ATI Radeon HD 5870: DirectX 11, Eyefinity, And Serious Speed

[cangelini]

A little more than a year after ATI shocked us with its Radeon HD 4870, it's launching the first DirectX 11 GPU, which packs more than just the promise of next-gen compatibility. We got our hands on a pair of 5870s and spent a week benchmarking them.

ATI Radeon HD 5870: DirectX 11, Eyefinity, And Serious Speed : Read more

 

[hispeed120]

I'm. So. Excited.

 

[Guest]

Can't wait

 

[crosko42]

So it looks like 1 is enough for me.. Dont plan on getting a 30 inch monitor any time soon.

 

[jezza333]

Looks like the NDA lifted at 11:00PM, as there's a load of reviews now just out. Once again it shows that AMD can produce a seriously killer card...

Crysis 2 on an x2 of this is exactly what I'm waiting for.

 

[woostar88]

This is incredible at the price point.

 

[LORD_ORION]

Err... I thought I was going to see more for the price. Regardless, I think ATI missed the mark here. I am interested in playing games on my HDTV since me and my monitor don't care about these higher resolutions. Fail cakes... Nivida is undoubtedly going to rape ATI in performance with the 300 series. This is good news for mainstream prices however.... you can ptobably upgrade to a current DX10 board soon for a very good price, and then buy a 5850 for $100 in a year from now. Result? Don't but a 5000 series card yet until the price comes down? Heh, I bet the cards will be $100 less in December if the 300 series launches.

This is not to say I am an Nvidia fan, just undoubtedly you would do well for yourself to hold off for a bit if you want to buy a 5000 series... as the price will come down for a good price/performance ratio soon enough.

 

[tipmen]

wait, wait, before I look can it play cry... HOLY SHIT?!

 

[viper666]

why didn't they thest it against a GTX 295 rather than 280??? its far superior...

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]viper666[/nom]why didn't they thest it against a GTX 295 rather than 280??? its far superior...[/citation]

Ran it against a GTX 295 and a 285 and 285s in SLI

 

[Annisman]

I refuse to buy until the 2GB versions come out, not to mention newegg letting you buy more than 1 at a time, paper launch ftl.

 

[jasperjones]

Thanks for the timely review. I have to say though, some of the technical details are beyond me. It'd be useful if you explained terms such as "VLIW architecture" or "tessellation engine"

 

[viper666]

oh my bad... didn't see the rest of the pages

 

[megamanx00]

O M F G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just wish the darn thing wasn't so big, but man, what a card! Now I'm thinking about a bigger case 😀

 

[Annisman]

Oops, who am I kidding ? I just ordered 2 5870's. One Sapphire, and one HIS, seeing as how they limit you to one per customer.

 

[falchard]

I think most of this review has to do with how many games are optimized for nVidia. The Crytek Engine 2.0 and Source Engine are well known for heavily favoring nVidia architecture yet compose the bulk of the benchmarks. I think the fact ATI can do best in these engines when they have a detect ATI instant nerf its performance speaks measures for the actual card.

 

[charlesxuma]

I WANT MY MOOOMMYYYYYY !!!!!!!

 

[tipmen]

Another thing is that the 5800x2 isn't out yet, now think of two of those bad boys in Crossfire.

 

[blackbyron]

Not bad for Crysis benchmark. I really want 5870 for my christmas present, but damn I also need to buy a new PSU.

 

[blackbyron]

In addition, I am impressed that the 5870 has a better power consumption and better gaming performance compare to DX10 cards. If the card is affordable I'd definite buy one.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]jasperjones[/nom]Thanks for the timely review. I have to say though, some of the technical details are beyond me. It'd be useful if you explained terms such as "VLIW architecture" or "tessellation engine"[/citation]

Jasper,
TBH, the architectural details are secondary to how the card performs. However, if you'd like a better idea of what tessellation can do for you, check out the picture of the Alien on page six!

 

[megamanx00]

Now I wanna see a review of these cards in 4-way crossfire against say triple and 4-way SLI. Of course the power draw and heat would probably be insane 😀.

 

[bk420]

It looks good so far, but the 5870X2 will be my money's worth 😀

 

[Proximon]

Thanks Chris,

I thought your conclusion was well balanced and stated clearer than the other guys... who got their reviews out first. Everyone does seem to agree more or less on performance.

 

[Guest]

Card is ffs huge 8800GTS ultra huge and the ultra had extra length so you can strap it to a HDD cage or some shit haha.

Cards looks good for it's price seems reasonable. too bad this is only DX10 and we all assume it runs DX9 it should no problem. But i'll hold out till DX11 cards and Nvidia gives something to choose to buy a card. Last time i bought in haste of DX10 8800gts 640mb and got screwed a month or two later when they release 8800 GT that performed better and was cheaper. Also back then ATI 2000's 3000's enthusiast series was nearly a joke in benchmarks compared to nvidia. So I've learned to hold out a bit this shit ain't cheap enough for me to buy sell buy sell.