Forza, Radeon HD 5870
The initial batch of cards will be manufactured on behalf of AMD and then rolled out to partners. As per previous launches, we expect all partners to use the same basic card, branded in their livery, and differentiated with respect to bundle.HEXUS received a single Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB card for evaluation.
It
looks rather good in accented in red. The board's power is rated at a
maximum 188W - well below the 285W on Radeon HD 4870 X2 - so the
cooler's not especially extravagant.
GeForce
GTX 295 tips the scales at 1,213g, Radeon HD 4870 X2 at 1,100g, but the
Radeon HD 5870 keeps the porkometer under 1kg - 958g, to be exact. The
dimensions, though, are practically identical to the twin-GPU X2,
measuring in at 270mm x 117mm x 38mm (w x d x h)
The
power-draw is manifested by two
six-pin PCIe connectors. Expect the HD 5870 X2 to feature an eight-pin
and six-pin arrangement, just like Radeon HD 4870 X2.
We'd
had hoped for a whisper-quiet card,
given the attention to cooling and relatively low board power. Testing
showed that whilst it was practically silent in 2D - where clocks drop
to 157MHz core and 300MHz memory - 3D noise was higher than
expected; you could clearly hear the fan spin-up in a quietish system.
The
wraparound enclosure hides the 1,024MB of GDDR5 memory that operates at
a blistering 4,800MHz.
Twin
vents look oh-so cool but the
cooler doesn't draw too much air in from the front.
A
couple of CrossFire fingers pave the way for four-card Radeon HD 5870.
Related
to the Eyefinity feature-set, the reference card boasts three distinct
digital outputs: DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. All three can be used
simultaneously, although DisplayPort needs to be one of the three
outputs.
Here's
how it shapes up against some present high-end competition.
The literally cool feature is that it should do some 100W less at full
load.
