Last Thursday we caught a glimpse of the Radeon HD 5770, but a few 3DMark runs didn’t really answer any questions. Wonder no more, however, as today is the day when the Radeon 5770 hits the streets.

The first thing that can be noticed is that the 5770’s specifications do not stray far from that of the 4870’s. When translating the paper to testing, the spread still holds true: The 5770 and 4870 trade blows, with the 4870 pulling a touch ahead. The 5770 lags behind when memory bandwidth is at a premium, while it pulls ahead when fill rate is at a premium.

From the perspective of competition, the GeForce GTX 260 is the 5770’s main opponent. There are no solid victories here, either. The 5770 and the GTX 260 trade spots on the podium every time you change the game and the resolution.

The XFX Radeon HD 5770

Physically, the card is the same height as the Radeon HD 5870, but the board is much shorter due to the smaller die and lessened power requirements. To that end, the card requires just one six-pin PCIe connector to grab all the juice it needs. The board also contains one HDMI, two DisplayPort, and two DVI ports. Rounding out the reference design, the 5770 officially features 1GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit memory bus.

The issue of price has been a contentious and hotly debated issue, but the matter is finally settled: $159.99.

The 5770’s pricepoint makes it cheaper than any similarly priced GeForce. On the other hand, it makes for an identity crisis within the ATI lineup. An MSRP of $159.99 is a shade higher than the 4870, which commands a slight performance lead for about $10 less. Continuing in terms of price/performance, the 5770 also falls to the Radeon 4890 ($189.99); while the 4890 is about 16% more expensive, it’s about 20% faster in the real world.

Beyond gaming, the Radeon HD 5770 is a compelling addition to any HTPC setup. The Radeon HD 5000 family is the first to handle the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA (bitstream audio) offered by select Blu-ray titles. This was a task that previously required an extremely expensive sound card and a nightmarish level of tinkering with software. This audio prowess–combined with complete H.264, VC1 and MPEG-2 offloading and an HDMI port–makes the Radeon HD 5770 very robust in the home theatre as well.

All things considered, the Radeon HD 5770 cannot be sold by its value alone. As a price/performance loser to a suite of cards from both NVIDIA and ATI, that’s a case we cannot make. On the other hand, the 5770 is certainly not a wash: Great thermals, an enticing pricepoint, unrivaled HTPC capabilities, and DirectX 11 compliance will move more than a few of these adapters.

Ultimately, we believe the card is best suited for buyers who are still kicking around with a GeForce 8000, GeForce 9000 or Radeon 3000-series card. While this crowd could get more for their money by cozying up to a 4890 or a GTX 260, they would be selling themselves short by not buying into DirectX 11 at a similar price.