Hardware ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB Review

That's not correct... memory size has nothing to do with the differences between GDDR3 and GDDR5. However, both the 4870 X2 and GTX 295 can only access 1GB of memory per GPU, so they've only really got 1GB of memory (well 896MB in the GTX 295's case)... it's just that because there are two GPUs, you have to copy the contents of each GPU's memory to the other. That's why they have double the memory.

 

but doesn't gddr3 only half the throughput off gddr5? which is what I was trying to get at

 

Greetings!

In bandwidth, not storage.
Posted an article about this last page.

 

No matter the gddr3 or gddr5 memory types, the relevant is the memory bandwidth. GTX295's memories are able to transfer 224GB/s and HD5870's, 154GB/s. However, HD5870 has much more GPU power -- I believe in 2,7 TFlops --, against 1,8TFlops of GTX295.

The size memory matters more to heavy resolutions.

 

i'd love to see that vapor-x version of the cards comming up...
this thing is a nice card already from what i've read all over, but sapphire know's way's to make those products even more attractive to me

shame for the prices they ask though

 

faug, just order from germany and have it sent over, relax, there are options, always (feel like he is on the GPU suicide hotline, lol)

 

if gainward releases a 5850 i'll get one (i guess i could settle for vapor-x)

 

Nah, i have it with way too good price (around 310€), it just makes me sad that the delivery got postponed so much. If i would be totally desperate, i could get it from one of the distributors which have delivery @ 2.10.2009 - but for 355€ which is over 40€ over the price i can accept - even if it is a Asus (which i actually don't consider to be a good brand in graphics cards).

 

@Ficky Pucker: Gainward, Palit or XpertVision will NOT release any HD5xxx or newer card - they are not ATI partner anymore due the HD4850 + DDR5 affair.

 

Could I second the suggestion about testing Crysis with very high settings? (You have already taken note of this, I know).
Also heat and noise of the stock cooler - will comments on these be added?

Power consumption was impressive but I did hope for more performance (even though I know I shouldn't have).

 

no folding =@home numbers? that would be nice to see.

 

the flop count of these cards are measured differently. thats why ATi cards have double the flops at the same performance.

 

;o) Small TYPO on page 9, para 7, "we worked our way up to resolutions ntaive to the 24in display." I read that the 5870 uses SuperSampled AA, no adaptive trilinear filtering and angle-independent AF. If so it's doing a lot more than the cards it's being compared to, so even equalling the effectively dual 4870-X2 is a decent feat. I love the power consumption but the thing's way too big, I think 9" should be plenty personally. I can't wait to see what the 5700 series of cards will be like, no FX dust-busters I hope LOL!

 

well considering that drivers used for this card is still young, this looks promising.

 

still think company's should not be allowed to post 2x ram when only half of what they are putting on the box can be used due to SLI and CF works , that would remove posted like above from happening

both video cards on the GTX295 have to have the same data on both cards when SLI is on (GTX295 is 2 video cards) even when SLI is off the total usable ram per card is 1gb

 

There is no problem with measurements.

It is a fact that ATI's GPU processes much more floating point operations than nvidia's. So It is a more powerful GPU engine. However, if we can be very succinct, it depends a loooot on the way developers discard or not all that power for writing games engines, thus the cards can reach a closer or more disparate performances between the same two different GPU technologies, at the same time. There are many games (not the TWIMTBP ones) that you can see a significant advantage of ATI, mainly at heavy resolutions with all active filters.

 

Great review. Despite being more powerful than the previous single GPU cards I can see why the real-life performance figures haven't set the world alight. Historically, though, haven't fairly early driver revisions unleashed substantial performance games from previous generations of GPU?

I'm sure that if the general opinion is that of disappointment, we'll see a significant performance boost with one of the first revised driver releases.

 

hhhhmmmmm i like what i'm seeing but still expensive card
XD

 

perfectly true here what austin said it is working on supersampled AA like i said i like what i'me seeing but it's expensive
but lenght any midtower en several mini T fit these cards i'me just glad that they putted the power supply on the sides this time much easier than the 4800 series witch made it difficult with the hdd

 

Nice, but still too expensive :S