Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850/5870 pictured Japanese website Hermitage akihabara have scored front 3/4th view pictures of Sapphire's Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 in good quality. Both the HD 5800 series cards are virtually identical from the outside - except for length. The HD 5850 ends up shorter - around 9.5"/24cm, around HD 4870/90 length; the HD 5870 is longer, at 10.5"/27cm length - the same length as a 4870 X2. VR-Zone

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I think the dimensions of the 5 series are interesting, hopefully they won't stunt sales. It'll be interesting to see if an X2 card will add on to the already projected lengthy xx90.
Needless to say, I'm pumped for the release. ATI and AMD are slowly gaining ground, though they both have a long way to go..

Another too long card for my case, why haven't they adjusted the size of the PCB's?
I have a mid-tower self built system, at the time a 9800 GTX was too big, 8800GTS just made it, still happy with it, but a little concerned on upgrading down the road.
This is a nice case and no way to mod it to fit any of the long cards I'm seeing, it's right up again the HD bay as it is.
Not helping that the 6 prong power plugs are also typically at that end, requiring even MORE space.

has anyone seen a roadmap of other cards besides the 5XXX series? I am just curious of what the entire ATI lineup is going to look like.

Yea, I hear your pain badfinger. I had a 4870 before and had to purchase a new case to use the dang thing. I could fit it in my MidATX but the 6-pin was right up against my HD cage and bent to one side, didn't make me very comfortable with that setup.
Just leaving these PCB's huge restricts their customer base to FullATX owners for the 5870. Granted enthusiasts will probably already own a FullATX, even still.
Hopefully similar to PS3 slim, they'll release a smaller PCB down the road. If they keep making these things bigger than my feet, they need to engineer these a tad longer..

why don't they just make it without the stupid useless cooler and cut the cost for the consumer. Most hardcore gamers end up losing that piece of scrap metal and putting a custom cooler on anyway. That would probably save the consumer a good $50+ dollars.