ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card Review @ DH

Zardon

Read The Review Here
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In order to take full advantage of Microsoft’s latest DirectX we require hardware which supports features such as Shader Model 5 and today we bring you the launch of the world’s first publically available DX 11 hardware, the Radeon 5870.

BlueMak

Thank you for the review.
It's an interesting card.
A winner on its own, faster than any other single card on the market.
If one looks for a single card that is the best, then I believe for now this is it.

Two things I learned from this (and other) reviews about this card.
1)It's the new fastest card around.
2)I am glad I bought the 4870X2.

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humonous

I think the point is that its fast, sure and its impressive, but there is nothing out to avail of the DX11 technology. Seems a weird time to me for a hardware release when there is really no way to see what it is capable of doing.

Over £300? thats rather costly too, even a little more than I expected. I think its best waiting till later in the year before anyone makes an informed decision as there will be possibly faster and better rival cards out soon.

ToHellAndBack

I think I'll wait for Nvidia.
I have no need for Eyefinity. Nor do 99% of the population.
I like my PhysX as well. (ever played Batman with PhysX? wow)
Not a single DX11 game out yet.
and by the time they come out so will the GT300, which will surely beat the crap outta ATI as all Nvidia products of recent years have done.

I think my GTX 295 will suffice.

humonous

Yeah its a concern. I think if something like Dirt 2 was out already and it looked massively better then people in the high end of the market might be tempted to purchase one. The fact you are paying over 300 quid for something which is faster but isn't really 'adding' anything is a bit daft. Most of my games run at over 40fps at high resolution anyway, so I don't really need another 10fps, but I would like more IQ.

Its too early for this technology. its too far ahead of the marketplace.

ET3D

I only found one site which reviewed a non-generic 5870 (Sapphire one at TweakTown). I prefer reading reviews of cards I can buy (not that I would ). Not that this makes the DH review bad or anything.

4870 CF is cheaper and in most cases faster, so looks like better value. I'll be waiting to see reviews of the 5850. I need a DX11 card, but it certainly won't be the 5870. Probably not the 5850, either. I'll wait to see what's on offer with the other models, and probably buy the cheapest one that's faster than my 3870.

Zardon

Yeah I appreciate that, but with this launch (like most AMD launches) it was massively rushed. The partners didn't have any cards ready a week ago and to review something like this we generally need 5 days or so to do it correctly. We have partner boards now so we will be following this article up with a look at some other solutions. The reference board will be identical however to the early manufacturer releases and then we will see the special versions such as the black editions from XFX.

phantommenace2

it's a nice card but nothing earth shattering...definitely the fastest single card out but I was expecting more performance...the GTX 295 beats it out in a lot of cases and performance of the GTX 285 is not too far off...one would think Nvidia's DX11 part will be much better

the DX11 cards do seem like a nice way of future proofing your video cards for a nice long while...might last a good 2+ years like the 8800GTX did when it was first released

clanman

great card, but I am not really that excited. maybe when Codemasters get Dirt 2 out it will look awesome, but its just the same old, with slightly more frame rates. Physx is more attractive to me, but im a sucker for IQ.

Cow_160483

Just a clarification on page 12 the highlighted part above is it supposed to be "5870" right?

Otherwise i loved the review but i think the timing of this product leaves a lot to be desired since there are not many new DirectX11 games out there yet. Still its a very good card

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comp_ali

It is really a nice card but not what I expected , I expected far performance margin than 4870 CF. The DX 11 PS 5.0 features seems impressing and it will appear clearly when more DX11 titles come out (probably Dirt 2 will be a nice application for it). For the price it is ridiculous (300 ) when I can buy 3 x 4870 for the same price , but since it is the first DX11 GPU this could be the reason.

Btw , thanks for this massive reviews and for adding the most recent titles in benchmarking (Batman AA , RE 5 , NFS Shift)

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macbiter

I am quite disappointed. maybe unrealistic of me to expect more, but I did. for 100 less you can get two 4870s which is basically just as good.

This is without obviously supporting DX11, which right now is pointless anyway as there is nothing out to showcase the new hardware.

