On the example of AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB DDR5 (850/850/4800 MHz).

Price: Newegg, Amazon.

Features:

• GPU: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress)
• Memory: 1GB GDDR5 SDRAM in 8 chips on the front side of the PCB
• Interface: PCIe x16
• GPU clock rate (ROPs/Shaders): 850/850 MHz (standard)
• Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1200 (4800) MHz (standard)
• Bus: 256-bit
• Stream processors: 1600
• TMUs: 80 (BLF/TLF)
• ROPs: 32
• Size: 285x100x33 mm
• PCB color: black
• RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
• Outputs: 2 x DVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), Display Port, HDMI
• Multi-GPU mode: hardware CrossFire

The card looks like HD 4890, with the same 256-bit bus and 8 memory chips. However, outputs have changed a lot, because the card supports three receivers simultaneously and has 4 connectors (HDMI and Display Port cannot be used simultaneously). Also, the power supply unit has changed comparing to its predecessor due to the peculiarities of the new core and its power needs.

The PCB has grown from 260mm to 270mm. However, the cooler adds another 15mm to card's length, so even if your PC enclosure has space for a 270mm GeForce GTX 2xx or 4870 X2, the new card might still not fit. Also note the card's thickness which requires that no outstanding parts are present behind the x16 slot (and the adjacent slot as well).

This card features its own audio codec, so nothing else is required to output audio to HDMI.

This card has two 6-pin supplementary power connectors.

This card can work with three monitors simultaneously.

Maximum resolutions and frequencies:

• 240 Hz maximum refresh rate
• 2048 x 1536 x 32bit @ 85Hz Max via analog interface
• 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max via digital interface (all Dual-Link DVIs)

The HDTV review is available here.

We thank AMD for the provided graphics card.

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