the HD5570 a lot to have significantly slower scores.
(compared for instance: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5570/25.html
where the test setup used a Core i7-920 and got these scores:
3DMark03 = 24194
3DMark05 = 13798
3DMark06 = 7275 )


Differences in specs than reference HD5570:
I notice this PowerColor Radeon HD5570 has a slightly slower memory clock than the reference HD5570:
this HD5570 has only 667mhz GDDR3 memory (=1334mhz effective rate)
whereas the reference Radeon HD5570 is supposed to be 800mhz = 1600mhz effective rate
while some Radeon HD5570 actually have 900mhz = 1800mhz effective rate.

(with regards to underclocking the video memory clock -- this may be acceptable, since I notice other budget-brands also tend to underclock the memory clocks compared to reference: one such unit I've tested before was a Sparkle brand GF9600GT 512Mb GDDR3 that had only 700mhz=1400mhz memclock rate whereas reference GF9600GT states 900mhz=1800mhz mem clock; but in this budget model, the actual memory chips they used were officially rated at 600mhz=1200mhz memclock only, so that 700mhz=1400mhz was already overclocking the actual memory chips used on that card... anyway that's a different story..)

(also when video card memory is underclocked by the manufacturer, I notice that the manufacturer webpage fails to specify the memory clock on their specs webpage -- this goes true for PowerColor's HD5570 webpage where it lists the GPU clock mhz but Mem clock info seems purposely left blank. In the case of the Sparkle 9600GT I encountered before, I notice that its manufacturer webpage also purposefully didn't state the video memory clock speed...)


Based on GPU-Z and other specs info,
the Radeon HD5570 is supposed to have 400 stream / unified shader processors and 8 ROPs.
Whereas this PowerColor HD5570 has only 320 stream / unified shader processors and 4 ROPs (assuming GPU-Z is correct).


Another mysterious point:
Isn't HD5570 supposed to be codenamed "Redwood", why is it "Turks" here?

Or is there a "cut-down" version of HD5570, which is used in this budget-oriented PowerColor HD5570?

And 320 stream processors / unified shaders is supposed to be Radeon HD5550, not the HD5570 (= 400 shaders) -- is PowerColor cutting corners here and overclocking/rebadging the HD5550 chips into HD5570 graphics cards?

(The significant thing above is the 320 vs 400 stream processors. I notice from other web references -- mostly user reviews (unlike bigger hardware websites like TechPowerUp which seem to be provided with reference clocks of 800mhz or 900mhz video mem clock for their hardware testing) -- that someone got a PowerColor with a clocked down MEM clock (667mhz instead of 800mhz -- so this seems to be a "cutting corners" thing for PowerColor). Also, checking PowerColor's website, they do NOT list the MEM clock for their HD5570 (maybe because they are cutting corners here compared to other reference HD5570).


I also tried firing up Aida64 v2.20 to see what GPU details can be gleaned from this PowerColor Radeon HD5570. Unfortunately, Aida64 also fails to give details of this video card, but it does state the card is "NI Turks LE", which I take it to mean Northern Islands Turks LE.

(however, nowhere do I find a Turks LE -- from this wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units
It states that Turks Pro = HD6570 and Turks XT = HD6670;
but there's no Turks LE..

Using GPU-Z to dump the BIOS of this video card shows the following info:


we can make out these strings:
Turks LE1
RV930_LE (TUL = PowerColor)


GPU Caps Viewer 1.14.6 also gets stumped by this mysterious PowerColor Radeon HD5570 (GPU: unknown):




Other (confusing) clues here:
http://developer.amd.com/download/pc_vendor_id/pages/default.aspx

ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series = Evergreen (Redwood) = 68DA
AMD Radeon HD 5500 Series = Northern Islands (Turks) = 675F

Click to expand...

The GPU-Z screenshot above of the PowerColor Radeon HD5570 says Device ID = 675F and String ID = "AMD Radeon HD 5500 series" (take notes HD5500 series could mean either HD5550 or HD5570 -- Catalyst Control Center also doesn't clearly identify the card and just says "HD5500 series" ; no indication that the card is actually an HD5570 apart from the PowerColor box packaging pictured below)

So perhaps a "real" HD5570 (the one with 400 stream processing units) would have Device ID = 68DA and string ID = "ATI Radeon HD5500 series".

Hmmm... an ATI Radeon HD5500 is superior to an AMD Radeon HD5500??

I'm attaching the actual pics of this PowerColor Radeon HD5570 1Gb GDDR3 PCI-E graphics card:

whole package:


box info:



curiously, the box info says nothing about the # of stream processors / shaders nor about the video memory clock rate -- I think some manufacturers indicate those info clearly

front view:



back view:


side view:



zoom-in view of the memory chips:


The memory chips are Nanya NT5CB64M16DP-CF -- which, according to Nanya's website: http://www.nanya.com/NanyaAdmin/GetFiles.ashx?ID=890, are GDDR3 memory modules rated at 667mhz (right on spec, not underclocked nor overclocked), although these clocks are lower than reference HD5570's (which are supposed to be 800=1600mhz effective).

Anyone else with a (new-revision) HD5570 or HD5550? (one that's bought new in the last few months or so; in case you got a new revision too)

Maybe could someone post a GPU-Z of their HD5570 / HD5550 (if also PowerColor brand, that would be best; but other brands OK to for comparison)?

Prices of computer parts and peripherals tend to be a bit more expensive in our country than what I see in foreign online shops.

This PowerColor Radeon HD5570 1Gb GDDR3 AX5570-1GKB3-HV2 would roughly be the equivalent of US$ 53 (using Google's currency converter).

The next least expensive variety of HD5570 I can see in our local computer shops is a Sapphire Radeon HD5570 1Gb GDDR3 which would roughly be around US$ 56 equivalent.

If the Sapphire Radeon HD5570 (more expensive by US$ 3) would be a "real" HD5570 specs/performance, then I suppose it would be worth it (by the above benchmark comparisons)

In our local computer shop's policies, I suppose it would be difficult to have it exchanged by telling the store personnel that "this HD5570 card is lacking 80 shaders and 4 ROPs" though...
(It's a valid reason to exchange an item if the card is defective or has issues, but since the card has "performance issues"... will try to ask when I get back to the shop though)

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone else has encountered such an oddball HD5570 card?

It looks like the PowerColor HD5570 graphics card I tested is not an isolated case.

I posted in our local hardware message forum to check if anyone else has encountered similar weird results with their newly-bought HD5570.

One of them mentioned he bought the Sapphire Radeon HD5570 1Gb GDDR3 (possibly the model I mentioned above).

And his findings below:



It's also a Turks with 320 shaders and with practically the same (much slower than "normal" HD5570) 3DMark06 results.


Is AMD quietly shipping out neutered HD5570 graphics chips for the entry-level market?
(Thus even if I had opted to buy the slightly more expensive (by US$2-3) Sapphire Radeon HD5570 1Gb GDDR3, I would likely have gotten similar results..)

I'd suspect the international scene (like this TechPowerUp forum) would have quicker news about this, rather than back in our country where the latest hardware tend to arrive a bit slower...