ATI Radeon HD 5870 blazes onto the scene, receives approving nods

Watch out now -- the evergreen revolution has arrived, right on schedule and with the promised DirectX 11 and Eyefinity in tow. AMD's new flagship graphics part, formerly known under the Cypress codename, is built on a 40nm process, sports an appropriately inflated 850MHz engine clock speed, 1600 stream processors, 153.6GBps memory bandwidth, over two billion transistors, and the freshly minted HD 5870 moniker. There'll be a HD 5850 as well, which makes do with a 725MHz core clock, 1440 stream processors and slightly slower (or is it just less fast?) GDDR5 memory, but only the headline device has been made available to reviewers, so let's see what they thought.

HardOCP whipped out their special Gold Award for the ocassion, noting that it "doubles performance, yet remains within the same power envelope." The Tech Report crew agreed wholeheartedly, commending the "admirably low" power draw, noise levels and GPU temperatures. In fact, a pretty universal consensus shows that the new card spanks everything else out there in terms of performance, and makes a very compelling value proposition -- a significant feat for a card that's aimed at the usually less price-conscious enthusiast market. Hit up the read links below to revel in the full glorious details.

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AMD Changes the Game with ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series DirectX® 11-Compliant Graphics Cards, Harnessing the Most Powerful Processor Ever Created

World's Most Advanced Graphics Processor Allows Consumers to Expand, Accelerate and Dominate Their PC Experience with First Full Support for Microsoft DirectX 11

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the most powerful processor ever created1, found in its next-generation ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series graphics cards, the world's first and only to fully support Microsoft DirectX® 11, the new gaming and compute standard shipping shortly with Microsoft Windows® 7 operating system. Boasting up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series effectively doubles the value consumers can expect of their graphics purchases, delivering twice the performance-per-dollar of previous generations of graphics products. AMD will initially release two cards: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850, each with 1GB GDDR5 memory. With the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series of graphics cards, PC users can expand their computing experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, accelerate their computing experience with ATI Stream technology, and dominate the competition with superior gaming performance and full support of Microsoft DirectX® 11, making it a "must-have" consumer purchase just in time for Microsoft Windows® 7 operating system.

"With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards driven by the most powerful processor on the planet, AMD is changing the game, both in terms of performance and the experience," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. "As the first to market with full DirectX 11 support, an unmatched experience made possible with ATI Eyefinity technology, and ATI Stream technology harnessing open standards designed to help make Windows 7 that much better, I can say with confidence that AMD is the undisputed leader in graphics once more."

Dominate your competition with Microsoft DirectX® 11 support

With the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series of graphics cards, gamers will enjoy gaming supremacy and the ultimate advantage, realizing incredible HD gaming performance and the most engaging experience possible with DirectX® 11 gaming done right:

* Designed and built for purpose: Modeled on the full DirectX 11 specifications, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards delivers up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power in a single card, translating to superior performance in the latest DirectX 11 games, as well as in DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL titles in single card configurations or multi-card configurations using ATI CrossFireX™ technology. When measured in terms of performance experienced in some of today's most popular games, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series is up to twice as fast as the closest competing product in its class,5 allowing gamers to enjoy incredible new DirectX 11 games – including the forthcoming DiRT™2 from Codemasters, and Aliens vs. Predator™ from Rebellion, and updated version of The Lord of the Rings Online™ and Dungeons and Dragons Online® Eberron Unlimited™ from Turbine – all in stunning detail with incredible frame rates.
* Generations ahead of the competition: Building on the success of the ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series products, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards is two generations ahead of DirectX 10.0 support, and features 6th generation evolved AMD tessellation technology, 3rd generation evolved GDDR5 support, 2nd generation evolved 40nm process technology, and a feature-rich compute shader, all geared towards delivering the best gaming experience money can buy.
* The ultimate in game compatibility: The DirectX 11 API was developed on AMD graphics hardware and represents the cornerstone of DirectX 11 gaming. All initial DirectX 11 games were developed and/or continue to be developed on AMD DirectX 11 hardware. With more than 20 DirectX 11 games currently in development, this innate optimization for ATI Radeon graphics cards, in combination with monthly ATI Catalyst™ driver releases, help ensure a stable, reliable and high-performance experience for the latest games.

