This is the moment all you gamers have been waiting for, the release of the new Radeon series. Today AMD is unleashing the Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 graphics cards, and while we do not have the latter, we do have the flagship part and we plan to test the hell out of it. Before we begin I would just like to make it clear that the Radeon HD 5870 is nothing like the current generation 4870.

By this I mean it is not a budget performance part and it will not be slower than other single GPU products already out there, in any game. The Radeon HD 5870 GPU, which goes by the codename “Cypress XT”, is based on a 40nm design and features, get this, 2150 million transistors! This is an incredible transistor count, as last year AMD released the Radeon HD 4870 with 956 million transistors.

This means in just over a year AMD has more than doubled the transistor count of their most complex GPU. That said, the GeForce GTX 285 GPU codenamed “G200b” contains roughly 1400 million transistors, while the upcoming GT300 GPU is expected to exceed 2000 million transistors as well. So while the complexity of the new Radeon HD 5870 graphics card is impressive, it puts them back on track with Nvidia.

AMD has already planned quite a few models for the Radeon HD 5000 series and while they are releasing just two of them today, expect the Radeon HD 5870 X2, 5770, 5750, 5670, 5650 and 5550 to follow. The Radeon HD 5870 X2 (Hemlock XT) is a dual-GPU version of the Radeon HD 5870 that we will be looking at today, and is expected to be released late next month along with the 40nm Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XE) and Radeon HD 5750 (Juniper LE).

Also planned are some 32nm graphics cards for the first quarter of 2010, as AMD start using this new manufacturing process with their low-end products, as they often do. The Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood XT), Radeon HD 5650 (Redwood PRO) and Radeon HD 5550 (Cedar XT) are all 32nm budget parts that should run extremely cool and consume very little power.

Getting back on track, the Radeon HD 5870 is set to cost roughly $400, while the 5850 is said to come in at around $300. The Radeon HD 4870 launched with a price tag of $300, which was continuously slashed over the following months after its release. The Radeon HD 5870 will likely not suffer the same fate, at least not until Nvidia come up with their next generation products.

While $400 might sound like a lot, it's just $50 more than Nvidia is currently asking for their GeForce GTX 285, and considerably less than the GTX 295. However the Radeon HD 5870 is also roughly twice the price of a Radeon HD 4890 Crossfire setup at $400, so it will be interesting to see how it performs when compared to the Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card for example.

Cooling the “Cypress XT” GPU is a fairly large aluminum heatsink that is made up of 36 fins measuring 13.5cm long, 6.5cm wide, and 2.5cm tall. Connected to the base of the heatsink are four copper heatpipes which help improve efficiency. Cooling this heatsink is a 75x20mm blower fan that draws air in from within the case and pushes it out through the rear of the graphics card.

Like the Radeon HD 4870, we have found that the Radeon HD 5870 is a very quiet graphics card when at idle. With a claimed idle consumption level of just 27 watts, the Radeon HD 5870 has little reason to make any noise at idle. However when we began to game, the fan did spin up and make quite a noise, though it was similar to that of the Radeon HD 4870 or GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards, so nothing unusual here.

The new Radeon HD 5870 uses a 40nm design just as the Radeon HD 4770 series did. This has allowed ATI to be quite aggressive with the core speed, clocking it at 850MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a more impressive frequency of 1200MHz on this particular model. The GPU configuration features an incredible 1600 SPUs, along with 80 TAUs (Texture Address Units) and 32 ROPs (Rasterization Operator Units). That is twice as many SPUs, TAUs and ROPs as the current Radeon HD 4890 graphics card.

The heatsink and fan have been enclosed within a custom built housing that consumes the entire graphics card. This is the first time AMD has concealed the entire graphics card, and we much prefer this method as it protects the product very well. Nvidia on the other hand has been doing this for some time with their most prized graphics cards, such as the GeForce GTX 295.

As me mentioned a moment ago, the Radeon HD 5870 can consume up to 188 watts of power when pushed hard. In order to feed the graphics card enough power AMD has included a pair of 6-pin PCI Express power connectors. This is the same configuration that you will find on the Radeon HD 4870/4890 and GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards for example.

The Radeon HD 5870 also supports Crossfire technology, and therefore in the standard position is a pair of Crossfire connectors for bridging two or more cards together. The only other connectors can be found on the I/O panel, and our AMD sample featured two dual DVI connectors, along with a HDMI and Display Port connection. It is worth noting that all Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards can support a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 on not one but rather three monitors.

