ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB: The World's Fastest Graphics Card

[Konman]

Wow, it sucks 294 watts of power on the full load.

I remember in the late 90s I had a PC which had a 300 watt power supply and it was good enough for the whole PC. Having a couple of these in crossfire configuration and you will need a 1000 watt power supply for your PC.

 

[AtuBrian]

1) Take two top-end GPUs. In Nvidia’s case, it was the GT200 with 240 stream processors. In ATI’s, it’s the 1,600-shader Cypress found in its Radeon HD 5870.
2) Drop clock rates a bit in order to keep power and thermals under control.
3) ???
4) Profit

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

I am a hardware junkie
Now give me some computer games to play with them.

 

[pathasse]

Thats a Big ass card

 

[Dougx1317]

I remember in the late 90s I had a PC which had a 300 watt power supply
and it was good enough for the whole PC.

I bought a computer for a friend about 2 weeks ago that only had a 225W power supply. Even with an Athlon X2 II and integrated graphic I was surprised.

 

[Guest]

What type of monitors use a res of 1900x1200, Mr. Chris Angelini? Just wondering .

 

[Guest]

When I learned that the Geforce GTX 295 was faster than the Radeon HD 5870, it disappointed me that although ATI could keep the cost low, they couldn't beat out Nvidia. Now that the Radeon HD 5970's out, it makes me glad to know that the fight's on again.

 

[tommy6860]

While this card looks to smoke, I was surprised at how my two cards beat this setup and did better than the 5870x2 shown here, and my setup doesn't have the CPU Horsepower this test had. Now I don't have the 975 extreme, but my CPU did well not being OCed, but I got a much better GPU score than any of the results here listed. I also do not have my system OCed one iota, everything is set to auto, except where I had to set my memory settings in the BIOS, here's my setup:

OS - Windows 7 64bit
CPU - i7 950 3.06ghz
Motherboard - Asus Rampage II Extreme
Memory - 6gb G-Skill DDR3 1333mhz
Graphics Cards - Sapphire Radeon 5870 x 2
Sound Card - Soundblaster X-fi 24bit
Monitor - Samsung ToC T240HD 24" (1900x1200)
Silverstonr T1000 1000w PSU

Here are my benchmark results from 3DMark Vantage:

CPU Score
19932
Graphics Score
22611

 

[68vistacruiser]

In the end the 5970 is still an ATI card. I got burned once with them, and that was enough. When Nvidia comes out with their new card, I'll get that.

 

[tommy6860]

[citation][nom]68vistacruiser[/nom]In the end the 5970 is still an ATI card. I got burned once with them, and that was enough. When Nvidia comes out with their new card, I'll get that.[/citation]

Well, I am certainly not a fan of a certain brand, I got this card because of the DX11 capabilities. Being burned once doesn't sound bad, unless customer support totally blew you off. I got burned by my first card from Nvidia long ago but they resolved it real fast (I was very pleased with their response time). I can say these two 5870s run awesome. My last ATI card the 9800pro was awesome after the Nvidia Gforce5000 series release, those 5000s were total crap, but they shined thru with their 6000 series and all of their subsequent releases have been great since.

I was going to just get a 295, until I saw these benchmarks where even one 5870 was beating the 295 on a few results; that 1g of power for the 5870 compared to 1.7 for the 295 was amazing, and it got worse for the 295 when the higher settings were used on those tests.

Using two 5870s just blew it out of the water and they use little power comparatively. I was thinking of waiting until the GTX300 comes out, but if it is more powerful, I doubt it will be by much and the cost will be extreme as Nvidia cards have always been pricey (they still lose money on the 295 from what I have read).

 

[nativetj]

That sounds like one damn good of a graphics card, take that Nvida

 

[Guest]

Yes, AMD has raised the bar, and it is very exciting, I'm definitely tempted to buy a 5870. But I'm gonna do as someone above said, I'm waiting for Nvidia's GT300 and see what comes of it. After looking at the preliminary information, it looks promising.

Also I find it funny how quick fanboys are to bash Nvidia...
Wait for GT300 to roll around you won't be spewing crap then.
Also, seems like you guys like pitting bulldogs on chihuahuas; it's actually a dirty shame it took AMDs highest end component to completely beat out the GTX295, sure its cheaper, but REALLY, you're comparing apples to oranges, the GTX 295 is the last generation, the 5970 is the newer generation, you cannot really compare them and expect it to mean anything. Compare away once Nvidia releases the GTX395 then we'll be talking for real, in the meantime its all lip and nothing but lip. The smarter consumer wins in the end, and will have the last laugh, when Nvidia releases whatever they have in store for us (and AMD prices will definitely be down from this manufactured "shortage" just in case Nvidia doesn't satisfy).

 

[GEARSOFinvention]

I can afford it in 3 months but this card won't fit in my case....

 

[liquidsnake718]

Again I read this review and I nod my head.... at the rise of ATI and AMD

 

[Guest]

Review tooo confuset!

 

[brisingamen]

how long before either companys top of the line product encroaches upon the pci express x16 slots bandwitdth???

 

[garg1961]

Sweet as, good on ya ATI/AMD and good for competition but your gonna need two of them to beat my two GTX 295 babies.

 

[Guest]

Bought one in my new 950 system... (only hurts for a few minutes)
Runs mostly on 25% Fan speed @ 46-60 degrees C.
Crysis max options: smooth
Dirt2: full details: no problemo, temp went up to 90 degrees without fan increasing all that much. Setting it at 100% (with the F16-like sound that comes with it) cools it down quickly again.
I have used a large tower and have a few extra low speed fans installed to bring max air flow into the casing. I am sure that will help reduce the temp and fan noise.
Just take your christmas bonus and one of these!

Mike

 

[Guest]

Yo seriously, tom's hardware dudes, bunch of intel fanboys, you should know better then to be testing ATI stuff with Intel processor's clearly ATI's new GPu's run alot better with AMD Phenom II lines.

 

[hannibal]

Well actually it seems to be so that they run better in Intel platform compared to Nvidia... Nobody knows why...

 

[fjc1998]

[citation][nom]zingam[/nom]Who does needs this? I certainly don't. Is this two GPU card like crossfire or it works better and completely transparent? Is it better than two 5970s?What bothers my why AMD is neglecting the mobile market? After all more than 50% of current PCs sales are mobile computers and they don't have a descent mobile CPU and NVIDIA rules the descrete mobile GPU market.And now they come up this this King of Performace that is the dream of 0.0001% enthusiasts but they are months away from releasing a mobile version. And I need a new DX11 notebook NOW!Does this mean Intel + NVIDIA for me again? Perhaps! Dammit![/citation]
Where'd you get this crap?

 

[damian86]

even the best nVidia card can't beat one of those!
lmao!

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]javidchaos[/nom]I think i gotta sell my kidney and liver for one of these !!![/citation]
Thats makes two of us =)

 

[leon2006]

For $600 i would wait for Fermi to come out. I have a CF 4890 and its running pretty well.

 

[Guest]

Why does it say that 2560x1600 isn't accessible at 25fps??? I find it to be more than playable for crysis. 30fps is SMOOTH is crysis. However this only applies for crysis. With any other game I can't play under 40fps.