Final Words & Conclusion
The Verdict
So this conclusion will be much like the reference review. We like the Radeon HD 5670 for what it is and does. Surely it's not the greatest gaming card on the planet, in fact it's far from that -- though you will be able to play the occasional game or two if you stick to say 1280x1024 and lower image quality a bit.
But sure, the card is not intended for gaming anyway. The Radeon HD 5670 is intended for normal daily PC usage supporting Windows Vista and Windows 7 Aero, desktop work on multiple monitors (can be high-resolution), high definition content playback but most of all we feel this ICEQ model is an excellent HTPC card.
In particular the ICEQ model we tested today reaps additional benefit from that cooler. Now I must state that the ICEQ design itself is getting outdated. It's time for HIS to move onwards to something new that is a little more aesthetically pleasing. But that doesn't change the fact that physically its one of the best coolers a GPU can have. The cooling performance is very good and the noise level is downright silent as you will not hear this cooler whatsoever.
Also the design of the cooler takes the airflow inside your PC to cool the GPU and then pushes out that warm and heated air outside the PC. And these are all things extremely important for HTPCs where there are three variables important:
- Excellent decoding, accelerations and post processing required
- Silent cooling solution
- cooling solution that pushes heat out of the system
All three requirements are sufficiently fulfilled by the HIS Radeon HD 5670 ICEQ. Next to that HIS made very sure that you can connect whatever monitor or HDTV towards this product as you'll get a analog Sub-D (VGA), DVI and HDMI connector. Speaking of that HDMI connector, it will pass through audio as well, supporting 7.1 audio and Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio.
So if you leave gaming out of the equation then for the money everything else makes this card a really good deal. And I say this with some reservation though, as we feel the overall prices of the 5670 series needs to come down a little bit further for them to become really interesting. Now some advise; if you do plan to game then we strongly advise you to look at the Radeon HD 5750, it's the next best thing offering nearly doubled up game performance.
Other then that, a great little card that comes recommended -- if you are not a serious gamer that is.
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