Accelerate with ATI Stream technology

With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics card, PC users can unleash Windows 7 and realize the potential of a better computing experience to help do more with their PC:

* Harness the home supercomputer: One ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card would have been one of the top 10 supercomputers in the world just six years ago – today that same processing power can be found in your home PC, working with high-performance CPUs to deliver a superior experience.
* Windows® 7 done right: Windows 7 is the first compute-capable operating system and the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards with ATI Stream technology accelerate it like nothing else, being the first and only card to support DirectCompute 11.
* Create and do more, faster than ever before with ATI Stream technology: Enjoy new features, functionality and improved performance in top media, entertainment and productivity applications made possible by ATI Stream technology.6
* Most expansive support of industry standards: The ATI Radeon HD 5800 of graphics cards fully support both DirectX 11 and OpenCL, ensuring broad application support now and the future.

Expand the PC experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology

Enjoy multi-monitor computing with seamless enablement of the biggest game environments ever seen:

* The ultimate in seamless flexibility: Arrange one to three displays using the ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 and ATI Radeon™ HD 5850 graphics cards, or up to six displays using the forthcoming ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 Eyefinity6 graphics card, in a variety of configurations – any mix of portrait or landscape.
* See them before they see you: Unlock the potential of multi-monitor gaming at up to 12 x full HD resolution, the largest game environments ever displayed.10 Experience more visual detail and expanded battlefields that your gaming competitors may lack.
* Enjoy visual computing in eye-definition: Virtually obsolete scrolling by taking advantage of vast desktop real estate to put more information at your fingertips. Enjoy the best of today's latest visually-enhanced online applications – social networking, video conferencing, video entertainment, and satellite imagery – all in stunning detail.

Ecosystem support

* The ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series of graphics cards is supported by a dozen add-in-board companies, including ASUS, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GIGABYTE, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), MSI, Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology, VisionTek and XFX.

Supporting Quotes

"By incorporating the ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics processor's revolutionary DirectX 11 and ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor capabilities into the Alienware desktop gaming system, Dell Gaming continues to lead the industry in delivering performance, immersion and visual experience levels that shatter all previous limitations," said Arthur Lewis, head of Dell gaming group.

"I had high expectations of AMD's new DirectX 11 GPUs, but nothing really prepared me for the breathtaking experience that I'm now enjoying," said Dirk Ringe, vice president, EA Phenomic. "Frame rates are so silky-smooth at ultra high-resolutions, even with all effects turned to max, that the new hardware makes previous hardware look like a quaint antique! The quality of the rendering in BattleForge is something that I used to dream about only a year ago – and the flexibility and power of DirectCompute 11 opens our eyes to a multitude of new possibilities. We applaud AMD's and Microsoft's vision in creating the DirectX 11 API and this amazing new hardware and we can say without hesitation that it represents the future of gaming."

"We were simply astonished by the performance of the DirectCompute 11 hardware in AMD's DirectX 11 GPUs," said Ruslan Didenko, project lead, GSC Gameworld. "By meeting the full DirectX 11 hardware spec AMD has created a beast of a GPU that is light years ahead of its DirectX 10.1 and DirectX 10 predecessors. We strongly recommend a full-on DirectX 11 GPU from AMD as very simply the best way to experience our stunning new game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. A vision of loveliness, in every gut-wrenching detail!"

"Trinigy remains committed to supporting the game development industry with top-notch game engine technology that combines efficiency, creative freedom and performance," said Dag Frommhold, managing director at Trinigy. "We're extremely excited to be working with AMD to support their DirectX 11 graphics processors. AMD's quality drivers and hardware complement our commitment to game developers perfectly by empowering them to produce higher-level in-game graphics than ever before."

Read - Hot Hardware review
Read - AnandTech review
Read - Driver Heaven review
Read - HardOCP review
Read - Hexus review
Read - PC Perspective review
Read - Tech Report review
Read - Legit Reviews

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:25AM]

great! the HD4870 will drop price soon :D

[richb93 Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:00AM]

Buying into old tech is a bad idea. Only worth it if the technology gap is small. DX11 and PS5.0 are pretty big things and even if you are getting one for folding the the price of a 58x0 card is justifiable by the energy savings and extra raw power.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:58AM]

Unless he doesn't have the money of course to buy one of these cards. I would of loved to put two GTX 295's and a i7 in my new rig but I opted for a Phenom II 940 and a HD4890 and the only current game I can't have maxed out at 1920x1080 is Crysis and the actual gameplay of that game is crap its just too damn repetitive. I imagine the HD4870 should fair quite well as I beleive it is only 20% slower than my card?

