Posted on 09/23/2009 10:07:11 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The graphics game has been nothing if not interesting the past year or so. AMD's Radeon HD 4800 series upended expectations by using a mid-sized chip to serve the bulk of the market and pairing of two of them in an X2 card to create a high-end product. This strategy has worked out pretty well, in no small part because the Radeon HD 4870 GPU has proven to be very efficient for its size. The result? Fast graphics cards have become very affordable, with prices driving to almost-embarrassing lows over time.
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Less than 18 months after the introduction of the Radeon HD 4800 series, AMD has produced a new chip that's roughly the same size yet promises to double its predecessor's power in nearly every respect, including shader processing, texturing, pixel throughput—and, yes, GPU-compute capacity. The Radeon HD 5870 is more capable, too, in a hundred little ways, not least of which is its fidelity to the DirectX 11 spec. And in a solid bonus for its target market, the card based on it looks like the Batmobile.
(Excerpt) Read more at techreport.com ...
AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5870 Video Card Review
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One of AMD’s major design philosophies in creating the Radeon HD 5800 series was to borrow what worked for them with the Radeon HD 4800 series. Namely, this means building a GPU at an affordable closer-to-mainstream price, and designing it so that it scales upwards and downwards in performance and price. AMD have called this its "Sweet Spot" strategy.
The GPU being launched today is the ATI Radeon HD 5870, which is internally codenamed "Cypress." As you can see in the third screenshot the target selling price is just under $400. The same Cypress ASIC is also used to create the ATI Radeon HD 5850. According to AMD you should see about a 20% delta in performance between the 5870 and 5850 GPUs. You can think of the HD 5870 as the "Cypress XT" GPU and HD 5850 as the "Cypress Pro" GPU. "Hemlock" will be two of these HD 5870 GPUs in a single video card package, most likely to be branded the Radeon HD 5870 X2, and come at a much heftier price. "Juniper" is a more mainstream GPU that will culminate the HD 5700 series and is targeted around $200. AMD can scale down the GPU series even more to create a low cost "Redwood" and "Cedar" GPU similar to the Radeon HD 4770 and lower for mobile use. According to this chart, we will see Hemlock and Juniper in Q4 2009 and the ultra low-end parts Q1 2010. AMD's ATI definitely has set the goal internally to dominate the entire spectrum of the market with the 5800 Series, and it has certainly planned for parts from the ultra-low end up to the ultra-high end.
Looks like the 5870 is a winner. Excellent performance, even if not the best at all things, low pwoer, lower noise, excellent visual output, and at a GREAT price.
I remember reading the Read Me files of all different kinds of software over the years an i’d say the vast majority of issues these programs had had to do with either AMD Chips, ATI video cards or both at the same time.
This is why i ALWAYS stick with Intel and Nvidia.
That’s an individual choice, obviously, but the paranoia is a little unfounded.
I’ve used Intel, nVidia, AMD, and ATi products over the years, and have generally been pretty happy with all of them. :)
Technology and price-point DO leapfrog, and the torch does pass between companies. I’ve always been a best “bang-for-buck” sort of guy, and to date, all of my choices have served me well.
Meh, just get a PS3. Nobody’s making PC games that will take advantage of these new cards because the market for PC games is almost dead. Besides, Uncharted 2 for the Playstation looks better than any PC game.
Dang, when did AMD buy ATI? I think I missed the boat on this.NVidia and ATI have always had some pretty nifty stuff. BTW, what is in the current Macs now? They used to use NVidia and ATI depending on pro/consumer line products, but I’m suspecting with Snow Leopard and their push into offloading CPU intensive GUI tasks to the GPU that they are more fans of ATI.
I remember the days when I used to follow the Mac rumor mill religiously, but now they we are Intel, it simply doesn’t matter - thank God. Let the best OS win - and it did. :)
Cliped this comment from the HardOCP review:
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You will find on these Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 two dual-link DVI ports, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort. Through these combinations Eyefinity is possible. The maximum supported display size on the HD 5870 and HD 5850 is 3x 2560x1600. The special 4 card / 24 display exhibits being shown for Eyefinity work with a special 6x mini-Display Port HD 5870 video card that will be out in November.
Prior thread on Eyefinity:
Beginnings of the Holodeck: AMD's DX11 GPU, Eyefinity and 6 Display Outputs
I’m waiting for Rogue Warrior, Brink and MAG to come out. Not sure what system I want to get Rogue Warrior and Brink for, but I’m certainly interested in MAG.
Geez, AMD bought ATI, what, three years ago?
Desktop Graphics / Video Cards2_. (x) > Text Search Terms: ati 5870 (x)
$379....
I find I'm cranking up my old PC games more and more for the in depth strategy and roleplaying they offered.
It's not dead by a long shot. Almost 1 billion in game sales on PC platforms in 08. That doesn't count ongoing subs to games like Wow, Lotro, EQ, etc.
ATI and Nvidia have a vested interest in selling hardware. Consoles are huge but PC games aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
“I’m one of the few that still buy PC games then I guess.”
Your not alone FRiend!
I am still playing a lot of video games on my PC.
Left 4 Dead
Warhammer II
Supreme Commander
Dead Space
BioShock
Crysis
Microsoft FSX
Lots of great PC games out there. I am going to upgrade from my EVGA 8800GTS to either dual GTX 275’s or 1 water cooled GTX 295. Plus I have 2 24” 1080P HDCP capable monitors, Blu-Ray, HDDVD, 7.1 surround with a Klipsch speaker set. The SR-71 BOOMS in FSX!!!
WoW
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