Christmas launch would have worked better because by then maybe a DX11 might be out in beta form. First to market is a great talking point, but I think the enthusiasts buying it need something more tangable than a pat on the back for AMD.

craig5320

Good work Stu, I think it looks a great little card, The performance is near two of the previous 4870 generation card together, I think that's great. Remember we'll have the 5890 to come, and any X2 versions.

Price is a little high but aren't they always.

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isaak

This release really makes me proud to own an ATI I actually got a bit of a shock when I logged onto DH and saw "ATI Radeon 5870". Makes me smile seeing it beat out the GTX295 in some cases

IvanV

There are few things nicer for a geek than opening the favourite tech site and seeing a review of the first card for a new DirectX version first thing in the... around noon. Thanks!

Probably each "important" new generation has the same problem and I think that it's pretty much inevitable. Programmers are a lazy bunch (I mean it a little tongue in cheek) and they won't learn the new API and develop games for cards that don't exist. If the card proves to be good, it won't harm it too much. When 9700Pro went out, there wasn't even DX9, let alone games that implemented it. That (and the fact that Nvidia probably had a better reputation at the moment) did slow it down at first, but it didn't prevent it from becoming a success once the people were able to see how great the architecture really was. The new card looks good, fairly mature considering that there were no stability and IQ problems, and I'd say that it's decently priced for a new high end model, even though 4890 does offer better value for money in the short term. It's nice to see ATI arriving first to the party for once (unlike Radeon x1000 and HD 2000 series).

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blibbax

The 8800GTX lasted for so long (and will still be fine for some time for most users) partly because it was such a massive leap in performance - easily faster than two 7900GTXs, for example.

This new 5870 is very impressive and Nvidia has lost the single GPU performance crown for sure. It's a pretty close performance match for the 295, so we can expect to see some big Nvidia high end price cuts until their DX11 parts come out.

On that note, considering that Nvidia's current high end is at least in the same league as this new card, I can't imagine the Nvidia DX11 part not being faster. But, as before, it'll be dearer too.

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IvanV

I'm guessing that it would depend on how different the new architecture is internally. If the differences aren't too big, then you're probably right, but if it is, we'll see.

Considering the specs compared to the 4870 (all functional units x2 at a higher clock speed), I expected the new card to beat 4870 CF in pretty much every scenario, but that wasn't really the case, with H.A.W.X. being an extreme example (and World in Conflict showing similar results). Whether it's because of some internal tweaks drivers still haven't been fully adjusted for or is the new card lacking in memory throughput (as the Crossfire setup has an effective 512-bit memory bus - 2x256) I can't say, but the latter almost certainly did hamper the performance of 5870 somewhat. It would be nice if ATI could develop a card with a wider memory controller, switching to 384-bit (and 1.5GB of memory) would probably help a 5870-like card shine where the reviewed card hadn't.

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OmegaRED

It's okay I guess but left me disappointed as I was expecting performance at least 1.5x better than the current gen leading cards. Overall, it does come out ahead of the GTX 285 but in some games they are the same performance; when you throw in Physx it's less appealing. I really wanted to see these ATI cards crush every game and become the new "must have" video card but it's apparent that those people with SLI 200 series or even a 285/295/4870X2 will have little reason to want to upgrade. Gamers learned their lesson with promised DX10 titles I doubt anyone will buy one of these cards for the DX11 support.

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brutusmaximus

Once Nvidia start making their drivers ill show an interest. No offense to ATI/AMD but I really don't care if you have a faster card out there, get the drivers sorted. Just look at the forums - no one likes the new Catalyst Control Center, polls on it everywhere (on DH its over 85% against). Do they listen? No. New games have bugs everywhere. That is exactly why I moved during the X1950 era to the guys in green and ive never looked back.

I really don't want to cause any flaming in here, but the way I see it, its all about the drivers. hardware is secondary.

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Zardon

Well im not really sure the drivers are quite that bad Brutus. I do know there are probably more issues than with Nvidia with new titles but they generally get them sorted pretty fast. CCC is a bone of contention which I don't think is a good idea to get into in this specific thread as it has been discussed here in other forum threads.

blibbax

For the record, I don't think a crossfire gives you an effective doubled memory bandwith. Increased perhaps, but not doubled.