Hardware - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz) - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2GB) - ASUS Radeon HD 4890 (1GB) - Palit Radeon HD 4870 (1GB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 295 (1792MB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 280 (1GB) - ASUS GeForce GTX 275 (896MB) - Palit GeForce GTX 260 (896MB) - ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 190.38 - ATI Catalyst 9.9

According to 3Dmark Vantage the new Radeon HD 5870 is 10% faster than the Radeon HD 4870 X2, which is quite remarkable. This also makes the Radeon HD 5870 roughly 46% faster than the mighty GeForce GTX 285, which was previously the fastest single-GPU graphics card money could buy. AMD has claimed that the Radeon HD 5870 is 2x faster than the original Radeon HD 4870, and 3Dmark Vantage agrees, showing the 5870 delivering exactly 2x more performance at 2560x1600.

When testing with Call of Duty World at War the graphics cards appear to hit some kind of limitation at 1680x1050, as nearly half the cards tested were stuck at 91fps. However by the time we reached 2560x1600 only the GeForce GTX 295 was capable to rendering an average of 91fps. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 was next best in line with 83fps, while the new Radeon HD 5870 averaged 67fps. This made the Radeon HD 5870 roughly 10% faster than the GeForce GTX 285, and 60% faster than the Radeon HD 4870.

The Radeon HD 4800 series sucked in Company of Heroes when testing the game using DirectX 10. The Radeon HD 5870 does not suffer in the same way, and in fact the performance that it delivered in this game was nothing short of amazing. At 1680x1050 the Radeon HD 5870 averaged 148fps, making it the fastest graphics card tested, and then at 1920x1200 it averaged 132fps, again it was the fastest card tested.

Then finally at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 cranked out 95fps, beating even the GeForce GTX 295, and it did so by an impressive 15fps margin. The Radeon HD 5870 was 51% faster than the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and incredibly 3x faster than the Radeon HD 4870. This is an incredible performance boost over the previous generation hardware and with an average frame rate that is almost 2x greater than the GeForce GTX 285, the Radeon HD 5870 is clearly the best performing graphics card we have ever seen in this game.

Again, while the Radeon HD 4800 series sucks in Crysis when compared to graphics cards such as the GeForce GTX 260, the Radeon HD 5870 certainly doesn’t. At all three tested resolutions the Radeon HD 5870 was the fastest single-GPU graphics card, and it even managed to defeat the Radeon HD 4870 X2. While the GeForce GTX 295 was considerably faster, the Radeon HD 5870 was still able to defeat the GeForce GTX 285. At 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 was 71% faster than the Radeon HD 4870.

While the Radeon HD 4800 series might not shine in Crysis, they certainly do when it comes to Enemy Territory Quake Wars, as the Radeon HD 4870 easily puts away the GeForce GTX 285. That being the case, the Radeon HD 5870 has no issues dispatching of the Nvidia competition. However we were shocked to find that the 99fps rendered by the Radeon HD 4870 X2 at 2560x1600 was bettered by the Radeon HD 5870, which managed 106fps.

When testing the Radeon HD 5870 in Fallout 3, we were impressed with the results at 1680x1050 as it was 13fps faster than the GeForce GTX 285. That said, it was 14fps slower than the GeForce GTX 295, and 18fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870 X2. As the resolution increased we expected the margin between the Radeon HD 5870 and the dual-GPU graphics cards to increase.

However at 1920x1200 the Radeon HD 5870 was found to be just 3fps slower than the GeForce GTX 295 and 11fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870X2. Meanwhile it became 21fps faster than the GeForce GTX 285. Then finally at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 overtook the GeForce GTX 295, smashing it by 19fps, while it was now just 8fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Furthermore, at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 was found to be 2.7x faster than the Radeon HD 4870.

Despite the fact that the Radeon HD 4800 series was also quite average in Far Cry 2, the Radeon HD 5870 was anything but. At 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 was incredible, rendering an average of 34fps making it the fastest tested graphics card. This made it 3fps faster than the GeForce GTX 295, and 10fps faster than the GeForce GTX 285, opening up a 42% performance margin. This also made the Radeon HD 5870 2.4x faster than the Radeon HD 4870 at 2560x1600.

