The Radeon HD 5870 is now the world’s fastest single GPU video card. It also happens to be the world’s first DirectX 11 video card. Congrats to AMD/ATI for upping the ante once again. According reviews from AnandTech and The Tech Report, the Radeon HD 5870 is essentially “doubled” the performance of a Radeon HD 4870 without doubling the power consumption. Not bad for a $379.99 USD video card.
But this video card isn’t for me. The $379.99 USD price tag and its obscene length are reasons enough to look forward to the Radeon HD 5850 which will debut at $259.99 USD. I’m looking forward to the reviews — especially after reading this quote from AnandTech’s article.
AMD expects the 5850 to perform at approximately 80% the performance level of the 5870, and is pricing it at $259.
I believe they’ll be posting their review within the next week or so.
By the time I get around to actually building and purchasing a new computer, these video cards could have some price cuts. Who knows? If the Radeon HD 5850 performs, it could cause all sorts of price changes for NVIDIA’s lineup which may cause AMD/ATI to react as well.
Good old competition!
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