ATI Radeon 5670, 5550 & 5450 Review - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is the well received action title by Rocksteady. The game offers very detailed environments with a great visual style and high quality. There are known issues with AA using ATI cards. You cannot set the AA level from within the game, and have to force it with the Catalyst Control panel. All settings within the game were maxed out. I used 4xAA with Adaptive Multi-Sampling (the balance between Quality and Performance) from within the CCC.

The AA implementation produces a greater than expected impact on the performance. I know there are ways to tweak the game to use the AA from within the game itself. However, I believe finding the information and implementing it is beyond the average gamer. While an enthusiast (i.e., target market of both the WSGF and this card) might go through the trouble, many mainstream gamers will not. My testing actually ran all the way down through the Radeon HD 5450, and using the "native" options provided the most consistent platform for testing.

The HD 5670 almost cracks 30fps at 1680x1050. However, the game turns into a slideshow at Eyefinity. The 5670 and 5550 perform closely at normal widescreen. The difference between the 5670 and the 5750 is readily evident.

Batman:AA (pun actually not intended) is a unique title. It is made well, and plays well, but technical issues can really hamper performance. The impacts are so great that 5760x1200 is simply unplayable with any card.

Hitting 60fps

1920x1200: 2xAA - 37fps, 0xAA - 58fps

1680x1050: 2xAA - 46fps, 0xAA - 73fps