[dirthurts Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:19AM]

I would go 4890.
Or if you do the 4870 make sure you get 1gb ram. That way it will run the nex gen games well.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:31AM]

I can't help but think buying first Gen DX11 cards is a stupid idea.

DX10 came out, only a few games used it, very little graphical quality and in games like Resident Evil 5, there's almost no image quality difference but the DX10 version runs slower than its counter part.

I find that DX11 is simply a guise to sell us new hardware with new software revisions that won't be fully utilized to convince us our last gen hardware is obsolete to make us buy more of their shit.

But good going AMD/ATI. Intel is laying the smackdown on ya but you still keep on truckin'. Anyway, half a year later nVidia will release something to counter this to claim their Performance Crown, despite being prohibitively expensive.

[Vigile Posted Sep 23rd 2009 11:05AM]

The PC Perspective review has a lot of cool videos of the AMD Eyefinity multi-monitor gaming:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=783&type=expert&pid=6

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 1:34PM]

Cool running? Lower power consumption?? SAME POWER ENVELOPE?????

"... the 5870 ends up being the most power-hungry single-GPU card, at 401W total system power."

"Meanwhile the 5870 CF takes the cake, beating every other configuration for a load power of 664W. If we haven’t mentioned this already we will now: if you want to run multiple 5870s, you’re going to need a good power supply."

If the "same power envelope" includes dual gpu cards, heh!! maybe. Otherwise, FAIL!

[ManjyomeThunder Posted Sep 23rd 2009 2:43PM]

@ Keith

Seeing as the Radeon 5870 performs on par with or slightly worse than the GTX 295....I'm pretty sure...it does...include dual GPU cards...that's...actually the point really. Did you read the actual reviews?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 3:25PM]

@keith

that was only 1 review (anandtech) of the 8 supplied. the other 7 report similar power consumption compared to the 4870, while being almost twice as fast.

i'd believe the majority over the single. also anandtech #'s is TOTAL system consumption. it's pretty much certain that they used different hardware to compare against previous builds which are of different components, of which they did not retest. anandtech introduced too many variables that makes their numbers UNreliable.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:28AM]

Sweet.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 12:26PM]

HO-LY CRAP. 1600 stream processors @ 850MHz? The GTX295 has 480 stream processors @ 666MHz... 1GB of VRAM vs. 1792MB of VRAM... does it really make a difference? With that many processors at a higher clock speed, can Nvidia even compete?

[aznofazns Posted Sep 23rd 2009 12:39PM]

You can't directly compare the number of stream processors between current gen Nvidia and ATI cards. For a rough comparison, multiply Nvidia's number by 5 and you'll get the ATI equivalent. Notice that 5*480=2400, which is larger than 1600, which is a big reason why the GTX295 outpaces the HD5870 in a lot of games.

That said, HOLY **** I WANT ONE! My HD4870 feels so puny...

[Wwhat Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:49PM]

You cannot make a statement based on the old card about if you can or cannot compare nvidia's stream processors, since these aren't the same ones but just more as the 4870, these are redesigned and everything has higher precision now for instance.
Read on hardocp for to learn some of the tech stuff, and I'm sure anand, but I didn't check that out yet.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:29AM]

wait till Nvidia get's there groove on, it'll be Hotter

[Frostblade10 Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:36AM]

Considering this card will probably run at 88c load, I doubt that. Trust me, I have a 4870x2.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 6:30AM]

there's something seriously wrong with your card then, My sapphire 4870x2 card with stock cooler & bios modded with an ASUS TOP bios with the Vcore at 1.35V (up from 1.25V stock) with 850mhz gpu 1000mhz mem runs at 56 degrees idle 76 on load.. And it has the same performance as the 5870..

