14 DAY TRIAL // If you’ve been having doubts that AMD is about to launch its next-generation line of desktop graphics cards, the much-anticipated Radeon HD 5xxx series, worry no more. One of the upcoming cards, the Radeon HD 5870, to be precise, has just surfaced on the website of a European e-tail shop, which can only mean that the much rumored official debut isn't that far ahead.
The card was initially listed for pre-order on Salland Automatisering, with a price tag of €319, which is somewhat better than some of the previous rumors, which claimed it would go on sale for about €350. Built by one of AMD's leading board partners, Sapphire, the card has been featured with 1GB of graphics memory and the dual-slot cooling solution that was featured in some of the previously leaked photos of said card.
Unfortunately, the new solution was later pulled off the website, but the fellows over at Fudzilla and Hardware.info were lucky enough to grab some screenshots of the listed card. AMD is expected to officially debut the new series and consequently provide its customers with a new generation of 40nm, high-end GPUs sometime next week, but availability is yet to be established.
Following the introduction of the aforementioned Radeon HD 5870, AMD is expected to roll out several other new cards, part of the 5xxx family, with the 57xx series due out in October and expected to provide a more affordable alternative to the company's new GPU architecture. Later on, AMD will introduce its high-end Radeon HD 5870 X2, a dual-chip monster that is expected to provide gaming and PC enthusiasts with new levels of performance.
According to the latest reports on the Internet, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker is expected to debut the new cards sometime around September 23, which is in the middle of next week, so be sure to keep a close eye on the latest news.