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swimtech

Great review Stu! The power and featureset give me a lot to look forward to.

What I was noticing there at the end was the relatively large percent performance increase in World in Conflict for what was a relatively minor overclock - that's the first time I remember seeing that happen.

I'm surmising here, but the popularity of Win7 hopefully coupled to game producers moving to DX11 for the increased performance available (and since most skipped DX10), my guess is that this series card will have legs and be viable a relatively long time, especially at resolutions of 1920x1080 and 2048x1152. The increased performance from DX11 should allow for increased picture quality while frame rates remain steady or possibly even increase slightly. It'll be interesting...

Thanks again for that thorough and insightful review!

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SeraphicSorcerer

While the performance is definitely good, I think it's another thing to point out that the price of this is probably why ATI Will be able to sell a lot of these cards. THE 295 Still sells for over 500$

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

It looks like 379.99 is what we're looking at, 80$ more then the introduction price of the 4870, I am waiting for the 5870x2 Personally.

but the review was nicely done, especially since it looks like you had to scramble, So... You'll be giving one of these bad boys away soon eh? I know I'd be disqualified, but you should make it so only users with 5870 Posts can enter! LOL

Nice Review.

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Judas

For a card doubling everything that a 4870 has, being FASTER.... in a single chip and not having to pass that information out across a pci-ex bridge chip between gpu's and doubling up on memory..

i was expecting the 5870 to close to if not should have exceeded the performance of a single 4870x2/x2 4870 CF EVERY TIME...

Which brings about a bit more of a conclusion.

It is not becoming very much apparent that a single GPU simply isn't going to cut it anymore and the move to dual/triple/quad core GPU's is the next logical move.

This is starting to look very much like how the single CPU's being super clocked to insane speeds were starting to see diminishing returns and the dual core cpu's at lower speeds were overtaking them.

IF ATI or Nvidia are able to produce a single chip with 2 gpu's on it, i would not be at all surprised to see significant gains in performance over the previous generation.

Actually I think it would be interesting to note that the 4890 design duplicated into a dual core solution would most likely scream by the 5870 by a significant factor.

If ATI were able to take the 5870 design, trim it down slightly, lower the clocks a wee bit and dual core the sucker.... i think we'd see a much more significant gain.

The prospect of a Quad Core GPU is even more significant.

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SeraphicSorcerer

the 5870x2 is already in the works

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Judas

yes...

but

it's not a dual core... it's another "waist" of resouces in terms of doubling up the memory to do the same thing and requireing 2 independant GPU's with a crossfire bridge put in place on a single PCB.

Way WAY more heat generated and power consumed.


Just like the Dual Socket CPU's.... they can't compare to the latencies and power that a dual core cpu is capable of.

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Alex

The biggest issue I have with multi core graphics cards is the heavy reliance on drivers and profiles. with a single core card you always know you are getting what you paid for. I mean how many people have had issues with a dual core card actually running a game slower or experiencing issues.

I still value a card like the 5870. Not sure I would pay it right now as it is just basically a fps increase, I am much more focused on IQ and I think we will be in a better position to judge if its worth the money when a few DX11 games hit the market. There is a good possibility the first generation DX11 boards will actually not be powerful enough to run DX11 games at high resolution. This has happened in the past a few times.

Judas

would be nice to see how the card performs in ray tracing situations... a DX11 feature

And i also agree... there is to much dependance on drivers for proper multi gpu support..

This was the same case with CPU's back in the day requireing a fair bit of work to get proper threading..

but they are getting close with GPU's being used properly load balanced without 100% relying on the gpu's own driver....

the hyrda system looks quite promising

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DJ BIG T

i agree i would like to see duel core gpu coming out....should run much cooler and faster then adding 2 gpu on a card...

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kris23

i think that the only reason why the 5870 doesnt overtake the 4870x2 is because of the small memory bus speed....... 256-bit? 1GB RAM?

these are the two disadvantages of this card compared to a 4870x2 and a dual 4870 setup

ill be waiting and pulling my money together for a 5870x2 or nvidia offering if its THAT good

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