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ATI Radeon HD 5970 Review: Dual-GPU Graphics
in-house feature
As we discussed in our preliminary Radeon 5870 review, on ATI's horizon ATI was a follow-up to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, code-named "Hemlock XT", which in essence would put together a pair of Radeon HD 5870 GPUs on a single PCB.
Today AMD is officially unveiling the Hemlock as the new ATI Radeon HD 5970, hoping to expand its current dominance in single-GPU performance with the fastest single-slot graphics card on the market -- a title that until today was reserved for Nvidia's dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295.
The Radeon HD 5970 looks to be well suited for the job. The GPUs used in this card use exactly the same configuration found on the Radeon HD 5870, while core and memory frequencies match those of the Radeon HD 5850. This provides the HD 5970 with an unmatched memory bandwidth of 256GB/s.
Read the complete review.
Today AMD is officially unveiling the Hemlock as the new ATI Radeon HD 5970, hoping to expand its current dominance in single-GPU performance with the fastest single-slot graphics card on the market -- a title that until today was reserved for Nvidia's dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295.
The Radeon HD 5970 looks to be well suited for the job. The GPUs used in this card use exactly the same configuration found on the Radeon HD 5870, while core and memory frequencies match those of the Radeon HD 5850. This provides the HD 5970 with an unmatched memory bandwidth of 256GB/s.
Read the complete review.
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User Comments (37)
Post a comment| red1776 on November 18, 2009 12:19 AM | yikes! that's a butt kicking, anxiously waiting for the
green fans to try and put a spin on that. BTW Julio, I just
measured my case....it will fit nicely..if you would like to
have a contest/giveaway or something of that nature
 how close does this monstrosity come to saturating the bandwidth of a PCIE V 2.0 ? |
| hellokitty[hk] on November 18, 2009 12:48 AM | What exactly happened to their naming scheme? |
| red1776 on November 18, 2009 1:02 AM | hellokitty[hk] said: They replaced the X2 with the
59xx over the 58xx, the theory is that they don't want to
draw attention to the fact that its a dual GPU card, and
want it thought of as a single slot solution.
What exactly happened to their naming scheme? |
| BlindObject on November 18, 2009 1:30 AM | Wow, that's nuts. Card is a real beast, in performance and size. I wonder what Nvidia is doing next...GTX3XX series? =D |
| freedomthinker on November 18, 2009 7:31 AM | This looks seriously nice , This is seriously a big leap for gamers ! Im still wondering why is nVidia keeping quiet though ? |
| burty117 on November 18, 2009 7:48 AM | Now, if anyone has been keeping up with my posts on all the graphics cards reviews, I always mention that nVidia will come out with something better...But Bloody Hell! that is some serious power in that card! I mean, thats real competition for nVidia! I may actually give up the wait for nVidia to come up with something and just buy one of these! I mean those furture mark benchs when over-clocked are the first of there kind for a single graphics card! I may have to give in and go ATI after all! |
| Vrmithrax on November 18, 2009 8:33 AM | Yep, I guess I know what will be going into my new early
2010 gaming rig build... Some of those benchmarks are
insane! I, too, have been curious to see what nVidia brought to the table. I left their camp years ago and have been all ATi since (well, except for the occasional system built for a friend that requested nVidia). Still, I always like to keep my ear to the ground on what new flashy things are coming, and it's soooo quiet over at nVidia. I think they are so focused on Fermi and some of their other projects, that they don't want their new killer card rumors to overshadow their other stuff, until the card actually hits the market - and I'm sure it will hit like an atom bomb, knowing how nVidia like to trump the competition and their own previous performance with new launches. Still, it makes me wonder if maybe the new ATi stuff made such a significant performance jump that it has nVidia reeling and scrambling to one-up it? |
| swing82 on November 18, 2009 10:21 AM | Better drivers will make this card faster, and when Nvidia
finally releases their next generation video card with early
drivers it will be judged against ATI with solid drivers,
which will make it even more difficult for
