Notebook Critic

With RADEON Mobility 5650 GPUS appearing at some pretty amazing price points, I decided to have a closer look at the AMD/ATI lineup to understand what they are trying to do.

The answer is simple, they are putting immense pressure on Nvidia by dropping prices on high yield product ranges – exactly what is supposed to happen with chips over time; you pay less for more power. Maybe it’s Nvidia’s rumored aggressive OEM pricing that is driving prices down (after all, lack of innovation on Nvidia’s part means they only have price to compete with). Either way, the consumer wins when these price wars start.

Here is the lineup (notice that all four use the same ‘Madison’ GPU core):

• 5650 – already appearing in low priced notebooks like the Gateway NV5909h. It uses 400 stream processors operating at between 450-650 MHz (vendor choice, but expect 450-550 MHz speeds). Ram is 128 bit DDR3 or GDDR3 at 800 MHz. This solution is just a little bit faster than last year’s 4670. TDP is rated at 15-19 Watts (probably for 450-550 MHz version). I don’t think we’ll see 650 MHz 5650, because that would simply get labeled as the next GPU in the line…
• 5730 – there does not appear to be a 5670 this year – this replaces it.  Specs are essentially the same as the 5650 except clocks are locked at 650 for the stream processors. TDP is also higher at 26 Watts.
• 5750 – this operates 400 stream processors at 550 MHz coupled with much higher performance GDDR5. While the GPU is the same, memory bandwidth is doubled.
• 5770 – this operates 400 stream processors at 650 MHz and keeps the 5750′s GDDR5. AMD claims 30 Watts TDP.

One GPU, four trim levels. It should be pretty easy to squeeze 650 MHz out of any of these cores if you are using a cooling pad. Obviously, there is no magical way to upgrade GDDR3 to GDDR5, so make sure you get the better memory if you can. There will be lot’s of confusion regarding these parts so run GPU-Z on a notebook before buying (if possible).