14 DAY TRIAL // While NVIDIA waits for PAX 2010 in order to finally launch its Fermi-based DirectX 11-capable graphics adapters, Advanced Micro Devices is merrily increasing its head start in this area by launching cards one after another, with the latest in the HD 5xxx series being the ATI Radeon HD 5830. Ready to join AMD, along with PowerColor and HIS, is graphics-cards maker XFX, which has showcased a device that might just stand out amidst the competition.
The XFX Radeon HD 5830 graphics adapter has performance specifications mostly identical to those of the stock model. The card has 1GB GDDR5 memory, 1,120 stream processors, a GPU running at 800MHz and a memory frequency of 4000MHz. The device's feature set is also very much identical to that of AMD's stock version. The XFX product supports ATI Eyefinity, ATI Stream, ATI PowerPlay and ATI CrossFireX.
There are a number of elements through which this graphics card will stand out, the most important of which being the card's design. While the fact that XFX HD 5830 uses a custom dual-slot cooler is not exactly surprising, what is unexpected is the fact that the hardware maker didn't use the HD 5870, but the HD 5770 PCB. In addition, XFX is backing up its product with its “exclusive Double Lifetime Protection [that] guarantees the quality and dependability of our card for both you and the second owner.”
In order to allow the triple-display scenarios enabled by Eyefinity, the graphics card has an HDMI output, a DisplayPort connector and dual-DVI. Unfortunately, the device has not yet been given a price tag, but, given its size and use of different PCB, it might turn out to be one of the less costly of the lot. This might give it quite an edge in its competition against the various other Cypress GPU-based products.