14 DAY TRIAL // After much anticipation and following a string of continuous leaked rumors and details, the Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices has announced today the launch of its next generation of desktop graphics processing units, the Radeon HD 5800 series, specifically designed to enable a performance boost over the company’s previous generation of cards, but also to provide users with a couple of new features. The series includes the Radeon HD 5870, AMD's new flagship card, and the HD 5850, both of which have been designed to enable full support of Microsoft's DirectX 11 API, but also for AMD's own Eyefinity multi-display technology and ATI Stream technology.
“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.”
In terms of pure performance, the new Radeon flagship model, the Radeon HD 5870, is capable of delivering up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power, according to the chip maker. Built using a “2nd generation evolved 40nm process technology,” the new Radeon HD 5870 boasts a clock speed of 850MHz, coupled with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, clocked at 1.2GHz. With 1600 Stream Processing Units, double the number of the chip maker's previous generation of cards, the new Radeon HD 5870 GPU has been featured with a dual-slot cooling solution and is said to reach a maximum board power of 188 Watts, while in idle the card sits at 27 Watts, according to AMD.
As far as the HD 5850 is concerned, this card doesn't fall too far behind and is likely to become a favorite among technology enthusiasts. Built on the same Cypress GPU core, the card is clocked at 725MHz and is also featured with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, clocked at 1GHz. Its maximum power is rated at 151 Watts, while in idle, the HD 5850 sits at a comfortable 27 Watts.
Both models are the first to enable support for Microsoft's DirectX 11, but computer enthusiasts will also be glad to hear that the new solutions will support AMD's recently announced Eyefinity technology. In addition, the cards also support the ATI Stream and CrossFire technologies, while also enabling support for the new DirectCompute 11 technology.
Although availability is expected to be a problem, the fact that AMD launched its new flagship card at a price point of US$379 means that users will be able to take advantage of great technology within a more affordable package.
