Power Consumption and Conclusions
With all the emphasis that AMD has been putting on the power efficiency of the new Evergreen GPU we were very interested to see how the new HD 5870 performed in this regard. At idle, the new GPU did not disappoint, registering the lowest power consumption by 16 watts. This was one area that NVIDIA’s GPUs had really had an edge in before and now even that advantage seems to have gone by the wayside. Even more impressive is the drop from the HD 4890 to the HD 5870 – over 40 watts!
At load the HD 5870 uses about the same power as the HD 4890 – another great feat consider how much better performance the HD 5870 was getting in our gaming tests relative to the previous generation part. Even more important to AMD is how much better the load power consumption is for the HD 5870 compared to either the GTX 285 or GTX 295. The GTX 285 uses 50 more watts at load though it is only able to post better performing numbers in a couple of our tests. And though the GTX 295 was the best card in terms of raw performance it does use about 110 watts more power to do so.
When looking at the CrossFire results we can see a couple of things. First, adding the second HD 5870 card only increased our idle power consumption by 21 watts – and even better number than AMD quoted us in our briefings. Secondly, though the CrossFire config does use considerably more power than the single card configuration (133 watts or so) it is only using 14 watts more power than the GTX 295. Considering how easily the HD 5870 CrossFire configuration beat the GTX 295 in the gaming tests that is another impressive mark on AMD’s card for power efficiency.
Performance
There is no sense in trying to deny that the new ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB graphics card is incredibly fast and takes the lead as the fastest single-GPU card on the market. When we compare it to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285, AMD’s new Evergreen GPU bests it in every test with the exception of the new Batman title where the two cards are basically neck and neck. The largest performance gap we saw was in Far Cry 2 where the AMD driver team obviously spent a bit more time to get things where the hardware designers feel they should be. In fact, I am willing to give AMD another couple of weeks to produce better results in both Batman and Resident Evil 5 as both games were part of the NVIDIA “The Way It’s Meant to be Played” network which usually results in a earlier access to builds and driver tweaks.
If we back away from the single-GPU limitation and compare the HD 5870 to the GeForce GTX 295 that sports a pair of GT200-based GPUs, the HD 5870 doesn’t quite live up to the hype that was created by AMD’s marketing team. Really the only areas that I found the new Evergreen GPU to be competitive with this particular NVIDIA card was in Far Cry 2 and the 2560×1600 resolution of H.A.W.X – in all of our other tests the GTX 295 was the clear victor. Of course, that comes at a cost of both dollars and watts (as we mentioned above)…
On a brighter note the CrossFire scaling we saw in our testing with a pair of the HD 5870s proved to be incredibly impressive. In most games scaling at the top resolutions were 70%+ proving that when AMD does make that HD 5870 X2 card available, it should easily take the spot away from NVIDIA’s GTX 295. So while getting king-of-the-hill level GPU performance from AMD does require two physical cards, there advantages to that configuration like support for 6 displays and upcoming support for triple-display CrossFire performance enhancements.
New DirectX 11 and Other Features
AMD wasn’t completely dependent on current generation performance in its marketing of the new Radeon HD 5870 – they also want to push upon everyone the fact that they are the first and only GPU vendor to have a completely-baked DirectX 11 ready graphics card on the market. We already went over the added benefits that having DX11 will get you, eventually, but for today there isn’t a dire need to have a DX11-ready card in your system.
We have indeed talked to many developers that are pushing upon us the importance and relevance of DX11 though, to be fair, those same developers were brought to us by AMD. In my opinion though after hearing both NVIDIA’s and AMD’s take on the matter, DirectX 11 is likely to see a much faster and more thorough uptake than DX10 ever did thanks in large part to backwards compatibility and some fundamental changes to API at its core.
Other bonus features on the new Radeon HD 5870 include the higher quality digital audio output support via the HDMI 1.3 interconnect now standard on the reference card, support for three monitors out of the box and Eyefinity technology…
AMD Eyefinity and its impact
This is probably the area where I will continue to get the most questions about and for good reason: it is arguably the most exciting new addition to PC gaming in some time. I don’t want to hear any haters tell me all about the Matrox Triple-head product: because Matrox sure never did!
