The Road Ahead & Final Thoughts

In addition to the Radeon HD 5870 we are reviewing today, AMD is launching a cut downward version as well called the Radeon HD 5850. This card is gear up to price around $260, and given the similarities with its bigger blood brother, information technology should also exist a very interesting product -- unfortunately AMD was unable to provide us with a sample.

On the horizon from AMD is a dual-GPU version codenamed "Hemlock XT," which is essentially a pair of Radeon HD 5870 GPUs on a single PCB. Looking at our benchmark results today this is an nearly frightening prospect, nonetheless one we really desire to meet! The Hemlock XT is due out next month, along with the Juniper XT and Juniper LE, which will exist known equally the Radeon Hard disk 5770 and Radeon Hard disk drive 5750 respectively.

Then early on side by side twelvemonth AMD will beginning production of its 32nm parts, every bit information technology introduces the Redwood XT (Radeon Hard disk drive 5670), Redwood PRO (Radeon HD 5650) and Cedar XT (Radeon Hd 5550). These cards should consume very little power and the latter two are expected to cost less than $100.

Although we just threw the Radeon Hard disk 5870 through a huge barrage of tests, I feel as though we are just getting to know it; and in a sense we are. Information technology will be very interesting to meet how this bill of fare performs against the insufficiently priced GeForce GTX 285 in upcoming games, particularly in those supporting DirectX 11.

Just there'southward one thing we can be certain of right now, and that is that the Radeon HD 5870 crushes the old Radeon HD 4870 -- and even the 4890 -- in terms of operation. Newer games such as Wolfenstein showed massive gains of up to a 100% when compared to its previous-generation sibling; and non simply did the 5870 crush the GTX 285 by a huge margin in this particular game, just it also put away the Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Using a 2560x1600 resolution, where multi-GPU engineering science works at its best, the single-GPU Radeon Hd 5870 actually managed to outperform the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in vi out of the 15 games tested, and in many of the cases where it was slower the margin was minimal.

The Radeon HD 5870 also beat the GeForce GTX 295 in 5 of the games tested, which is certainly very impressive because nosotros are talking virtually a pair of high-end GPUs here. Therefore it is off-white to say that in terms of performance the new 5870 will no doubt exist a force to be reckoned with, even for Nvidia's upcoming GPUs.

With an introductory MSRP of $380, the Radeon Hd 5870 offers a skillful value suggestion, every bit the majority of GTX 285 graphics cards currently cost around $350. Yous could go for a pair of Radeon HD 4890s and spend effectually the aforementioned amount equally you would for a shiny new Radeon HD 5870, merely this configuration would require a motherboard with full bandwidth dual PCI Express 16x lanes and consume considerably more power.

Furthermore, while you might see a performance advantage with this setup information technology would come at the expense of DirectX 11 support, and so we definitely feel the Radeon HD 5870 is a much improve solution at this price.

Information technology'due south worth noting before making any final conclusions that today nosotros just tested a reference carte with beta drivers. While operation was excellent for the most role, we'll have to proceed an eye on farther improvements as AMD delivers more than mature drivers over the side by side few months.

We also expect time to come special edition Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards from AMD's board partners to provide improved cooling designs. This volition ultimately result in better overclocking and much cooler instance temperatures, particularly if you plan to employ two in tandem.

Overall, the Radeon HD 5870 has proven to be a real winner, and possibly one the best graphics cards nosotros have ever reviewed in this price point. It is the fastest unmarried-GPU graphics card yous tin buy today, the power consumption levels are excellent, and hopefully with better software support overclocking volition amend as well. For now we look frontwards to checking some retail examples out while we expect for the counter from Nvidia -- other than some expected price cuts on their current cards, that is.