[Aaronage Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:10AM]

Have you read the reviews? :)

It uses a hell of a lot less power than all the other high end cards and runs in the 30's idle, 60's load :)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:29AM]

3 weeks waiting till delivering :(

[Macbeth Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:30AM]

It's Meh, performs marginally better than my 4870X2. Will wait and see how the 2GB eyefinity version pans out

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:44AM]

It might perform the same as 4870x2, but single 5870 consumes *less* power than single 4870 -> less than half of power of 4870x2.

I plan to upgrade my power supply to 500W (or more) version. 5870 would be OK, 4870x2 - not.

P.S. Official price of 5850 is $379. That is very close to the street price of two 4870: 2 * $180 = $360. But is more than $300-ish of 4870x2.

[Gungel Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:28AM]

Wait for the Radeon HD 5870 X2 or 5890

[Macbeth Posted Sep 23rd 2009 2:59PM]

@dummy1001

That alone isn't reason enough to part with $379 and swap out current card for this one. If your still thick in the head, I already own a 4870x2 this card does next to nothing for me. That should have been understood with the fist comment.

[Musouka Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:32AM]

It's disappointing how the limited bus (256-bit) and memory (1GB) is limiting the potential of this beast. You can see the card being bottle-necked in many texture-heavy games. AMD could have easily destroyed nVidia had they chosen to go with a 512-bit bus. You know nVidia will go with a 512-bit bus for their GT300 series.

Nevertheless, the card offers good value for the money. Cannot wait to see what 5870 X2 is capable of :)

[Ethyriel Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:59AM]

I'd guess they're holding back to counter Nvidia's next move, something that I don't recall ATI doing so much back in the day. It looks like AMD has brought over a trick or two from the CPU wars.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:32AM]

I can't wait until the Nvidia cards come out. These cards aren't too large a step up from the DX10 cards. No doubt eraly adopter will be after them though.

[YpoCaramel Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:33AM]

Do any of the reviews talk about fan noise? The 48XX series has always been louder than their Nvidia counterparts, and unnecessarily so. It'd be nice if Sapphire wasn't the only one making quiet ATI cards.

[Musouka Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:39AM]

"The noise levels coming from the card paint a different picture. I'm not really thrilled about it. At IDLE you'll have no problem with the card whatsoever as noise levels remain under 40 dBA.

Once the GPU starts to heat up the fan RPM will go up as well. The card however remains steady at roughly 42 dBA which really is a very normal noise level. Not annoying at all. So that's good as well."

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5870-review-test/13

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:41AM]

This review measures noise: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_5870/29.html

Quite good in idle, but a bit too noisy under load.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:50AM]

Please note that most reviews do not mention brand of the cards. They look like AMD/ATI internally manufactured cards. In fact some of them show the AMD logo.

That means whatever you would get from newegg.com/etc (HIS, Sapphire and ASUS are listed) might have very different acoustic properties.

Fans are the first where most OEMs cut the costs of reference design.

[KAL326 Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:33AM]

I don't really care how loud the card is, if its 'under load' I'm probably playing a game. If I can hear the card over my speakers then there is a problem. What the point of having a couple hundred watt 5.1 surrond speakers if you can hear a cooling fan over them.

[Hydra Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:40AM]

Price? I really love the Ati cards

[Musouka Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:42AM]

$399 (if you could find one)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:38AM]

From Anand's review: 5870 - $379, 5850 - $259

5850 should start appearing next week.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 4:56AM]

I just grabbed one of the last ones from newegg for $387.86 shipped!!! ... Cant wait to replace my aging 7900gtx.

[Ethyriel Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:03AM]

It looks like a high-mid range offering might replace my 9800GTX+. I'll wait to see what kind of semi-passive cooling solutions find their way onto the market (with a side venting fan on my case), but it looks like it should be fairly easy to keep cool.

[Guybrush Threepwood Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:16AM]

Loving the show press release thing.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:27AM]

Why don't they produce shorter cards? So about 17 cm to fit on a Mini-ITX board without a problem?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:01AM]

The shorter cards are not out yet. Only the high end cards are out. They said that the mid-end and low end 5xxx GPU will be out in Q1 2010.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:32AM]

Sadly reviewers apparently had only 5870 available. I'd love to see how 5850 compares.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 5:36AM]

So ATI doubled everything on the 58xx compared to 48xx.

