AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5870 Video Card Review @ [H]

Atech said:
Well I see the difference ingame(missing effects when hardware Physx is disabled)...and in countless videos (like the one i posted), so I am having a laugh here...no offence.
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You are misunderstanding what I have said. Our evaluation, when it is ready, will explain.
 
Yea, the CPU hack has graphical glitches, so its not really fair to compare a working implementation of PhysX to a CPU hack that doesn't work right.
 
Let's stay on topic please, our Batman evaluation is about 2 weeks out still. We have a lot to test with it, and 5870 will be included in the cards tested on it.
 
Typo alert. In the Gameplay Summary section for Crysis Warhead you referenced the Radeon HD 570 instead of 5870. First line in the second chapter.

Great article though. I'm getting at least one 5870 for sure.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Let's stay on topic please, our Batman evaluation is about 2 weeks out still. We have a lot to test with it, and 5870 will be included in the cards tested on it.
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Brent -

one of my biggest concerns with ATI right now are the drivers. During testing did you guys experience any crashes or issues that were driver related?
 
dnottis said:
Brent -

one of my biggest concerns with ATI right now are the drivers. During testing did you guys experience any crashes or issues that were driver related?
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Keep in mind that the driver we used is an early Beta driver for Cypress. We encountered two errors related to 8X AA in NFS Shift and Ghostbusters. We quickly informed AMD, and they quickly fixed the issue and sent us a new driver which fixes the problem. The release driver for the cards works just fine and fixed the issue we had. AMD/ATI was both quick to respond to our problem, and quickly found the fix and provided that driver and made it part of their release driver. Other than that, we had NO problems with this Beta driver. It was stable.

Our upcoming multi-gpu testing will be using an even newer driver provided by AMD.
 
With the above post, I would like to know any driver related qualms when using eyefinity as well if possible.

edit- your post pretty much answered my question before I could ask it. thanks.

cool how they responded so fast and fixed the problem quickly. good work ATi!
 
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Once again another high quality review coming out of the [H]! Keep up the good work!

5870 performs just about where I expected it would. It's not really new tech so I wasn't expecting HUGE performance increases like others were. It is a damn nice card though especially with the price/performance, the new features like Eyefinity and the incredible decrease in power usage for what has been packed onto the card.

It's a tempting upgrade but my Crossfired HD4870's will keep me going for the time being. However, when the 5890's hit a few months from now it may be time to upgrade. ;)
 
Brent_Justice said:
Keep in mind that the driver we used is an early Beta driver for Cypress. We encountered two errors related to 8X AA in NFS Shift and Ghostbusters. We quickly informed AMD, and they quickly fixed the issue and sent us a new driver which fixes the problem. The release driver for the cards works just fine and fixed the issue we had. AMD/ATI was both quick to respond to our problem, and quickly found the fix and provided that driver and made it part of their release driver. Other than that, we had NO problems with this Beta driver. It was stable.

Our upcoming multi-gpu testing will be using an even newer driver provided by AMD.
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Thats promising. The monthly driver release puts new game fixes a few months out. I wish the public drivers were fixed that quickly and was one of the reasons I went back to nvidia, sure they leak alot of drivers but we get fixes much quicker from NV.
 
Brent_Justice said:
We encountered two errors related to 8X AA in NFS Shift and Ghostbusters. We quickly informed AMD, and they quickly fixed the issue and sent us a new driver which fixes the problem.
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I wish they could put the same effort when making their Linux display drivers... :(
 
i know it's all about video here on [H] but the most exciting feature for a HTPC freak like me is the bitstream of lossless audio and the inclusion of protected audio path (PAP):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1179134

the only regret i see is these GPUs are powerful enough to do polarized 3-D (dual 1080p streams@1,080Hz). it can power a display like this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1179134

i also need:
-HDMI 1.4+
-higher color depths output 12 and 16-bit color depth output and the LCDs/other displays capable of supporting it.
 
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Then the 5850 would make a very nice HTPC card as well, especially at its price point.
 
Hmm nice card.
I'd like to see if this new card from ATI and the new upcoming card(s) from nvidia can play Crysis at the Very High setting :)
 
Just an idea for future update of the review guys,can you add the GTX295 in the tests also?

Thanks!
 
Wow, another great review! And what an amazing card! I need to get myself two more 24" and maybe play through Oblivion again :)

Hopefully Nvidia will respond with some actual innovation. Hopefully...
 
Now that we are set on the next AMD graphic platform I would like to read about what have been discussed for nVidia. Nothing is official anywhere I know but I'd like to have fun just reading what the rumors are as of today. I know that major sites are dealing with a NDA but there is always some information that is leaked and if someone have any info then I would like to know.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Very first paragraph, page 14.
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Thanks for your answer.

Haha i forgot that i already read that last night i was exausted,stay awake till 6:AM for the review im from EU.

Anyway cant wait for update! ;) On a side note, for ppl who whine about the performance and they are a bit disappointed (hint:focus on min fps on highest settings)
 
DeadSkull said:
When is that going to be ready?
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I haven't even started it yet. Going to use Win7 RTM, and new AMD driver, and higher CPU clock rate, so have to re-test all 5870 gameplay, plus adding in a bunch of games, a possibly going to test a 3x1 Eyefinity setup at high resolutions as well, and have to go out of town to California next week, so it won't be next week, but when it is done, it will be one hella awesome evaluation.
 
