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ATI Radeon HD 5870 review

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Verdict

A stunningly powerful card that tops even the best dual-GPU monsters of ATI's last generation

Review Date: 23 Sep 2009

Reviewed By: David Bayon

Price when reviewed: £261 (£300 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
6 stars out of 6

Value for Money
4 stars out of 6

Performance
6 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

Aiming to continue its recent run of success at the top end of the desktop graphics scale, ATI has released the Radeon HD 5870. It represents the mid-point of the HD 5000 family of cards, soon to be followed by a more powerful card – a twin-GPU X2 variant looks likely – and the confirmed HD 5850.

The HD 5870 is the first DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5 part the industry has seen, which we're promised brings support for smoother shadows, better tessellation, two new shader types and many other improvements. We'll put all that to the test when the first DX11 games come flooding through the gates, but for now its main competition is existing DirectX 10 cards, most notably its HD 4000 brethren.

Efficiently brutal

It's a 40nm GPU, down from the 55nm of the HD 4870, and it doubles that card's stream processor count to 1,600 while increasing the transistor count to a staggering 2.15 billion. The core clock of 850MHz and 1GB of GDDR5 memory at 1,200MHz make it the most powerful single-GPU card ATI has yet produced, although it's pretty similar in size and bulk to the previous X2 parts. If you have a cramped PC don't expect this to be the space-saving alternative.

ATI claims an idle power draw of 27W, rising to 188W under full load. In our Core i7-920 test rig with 4GB of DDR3 and a 7,200rpm hard disk, we measured a full system load of 120W idle and 252W under load. Best of all, the HD 5870 requires two standard six-pin power connectors, eliminating the need for messy eight-pin adapters or a modern PSU.

Our old Call of Juarez benchmark proved no problem for the Radeon, with an average of 62fps at 1,920 x 1,200 with everything on maximum. World in Conflict's benchmark was also brushed aside and the same settings – an average of 67fps with just one drop beneath 30fps during an intensive explosion.

But Crysis is the test that counts, and it romped through without breaking sweat: 66fps at 1,600 x 1,200 with High settings; 44fps when upped to 1,920 x 1,200 and Very High; it even managed a playable 31fps at the highest resolution our old CRT monitor would output – 2,058 x 1,536.

So we shoved that aside and hooked the card up to a 30in TFT with a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, kept the settings at maximum and sat back to admire an impressive, almost playable 24fps average. To put it in perspective, this card will smoothly run more or less any game you currently own on the biggest monitor most of us would realistically buy.

Futureproof

That opens up all sorts of questions in relation to ATI's Eyefinity – the multi-monitor capability that this family of cards supports. It's still going to be a push to tile six TFTs as in ATI's demo, bezels will get in the way, and we're not convinced it actually makes the experience a great deal better for many games, but it's one for the future.

On the rear of our sample were two dual-link DVI outputs, plus one HDMI and one DisplayPort connector, and ATI will also be making a limited number of its Eyefinity6 Edition with six outputs.

So where does it sit in the pecking order? The Crysis scores put it streets ahead of any previous single-GPU card, with its 44fps score in our Very High test eclipsing the 29fps of the HD 4890, but it's also faster than dual-GPU chips. The HD 4870 X2 only managed 35fps in the same test.

Even the price proves a plus point. It's faster than the HD 4870 X2, which now costs less than £300, so to see the HD 5870 in stock at various retailers for £300 inc VAT shows just what a good deal it is for enthusiasts. At least until the X2 version arrives, the HD 5870 - with its mix of low power draw and lightning speeds - is undoubtedly the new benchmark for enthusiast gamers.

Author: David Bayon

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Other Information

How loud is the cooler under heavy load?

What is the GPU temperature at idle and under load?

By phantombudgie on 23 Sep 2009

AMD are mis-selling ALL their Radeon HD cards

This product, as with every single other PCI Express Radeon HD card, is being mis-sold which is illegal.

By Jayce85 on 23 Sep 2009

Why?

Care to elaborate why?

By mviracca on 23 Sep 2009

The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982

AMD state in their System Requirements for their Radeon HD cards, both on the website and product packaging, that they require only a PCI Express based motherboard to work.
This is not true, some PCI Express based motherboards are not able to allocate the additional resources required by the HD Audio chip included on ALL Radeon HD cards, preventing them from ever working correctly.
Meaning people all over the world are being sold a product due to the incorrect and mis-leading information provided by AMD. This is illegal in the UK, and breaks the law mentioned above.
Read more on the PC Pro Forum under 'AMD are breaking the law'.
Or even from AMDs own forum at http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=2
60&threadid=103044

By Jayce85 on 24 Sep 2009

Yes, read the thread but..

Jayce85, I read that thread you linked to, and it appears it's only a problem with really old motherboards. Plus the original problem is nearly a year old now, and you were hoping to use a HD3850 which is a different card to the one being reviewed here.

Anyone with a motherboard from the past year or two should be okay, and as the 5870 is built to run on new hardware, that's what you should/will be using.

