The Super-Powerful ATI Radeon HD 5870
September 23, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Desktops, Peripherals
With Intel gaining attention for its new Lynnfield processors, AMD has fired back with its own $100 quad-core. At the same time it has also made strides in the GPU market, recently coming out with the first DirectX 11 compatible video hardware. Here’s a proclamation that:
ATI now stands unchallenged in Blu-ray audio processing, power consumption, single GPU performance, and performance per watt, DirectX 11, multi-monitor setups, anti-aliasing performance, and anisotropic accuracy. By any measure, the confluence of these qualities easily makes the Radeon HD 5000 the most significant shakeup of the GPU market in the last two years.
Pretty bold assertions, but given the detailed rundown of the HD 5000 series capabilities, it’s easy to see that this argument may have merit. Especially when you consider the benchmarks—measures of performance—pouring in from all over the net:
But your average joe will probably drool over the HD 5000 series due to its capability to run up to nine concurrent displays. Several-monitor setups have been around for years, but this newfangled “Eyefinity” technology makes linking displays to only one video card very easy.
Such performance of course comes at a cost: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 retails for $380 at NewEgg, regardless of what brand you choose.
