AMD's Radeon HD 5870: Bringing About the Next Generation Of GPUs
by Ryan Smith on September 23, 2009 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham Asylum is another brand-new PC game, and has been burning up the review charts. It’s an Unreal Engine 3 based game, something that’s not immediately obvious from just looking at it, which is rare for UE3 based games.
NVIDIA has put a lot of marketing muscle into the game as part of their The Way It’s Meant to Be Played program, and as a result it ships with PhysX support and 3D Vision support. Unfortunately NVIDIA’s influence has extended to its anti-aliasing abilities too, as its in-game selective AA abilities only work on NVIDIA’s cards. AMD’s cards can perform AA on the game, but only via traditional full screen anti-aliasing, which isn’t nearly as efficient. Because of this, this is the only game where we will not be using AA, as doing so produces meaningless results given the different AA modes used.
Without the use of AA, the performance in this game is best described as “runaway”. The 5870 turns in a score of 102fps, and even the GTS 250 can do just 53fps. However we’re also seeing the 5870’s performance pattern maintained here: it beats the single-GPU cards and loses to the multi-GPU cards.
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JonnyDough - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
They could probably use a 1.5 GB card. :(yacoub - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
why is the 5870 so freaking LONG??I'm pretty sure you could land aircraft on it.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/5870...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/5870...
Someone should photoshop a person into that image for scale. They'd be standing in the shadow underneath the PCIe connector, waving at you, and there would be an F-35 JSF circling like a fly trying to land on the deck.
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
It's your standard, full-length 10.5" card. It's the same as the GTX cards and the 4870X2Here's a shot comparing it to a GTX 285 and a 4890 that I didn't get to use in the article.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/5870...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/5870...
SiliconDoc - Monday, September 28, 2009 - link
If you can't see the 5870 is the longest card in that pic, then you've got different problems than just lying issues.Another one, another big fat fib, with pic included, that proves the fib to be a fab fib.
It's amazing.
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"No, everyone, do not believe your lying eyes, it's a standard 10.5" measured in the new red rooster barnyard stick."
Cripes call International Weights and Measures, we have warped space time around the new ati card it's so powerful.
LSnK - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
Or plainly spoken, angle independent angle-dependent filtering. How confusing.frozentundra123456 - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
Mildly disappointed in the initial results for this card. It is powerful,admittedly, but it has less than twice the performance of the 4870. Also does not use less power. Maybe I was expecting too much. It surely is not a giant step up like the introduction of the 4xxx series cards. I was hoping for another big leap in performance per watt.I have a feeling that nVidia's 300 series will beat it when it finally comes out, although hopefully ATI will still be ahead in performance per watt and performance per dollar.
I hope they make a good low/midrange card like the 4670 that does not require external power but has increased performance.
Spoelie - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
I reckon you'll see performance improve the coming months, as ATi's compiler improves to use the new instructions more efficiently. The card you see here today will not be the one fighting GT300.Granted, it won't make huge strides, but I guesstimate it to be 5-10% better, depending on circumstance/game, by the november-january timeframe (when GT300 hopefully lands).
Nvidia's baby will probably still be faster, but if the margin turns out to be slim, we'll have another rv770 vs GT200 situation playing out. And when the first wave of DX11 games have hit, somewhere next year, it'll be time to reevaluate again ;).
JonnyDough - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
and I stopped. I had to post this:"Sometimes a surprise is nice. Other times it’s nice for things to go as planned for once.
Compared to the HD 4800 series launch, AMD’s launch of the HD 5800 series today is going to fall in to the latter category. There are no last-minute announcements or pricing games, or NDAs that get rolled back unexpectedly. Today’s launch is about as normal as a new GPU launch can get."
If it's normal for all that crap to happen, wouldn't it be ABNORMAL for AMD to have a great launch? :)
SiliconDoc - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
LOL" . Today’s launch is about as normal as a new GPU launch can get."
I guess he meant "for reviewers" - since the "normal launch" today is "listed on the websites for sale, but greyed out, not available, or pre-order" - meaning NO STOCK.
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Yehah buddy, that is a "as normal as any launch" so long as it's the immensely favored ATI launching, and not that hated greedy Nvidia...
A normal launch and you can't buy the card...rofl.
JonnyDough - Thursday, September 24, 2009 - link
I wasn't being a fanboi, merely mocking normal launches from several companies. Seems like paper launches almost became the norm for awhile. :P