Also, ATi even sent you a new motherboard and CPU so I don't see why you are complaining that much? Plus, in the thread, they gave you entirely valid reasons why your card wasn't working.

I'm not saying that they were 100% right, but as they pointed out - to expect their graphics cards to run on all PC configurations considering how many there are out there, would be a difficult task.

By pbryanw on 24 Sep 2009

So its okay to break the law?

The problem I have pointed out is not public knowledge. And continues to be and will always be relevent with the Radeon HD hardware.

The free motherboard and cpu were junk, as i had no compatable memory and Windows XP or Vista was going to set me back at least £60.
Why should people have to pay extra for a product that was mis-sold to them?

Do they send everyone a free motherboard - no!

What do they do? They tell them that they have incorrectly installed the graphics card correctly, thats as far as there help goes.

I will continue to snub AMD/ATI until they publicly admit, like they have to me, that there are issues regarding the compatability with their most popular product. That is all i asked from them.

By Jayce85 on 24 Sep 2009

woah there! how many slots will the dual GPU version take up? Eight?! (sic)

By felefant on 24 Sep 2009

@Jayce: So you got a free CPU and motherboard, presumably with the next generation of memory technology, as you had 'no memory that will fit' and you're still whining? You may as well accuse Microsoft of breaking the law for advertising their minimum requirements in GHz instead of FLOPs. Adding in 'And this card may not work on your elderly motherboard because of some reason that's far too technical for the general public' is only going to confuse the majority of people. And the majority of people who have issues with the card will not have installed it correctly, so its no use complaining about the quality of their support.

By qwertyqwerty87 on 24 Sep 2009

Its FREE hardware!

I'll make it simple for the general public then.

Do you want a new PC but can't afford it?

Then let AMD send you a FREE motherboard and dual-core CPU, to get you started, which is guaranteed to run their Radeon HD cards.

They are mis-selling the cards, be a winner, send them a letter pointing that out and in their unashamed guilt and potential liability for a class action case they will send you FREE hardware as a bribe to shut you up.

By Jayce85 on 24 Sep 2009

Stop Whinging - I think AMD have been generous supplying replacement hardware

This seems to be a common problem, as a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP/MCDST/MCTS/MCITP) you would not believe the number of people that come to me when it goes pear shaped! Most people would check what they have before they order a top end card.
I have a machine I built a couple of years ago and keep modifying, didnt have any problem buying a Sapphire Radeon HD4890 1GB GDDR5 memory on board works a treat what I say is do your homework first that way you wont have to complain later or better still leave it to the professionals.

By JM1965 on 24 Sep 2009

Mistake in specs tab

I think you mean 1GB RAM, not 1MB!

By JohnAHind on 15 Oct 2009

S T F U Q Q Jayce85

This will probobly not get looked at, but Jayce, STFU I have never seen some one complain so much. You have the bad luck of having incompatible hardware, AMD sends you new hardware so you STFU and you still complain because you didn't get ram. DDR2 is maybe $60 for 2gigs, that dual core AMD will smoke that P4. BOOO HOOO OMG THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW BECAUSE I WANT TO USE THIS 3870 thats not going to be anygood to my crapped out P4. Do everyone a favoor and just sell your PC and never build another one again unless it has been pre built for you nub.

By Chaz9669 on 18 Oct 2009

S T F U Q Q Jayce85

By Chaz9669 on 18 Oct 2009

Dear Chaz9669

You have a wonderful grasp of the english language.
You call me a 'noob', but I think if you experienced the same problem as me you would never have figured it out.
To upgrade and not learn the source of the problem is something I would expect from a person of your mental capabilities.
I am trying to help others with the problem, if it doesn't affect you thats great. But please stop adding hate reply's.

By Jayce85 on 22 Oct 2009

Unfair slander of AMD

@Jayce85
You seem not to care about doing hate comments about AMD. Who have done proud by sending you new equipment for something which is not their fault.
As with all upgrading it is up to the upgrader to ensure their equipment is suitable for fitting high end parts on, not AMD. It is common knowledge that older motherboards may not support very high spec grahic cards.

By curiousclive on 30 Oct 2009

Congratulations! You are wrong 'curiousclive'.

It is PROVEN FACT that old motherboards DO support new very high spec VGA cards.
Why else would AMD continue to produce AGP compatable versions of these cards?
The problem I refer to has been has been acknowledge by AMD, who admit it IS their fault, hence they sent me compatable hardware.
FACT is not slander.

By Jayce85 on 16 Nov 2009

oops

AMD don't produce AGP versions for high spec VGA cards

Companies such as Sapphire & Club 3D produce the card using the AMD chips - and possibly some older boards do support the audio functions (on an AGP slot?), but it's still up to the person putting the part together to find out if his motherboard has the necessary support for it.

I fully agree with the fact that AMD have been more than fair to send you free equipment, instead of simply referring you to your original supplier

By greemble on 19 Nov 2009