Brent/Kyle,
very nice review!


Ohers,
I am glad to see ATI come out with a good offering.

I am not worried about the 256 Bit bus as in the end its a balancing game. No sense having monster fill rate if dont have the bandwidth to move it as we as no sense having all the bandwidth if you have no fill rate. It looks like ATI has a nice balance.

Glad to see better AF and Super Sampling return!

And about the TWIMTBP games, this is kind of what we knew had be going on for some time. Its not that the developers are trying to hurt (well hope not) ATI here, it just the game was developed using NV hardware and that is where all the optimization, coding and tweaking goes in.
 
Anyone know how long the card is? I took an image off newegg and used my cad program. Its about 10.5" to 11" From the PCB edge by the I/O bracket to the decorative vent.
It looks to be tight fit for my case.

Thanks.
 
Ok nice review and nice card. Now that that's out of the way let me say this. The performance is a nice little boost but if you have a current gen card from either camp (especially if your running any multi gpu setup) this card is not worth the money for an incremental upgrade. Not at this time. Yes that's very subjective and of course what's worthwhile to some might not be to others, but that's my opinion.

So in short a nice card but not earth shattering and not worth blowing cash on yet. I suspect a lot of people feel the same and pretty much the only people upgrading to this will be the gotta have the latest crowd or people with a card a couple gens back or more.

In summary I sugest waiting what nvidia has to offer before plunking down money on this or any gpu at this in the game. Even if nvidias gt300 isn't out for another 3 months what's it matter. There's no games out that really need this save for a few. I'm sure most of us can live with our current gen cards till then.

My 2 cents.
 
Brent_Justice said:
I haven't even started it yet. Going to use Win7 RTM, and new AMD driver, and higher CPU clock rate, so have to re-test all 5870 gameplay, plus adding in a bunch of games, a possibly going to test a 3x1 Eyefinity setup at high resolutions as well, and have to go out of town to California next week, so it won't be next week, but when it is done, it will be one hella awesome evaluation.
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Sweet, good luck and have fun. I'll be here, lurking around [H] as always, clicking newegg ads.
 
EngrChris said:
Anyone know how long the card is? I took an image off newegg and used my cad program. Its about 10.5" to 11" From the PCB edge by the I/O bracket to the decorative vent.
It looks to be tight fit for my case.

Thanks.
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I think Anand (Or Tom's?) reported it at 10", which I'm dubious about because I saw a picture of it next to the GTX 295 and they're approximately the same size (which is 10.5 - 11").

I'm having qualms about graphics card sizes now. They seem far too large. I'm going to have to break out some tools and hack off the retarded harddrive cage in my case (I have no idea why it's not 'removable'). The 5850 is supposed to be 1/2" smaller.
 
psyside said:
On a side note, for ppl who whine about the performance and they are a bit disappointed (hint:focus on min fps on highest settings)
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Excellent hint... HardOCP's review shows some impressive gains in minimums, and the HardwareCanucks review shows both min/avg for all games they tested, one went from unplayable (15fps or so) on a 280, to 40fps as the minimum on a 5870 even though the average wasn't much higher (7-8fps higher). Another went from 50 minimum to 80 minimum, and another (I think it was COD:WAW) from 43 to 62 or so, which is the mark for choppy to smooth in an FPS.

There's obviously some driver issues to be worked out (the GTX 280 wasn't so impressive at its launch over a 9800GX2 always), and the minimums gain is amazing on a lot of the games, making it well worth it to me. I was underwhelmed with the average gains, but the minimums are what really matter more: who cares if you have 70fps average if you are constantly dipping to 20-30 and have spikes of 140+?

All in all, I'm now very glad I ordered a 5870 for my 2560x1600 gaming :D.

LINK: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...sapphire-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-gddr5-review.html
 
Brent_Justice said:
10.75" according to our evaluation, page 4.
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Ouch. I didn't read every review in detail so I missed that (way too many reviews out right now...). But honestly the [H] review is the one that cemented my decision about buying these cards with the useful highest playable settings review... and then the nice mention in this thread about the 5870 being able to play crysis at 1680x1050 (my monitor's res) with enthusiast and 8x AA.

Yea the harddrive cage in my case will have to go... completely. My harddrives will rest in the useless floppy cage (why the hell do they still have those...). So long 9" graphics cards (my 8800 GT)...
 
GTX285

MIN FPS =7
MAX FPS=25
AVG FPS=17

Ati 5870

MIN FPS=15
MAX FPS=37
AVG FPS=26

Not worth? doubt it imho,but at the end its your money you decide.
 
psyside said:
Did you read the review ? :confused:



http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/22/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5870_video_card_review/9

@ the end of the page.
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While the performance is very good, doesn't hit 30 average so I don't see it worth an upgrade over the 285 either. In my experience you need 30 average for a smooth Crysis experience. Better to wait it out and see if Nvidia's next top single GPU solution can hit 30.

Intel_Hydralisk: If you still have a 8800GT, then I'd say this card is worth it.
 
Hmmm, do I jump on this now and reap the benefits, or do I wait for Nvidia and see how the competing products stack up? I've been caught up in the ATI buzz lately so I don't know much about the GT300 part. I think I read that it's supposed to be a whole new architecture, and if that's the case then maybe waiting is a good idea? The possible loss of proper PhysX effects in Batman if I were to switch does worry me some. I really like the way the game looks with the effects enabled.

Great review, as usual!
 
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