Does that say goodbye to the 4xxx launch time promise of multi-chip future?

Because from the 58xx it seems that they are moving in the same direction as nVidia: simply cramming more stuff on the even larger die.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 24th 2009 12:12AM]

I remember that, though it may have been more about a modular approach to the silicon itself: the down-range cards used exactly the same technology, with fewer modules on the die. Rather than nVidia's approach, which is to sell last years high end card at mainstream prices...

[jon Posted Sep 23rd 2009 6:00AM]

Can anyone recommend an alternative to Newegg?

I've had good experiences with them in the past, but between charging $900+ for Intel's $440 SSD, and the games they're currently playing with the video cards (295 prices dropped to around $410 until the reviews of the 5870 came out, then the prices went up to nearly $500.) they've seen the last of my cash.


There's a line between price premiums and price gouging, AFAIC Newegg crossed it.

[Gungel Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:23AM]

Two others, mwave.com and provantage.com

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 6:16AM]

another review, personally my favorite place for reviews.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/23415-sapphire-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-gddr5-review.html

[richb93 Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:01AM]

OMG WANT WANT WANT!! Need to get one of these badboys. Board is CF enabled too so when the price drops even more I'll strap another in :D

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:03AM]

I have 2xGTS 250s

is one of these better than those?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:23AM]

Yes Yes but will it play Crysis?

[richb93 Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:18AM]

Crysis sucks!!11one

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 7:51AM]

I have 2 4890's so ill wait until they come out with the 5890, or whatever their next DX11 card is, Nvidia or ATi they're 1st cards for the new DirectX, or new gen always seem to have some sort of problem or, draw too much power for what its worth, usually for me waiting for their next card like i did with the 4890, is a good idea, I bought 2 pre-overclocked 4890's clocked at 901mhz each. so i can live for now :D

[dave2 Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:13AM]

finally!

[Smurf Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:36AM]

As excited as I am to see ATI back on their feet (and kicking ass), I'm waiting for NVIDIA's GT300 before spending anything near $400. Admittedly, it helps that I bought two GTX 285's for about $200 each on [H] this week. Of course, I'd have to spend $800 on ATI's 58xx to beat those cards.

[Inzain Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:37AM]

Just bought two of these to kinda future-proof my system, well until the HD6xxx cards hit next fall. I'm upgrading from an 8800GTX so the splurge is justified.
Gaming nirvana awaits.

[Driveshaft Posted Sep 23rd 2009 8:50AM]

Might just replace my gtx295 with 2 of these since I have an x-fire board now. :D

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 9:32AM]

You guys forgot to link up the review over at Legit Reviews - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1080/1/

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 23rd 2009 9:51AM]

Congratulation on a success product.
Good that AMD-ATI is giving nvidia some good competition.

It shows that AMD is still in the game and it will bring in money to the
company for some future R&D that we all will benefit from.

[howard911s Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:57AM]

Anyone know who has this in stock? I was 1 min too slow for newegg last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Driveshaft Posted Sep 23rd 2009 1:19PM]

Good luck with it. Took me a week and a half after the gtx295 launched to get one. It would come back in stock, by the time I got to check out it was already out of stock again. That was from newegg :(

[d3sc3nd3ncy Posted Sep 23rd 2009 2:45PM]

OMG OMG OMG. I can't get it day 1... PAPER LAUNCH!

[d3sc3nd3ncy Posted Sep 23rd 2009 2:49PM]

I tried to indicate sarcasm... but it ate my sarcasm tag.

[Macbeth Posted Sep 23rd 2009 3:02PM]

Even with sarcasm tags that isn't sarcasm

they all sold out by 5am est, asus and powercolor are now listed but it looks like no one wants those

[d3sc3nd3ncy Posted Sep 23rd 2009 3:16PM]

It's day 1... Just wait a month. When windows 7 actually comes out.

[MLamont Posted Sep 23rd 2009 3:18PM]

Hey, Jono. Have you heard of T.E.C.H.N.O.L.O.G.Y.? Should we stick with DX10 forever? I am not sure I understand your point that DX11 is just a guise to sell more hardware. At some point you buy hardware and you want advancement in the features.

[v4npro Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:05PM]

I want one :(