Today we shall review a few more high-end graphics cards belonging to the Radeon HD 58xx/59xx series. As we have already mentioned before, these solutions have had a great start. Radeon HD 5870 still remains the fastest single-GPU graphics card, while Radeon HD 5970 remains the absolute champion in today's 3D gaming graphics.
As you know, cards like this are produced at third-party factories by orders of AMD or NVIDIA, while partners just label ready products. That's why all of those are identical. However, AMD has been selling Radeon HD 58xx chips separately as well, meaning that partners might have had time to make some customized products. Let's see if this is so.
Design
| AFOX Radeon HD 5850 1024MB |
- GPU: Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress)
- Interface: PCIe x16
- GPU (ROPs/Shaders) clock rate: 725/725 MHz (standard)
- Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1000 (4000) MHz (standard)
- Bus width: 256-bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 1440
- Texture processors: 72 (BLF/TLF)
- ROPs: 32
- Size: 260x100x33mm
- PCB color: black
- RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
- Outputs: 2 x DVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), Display Port, HDMI
- VIVO: -
- TV-out: -
- Multi-GPU: Hardware CrossFire
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| AFOX Radeon HD 5870 1024MB |
- GPU: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress)
- Interface: PCIe x16
- GPU (ROPs/Shaders) clock rate: 850/850 MHz (standard)
- Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1200 (4800) MHz (standard)
- Bus width: 256-bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 1600
- Texture processors: 80 (BLF/TLF)
- ROPs: 32
- Size: 285x100x33mm
- PCB color: black
- RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
- Outputs: 2 x DVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), Display Port, HDMI
- VIVO: -
- TV-out: -
- Multi-GPU: Hardware CrossFire
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| Manli Radeon HD 5870 1024MB |
- GPU: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress)
- Interface: PCIe x16
- GPU (ROPs/Shaders) clock rate: 850/850 MHz (standard)
- Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1200 (4800) MHz (standard)
- Bus width: 256-bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 1600
- Texture processors: 80 (BLF/TLF)
- ROPs: 32
- Size: 285x100x33mm
- PCB color: black
- RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
- Outputs: 2 x DVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), Display Port, HDMI
- VIVO: -
- TV-out: -
- Multi-GPU: Hardware CrossFire
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| Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X Overclock 1024MB |
- GPU: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress)
- Interface: PCIe x16
- GPU (ROPs/Shaders) clock rate: 870/870 MHz (850/850 MHz standard)
- Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1250 (5000) MHz (1200 (4800) MHz standard)
- Bus width: 256-bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 1600
- Texture processors: 80 (BLF/TLF)
- ROPs: 32
- Size: 270x100x33mm
- PCB color: black
- RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
- Outputs: 2 x DVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), Display Port, HDMI
- VIVO: -
- TV-out: -
- Multi-GPU: Hardware CrossFire
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| XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition 1024MB |
- GPU: Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress)
- Interface: PCIe x16
- GPU (ROPs/Shaders) clock rate: 765/765 MHz (725/725 MHz standard)
- Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1125 (4500) MHz (1000 (4000) MHz standard)
- Bus width: 256-bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 1440
- Texture processors: 72 (BLF/TLF)
- ROPs: 32
- Size: 260x100x33mm
- PCB color: black
- RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
- Outputs: 2 x DVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), Display Port, HDMI
- VIVO: -
- TV-out: -
- Multi-GPU: Hardware CrossFire
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| XFX Radeon HD 5970 2x1024MB |
- GPU: 2x Radeon HD 5870 (Hemlock)
- Interface: PCIe x16
- GPU (ROPs/Shaders) clock rate: 725/725 MHz (standard)
- Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1000 (4000) MHz (standard)
- Bus width: 2 x 256bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 2x1600
- Texture processors: 2x80 (BLF/TLF)
- ROPs: 2x32
- Size: 305x100x33mm
- PCB color: black
- RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU
- Outputs: 2xDVI (Dual-Link/HDMI), 1xHDMI
- VIVO: -
- TV-out: -
- Multi-GPU: internal CrossFire (between GPUs), external CrossFire (with another Radeon HD 5970)
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AFOX Radeon HD 5850 1024MB
XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition 1024MB
AFOX Radeon HD 5870 1024MB
Manli Radeon HD 5870 1024MB
Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X Overclock 1024MB |
1024MB GDDR5 SDRAM in 8 Samsung chips on the front side of the PCB. Peak clock rate 1250 (5000) MHz. |
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| XFX Radeon HD 5970 2x1024MB |
| 2 x 1024MB GDDR5 SDRAM in 16 Samsung chips on both PCB sides. Peak clock rate 1250 (5000) MHz. |
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| Comparison with the reference design, front view |
| AFOX Radeon HD 5870 1024MB |
Reference card ATI Radeon HD 5870 |
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| Manli Radeon HD 5870 1024MB |
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| Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X Overclock 1024MB |
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| AFOX Radeon HD 5850 1024MB |
Reference card ATI Radeon HD 5850 |
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| XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition 1024MB |
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| XFX Radeon HD 5970 2x1024MB |
Reference card ATI Radeon HD 5970 |
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| Comparison with the reference design, rear view |
| AFOX Radeon HD 5870 1024MB |
Reference card ATI Radeon HD 5870 |
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| Manli Radeon HD 5870 1024MB |
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| Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X Overclock 1024MB |
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| AFOX Radeon HD 5850 1024MB |
Reference card ATI Radeon HD 5850 |
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| XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition 1024MB |
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| XFX Radeon HD 5970 2x1024MB |
Reference card ATI Radeon HD 5970 |
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Well, I guess I was too optimistic hoping to see some custom products. All six are reference cards, just the Sapphire's has a custom cooler. The rest just have partner labels. Which means you should just buy what's cheaper. Perhaps, with the exception of the card from Sapphire.
These graphics cards feature audio codecs, so nothing else it required to transmit audio to HDMI.
Note that each of these cards has a 6-pin connector for external power supply. Besides, HD 5970 has an additional 8-pin power connector as well.
Maximum resolutions and frequencies:
- 240 Hz maximum refresh rate
- 2048 x 1536 x 32bit @ 85Hz Max -- analog interface
- 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max -- digital interface (Dual-Link DVI/HDMI)
As for the HDTV support, a review is available here.
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