The ability to move your PC gaming from a modest single 22-in or 24-in panel to a 3×1 configuration of monitors is a great addition to the expanding PC gaming technological advantages. The only negative drawback is that at least one of your displays will have to support the new DisplayPort connection, and those are limited right now. Both Dell and HP offer some models today (like the Dell 2408WFP or HP LP2275w) but those should be expanding into more brands and lower prices in the not too distant future.
I don’t want to rehash everything I talked about on the previous page about Eyefinity, the question I have already gotten above all others is this: is Eyefinity worth getting the HD 5870 for? While I can’t say it is the case for everyone, I think that vast majority of PC gaming enthusiasts will likely fall in love with an Eyefinity configuration once they see one in action. If you are sitting there today with a single monitor and debating purchasing two more and one of these cards, then I think you already know what your answer is.
It is more than likely now that NVIDIA will try to implement a similar feature in their upcoming GT300 architecture if it is at all possible. AMD did a good job keeping Eyefinity a secret and they are obviously hoping they have left NVIDIA more than a bit flat-footed with the revelation a couple of weeks ago. We are reaching a period of profound segmentation in the marketplace of graphics card: AMD has Eyefinity and open stream computing while NVIDIA touts PhysX, 3D Vision and CUDA application supremacy. Those of you that read PC Perspective know that I am indeed a fan of 3D Vision though I think PhysX is still a product yet to be realized. That being said, for my money, Eyefinity is the better attention grabber and experience changer of these options.
Power Efficiency
One area where AMD’s GPU design team should be VERY proud is with how they have been able to improve the power efficiency of their designs since the days of the Radeon HD 2000 series. The 4800-series was a complete turnaround for them even over the slightly modified 3800-series of cards that changed the way AMD, and many in the media and consumer fields, thought GPUs should be designed. The Evergreen series, now with its first official product, the HD 5870, takes that another step further by increase performance / watt and performance / die area another factor.
And considering that NVIDIA’s GT200 was not exactly known for its power efficiency, and that the rumors we know of GT300 aren’t sparking our curiosity in that regard either, it’s likely that AMD will keep this crown for some time to come.
Pricing and Availability
AMD kept this part of the puzzle a secret until just a couple of days ago but here are the MSRPs:
- Radeon HD 5870 1GB – $379
- Radeon HD 5850 1GB – $259
Knowing the price of the Radeon HD 5850 is nice and all, but with a sample to test and run through its paces, we can’t really comment on it too much. It should be a pretty good value at $120 less than the premium for the HD 5870.
I can’t seem to shake the feeling that the new Radeon HD 5870 1GB card isn’t as good a value as I had originally expected. Maybe it’s the fact that the GTX 285 didn’t completely get blown away in every benchmark we threw at the pair or maybe it’s the fact that I am used to AMD’s GPU team undercutting NVIDIA’s graphics card prices rather than rising to meet them.
Final Thoughts
The new AMD Radeon HD 5870 is the fastest single-GPU graphics card you can purchase today and will likely remain that way through at least the end of the year. The new Evergreen core, with its 1600 shader processors and improved texturing power, is able to best the GT200 core that was dominating the HD 4800-series cards in every aspect except efficiency. Add to that mix support for DirectX 11 gaming and compute applications with new features like Eyefinity and you have all the makings of a fantastic product launch that will dominate the GPU market for months. The one caveat is that AMD has left the GTX 285 still as a relevant graphics card option and if NVIDIA lowers prices as it is expected to do, gamers not keen on DX11 or multi-monitor gaming could be convinced to sway away from AMD’s new offering.
AMD is obviously confident in the products appeal to consumers with BOTH performance and features and is hoping that it adds up to better profitability for their new flagship offering. For my money, the Radeon HD 5870 is the best graphics card you can purchase; but for others the math might not add up.
If you have any questions or comments on this article or the Radeon HD 5870, jump into the PC Perspective Forums to discuss!!
this is not good
this is not good
Cool Game!!!!!
Cool Game!!!!!
yes this is best.but y send
yes this is best.but y send me latest versions of configuration
very-very good!!
very-very good!!