The Radeon HD 5870 remains a clear winner, AMD says

Mar 27, 2010 11:53 GMT  ·  By

NVIDIA has finally released its hot new graphics adapters, the Fermi-based GF100-powered GeForce GTX 470 and 480, and is ready to engage AMD's Cypress-based cards on the DirectX 11 graphics front. For Advanced Micro Devices, this means its monopoly is now broken, at least as far as the enthusiast segment is concerned. Seeking to find out exactly how AMD feels about its rival's technology, the folks over at Tom's Hardware got in touch with the Sunnyvale, California-based CPU and GPU maker and asked how it expects the competition to affect it.

AMD responded to the query and revealed that it doesn't see NVIDIA's cards as any immediate threat. As was initially feared, and now found true by some reviewers, the GTX 400 adapters turned out to so hot and power-hungry, as well as expensive, that their performance wasn't able to completely offset the drawbacks. On the other hand, the GTX 480 is now the fastest card and enthusiasts are rarely overly concerned with prices and power consumption, which means these disadvantages' impact on sales might not be as high as some might think (or as AMD might hope). Still, the maker's response was mostly unconcerned.

“Four months after its launch, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 remains the undisputed performance leader. Six months after its launch, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 remains the clear winner at and below its price point,” said AMD spokesperson Dave Erskine. “ Add to that a top to bottom line-up of DirectX 11 graphics cards as well as cutting-edge features such as the immersive experience of ATI Eyefinity technology, and we are confident ATI Radeon graphics cards will continue to be the favorite choice of customers wanting the most advanced and efficient graphics products.”

Of course, the actual marketing performance of the GF100 adapters will have the final say on whether the HD 5870 remains the favorite among enthusiasts.