Nvidia. Also, I believe it was Anand that stated that two HD 5970s Crossfired will require an Intel Core i7 @ 4GHz just to feed them, a little scary as your test CPU was a respectable 3.7GHz. High demand and low availability of the earlier HD 58xx series leads me to believe AMD/ATI released this simply as another blow to Nvidia; enthusiast will love it. |
| swing82 on November 18, 2009 1:37 PM | Wish I could edit posts... In the above post I said, "two HD 5970s Crossfired will require an Intel Core i7 @ 4GHz just to feed them". I meant two HD 5870s Crossfired. |
| Puiu on November 18, 2009 2:09 PM | This goes to show that size DOES matter! Now all they need to do is make them cheaper. |
| klepto12 on November 18, 2009 5:18 PM | why bring this card out when there are none of there newer
cards available anywhere online i mean come on ATi get with
it and sell some cards so nvidia can feel the pain
|
| Guest on November 18, 2009 7:50 PM | Does this card beat the ASUS MARS 295 yet?? |
| klepto12 on November 18, 2009 8:09 PM | yes it does |
| mailpup on November 18, 2009 9:31 PM | At this writing Newegg is sold out of 5970s. They still had one model available about 1/2 hour ago but now it's not. I'm with klepto12 on this. This could be turning into practically a paper launch. The shortage of the 5800 series and now the 5970 has got to be frustrating for ATI fans. |
| red1776 on November 18, 2009 9:58 PM | At this writing Newegg is sold out of
5970s. They still had one model available about 1/2 hour
ago but now it's not. I'm with klepto12 on this. This
could be turning into practically a paper launch. The
shortage of the 5800 series and now the 5970 has got to be
frustrating for ATI fans. yeah, but i smell a rat
here....this 'bad yield of 40nm process' of TSMC is rather
suspect. the products that are being released now have been
in the works for two years, and now we have pitiful 40-50%
yields in a process that has been around for a while? I
think not. it smacks of the fake gas shortages of the early
70's.
|
| hellokitty[hk] on November 18, 2009 10:02 PM | Wish I could edit posts... You can, you
click on the button that says "Edit"...I
think not. it smacks of the fake gas shortages of the early
70's. Lol, it is strange, and no one has mentioned
exactly why.
|
| klepto12 on November 19, 2009 1:55 AM | i want a 5850 so bad but they are always sold out and now the price has sky rocketed up to over $300 this is a load of BS. |
| red1776 on November 19, 2009 2:05 AM | i want a 5850 so bad but they are
always sold out and now the price has sky rocketed up to
over $300 this is a load of BS. I agree Klep, I am
waiting to see what Asus,Sapphire, and Gigabyte do with
these cards, but I think that's going to be a while now. I
don't think its ATI/AMD though, given the market, they could
be charging a lot more if they wanted.
|
| tehoste on November 20, 2009 4:38 PM | I bought one. |
| red1776 on November 20, 2009 5:00 PM | how do you like it Teh? |
| Tehoste on November 21, 2009 3:31 PM | Haven't been able to use it yet.. -_- I had enough time to take pictures and post them before i had to leave for Toronto |
| red1776 on November 22, 2009 9:56 AM | Haven't been able to use it yet.. -_-
I had enough time to take pictures and post them before i
had to leave for Toronto Hey Teh, when you get a
chance, would you post some load temps on that thing?. I
really have not been a big fan of 'tunnel cards' because of
temp issues, but it looks as though its going to be a while
before production ramps up enough to see what other vendors
will do with open cooling solutions.
|
| DarKSeeD on November 25, 2009 10:57 AM | Well, to be honest, cards these days have nothing green-except the color of some manufacturers. More and more power (I know it means more computing-calculations) but c'mon that's purely kill-o-watts. I would like to see some electricity bills with that monster in Crossfire mode. |
| red1776 on November 25, 2009 11:11 AM | Well, to be honest, cards these days
have nothing green-except the color of some manufacturers.
More and more power (I know it means more
computing-calculations) but c'mon that's purely
kill-o-watts. I would like to see some electricity bills
with that monster in Crossfire mode. well that
assumes thatA) you buy into the BS social re-engineering of the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind that is 'global warming'. and..... B) if you can pay for the card,and afford the electricity bill....why not enjoy its superior performance?! |
| bedouinrising on November 25, 2009 8:33 PM | 5970 - the new card of my dreams! - if it would fit in my case... |
