Budget DirectX 11 solution with advanced performance at an affordable price

Feb 9, 2010 08:51 GMT  ·  By

Continuing as the only graphics solution manufacturer with cards capable of DirectX 11 graphics, Advanced Micro Devices has officially introduced the low-profile ATI Radeon HD 5570. Part of the Sunnyvale, California-based company's plan to offer DirectX 11 cards for all market segments, this accelerator is meant as a solution for end-users on a budget that still want a good performance. The adapter is based on the 40nm redwood graphics processing unit (GPU) and will best serve small form factor PCs.

The Redwood GPU is clocked at 650MHz and is accompanied by 20 texture units, 400 stream processors and 1GB of GDDR3 memory with an interface of 128 bits and a frequency of 1600/1800 MHz. The card has a maximum power draw of 42.7W and comes with DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs. AMD also says that the new card can actually deliver “the same rich HD multimedia capabilities as the enthusiast-class ATI Radeon HD 5870.” This is enabled by the HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

AMD naturally built this new adapter with advanced features, such as the ATI Stream technology and ATI Eyefinity. As end-users will likely know by now, the ATI Stream technology, besides allowing better visual quality during video playback, enables a better performance during video transcoding and speeds up video playback with applications the likes of Adobe Flash. Also, the ATI Eyefinity will allow a single ATI Radeon HD 5570 graphics card to use up to three displays at the same time, for immersive gaming and higher productivity when running in home and office applications.

"AMD recognizes that small form factor PCs are becoming more popular and low profile graphics upgrade options have been limited to date," said Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics Division. "Customers purchasing small form factor PCs are looking for improved performance while gaming, watching HD video or working with the latest productivity applications.  The ATI Radeon HD 5570 graphics card delivers all of this at a price that won't break the bank."

The ATI Radeon HD 5570 has a starting price of around $80 and has already been tested at HotHardware, AnandTech, Hexus, Techgage and Legit Reviews .