When testing with Left 4 Dead the Radeon HD 5870 improved on the 49fps of the Radeon HD 4870 at 2560x1600 to deliver a much more impressive 75fps, allowing it to match the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Although this result only made the Radeon HD 5870 just 3fps faster than the GeForce GTX 285, this game appears to favor Nvidia hardware so it is an important victory for the Radeon.

The Radeon HD 4870 performs much better in Resident Evil 5, matching the GeForce GTX 275 as it should. The Radeon HD 4890 was just a single frame faster, while the GeForce GTX 285 managed just 44fps, making it 2fps faster than the Radeon HD 4890. Most of the single-GPU graphics cards averaged between 40 – 44fps in this test at 2560x1600. The Radeon HD 5870 however produced an impressive 70fps, making it just a single frame slower than the GeForce GTX 295, meanwhile it was 71% faster than the Radeon HD 4870.

The Supreme Commander results were interesting, as the Radeon HD 5870 did not perform all that well at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, roughly matching the performance of the Radeon HD 4890. However at 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 came into its own averaging 52fps, making it the fastest single-GPU graphics card tested. This game appears to work very well with multi-GPU technology, as the Crossfire and SLI graphics cards have a definite advantage.

The Radeon HD 5870 continues to impress as we move on to Street Fighter IV, with an average frame rate of 132fps at 2560x1600. This made the Radeon HD 5870 1.7x faster than the Radeon HD 4870. In fact, the only graphics card to beat the Radeon HD 5870 was the Radeon HD 4870 X2, delivering 21fps more at 2560x1600.

The Radeon HD 5870 continues to impress as we test with S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky. At 2560x1600 the Radeon HD 5870 averages 53fps, making it 47% faster than the GeForce GTX 285, and 83% faster than the Radeon HD 4870. Furthermore this result made the Radeon HD 5870 just 3fps slower than the GeForce GTX 295, and 5fps slower than the Radeon HD 4870 X2.

When testing with The Last Remnant the new Radeon HD 5870 averaged 71fps at 2560x1600, making it once again the fastest single-GPU graphics card. That said, this time it beat the GeForce GTX 285 by just 3fps, while it was 61% faster than the Radeon HD 4870.

The Radeon HD 5870 performs well in Unreal Tournament 3, beating the Radeon HD 4870 X2 by 5fps at 2560x1600. This also made the Radeon HD 5870 7fps faster than the GeForce GTX 285, and 24fps faster than the Radeon HD 4870. The only graphics card to defeat the Radeon HD 5870 was the GeForce GTX 295.

The Radeon HD 5870 delivered 46% more performance when compared to the Radeon HD 4870 at 2560x1600 when testing with World in Conflict. With an average of 35fps, the Radeon HD 5870 was only defeated by the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and GeForce GTX 295. That said, the margins were quite large, with the GeForce GTX 295 producing 37% more performance.

Finally, one of the newest games we tested with is Wolfenstein, and here the Radeon HD 5870 was able to deliver 2x more performance at 2560x1600 when compared to the Radeon HD 4870. In fact, the Radeon HD 5870 was so fast that it out muscled the Radeon HD 4870 X2 by 7fps, which worked out to be a 13% performance increase. Furthermore, the Radeon HD 5870 was 45% faster than the GeForce GTX 285.

The power consumption levels of the ATI Radeon HD 5870 were most impressive. The idle consumption level was the lowest we have seen from a mid-range to high-end graphics card, with a total system consumption of just 148 watts. The next best result was seen from the GeForce GTX 275 with 154 watts, while the Radeon HD 4870 X2 idled at 203 watts, and the GeForce GTX 295 at 245 watts.

When gaming the Radeon HD 5870 was still very impressive, consuming the same amount of power as the GeForce GTX 260 with 343 watts; this is obviously very impressive given how much faster this new Radeon graphics card was. The test system with the Radeon HD 4870 X2 sucked down an incredible 460 watts when under load, which meant that it required 34% more power than the Radeon HD 5870.

While the Radeon HD 5870 is light on fuel, it does still tend to run quite hot when gaming, as temperatures reached a sizzling 87 degrees. This made the Radeon HD 5870 one of the hottest graphics cards we tested, as it came within a degree of the Radeon HD 4870 X2, which was the hottest graphics card tested. However, due to the low power consumption when at idle, the Radeon HD 5870 ran at just 38 degrees when at the Windows 7 desktop.

Our small overclock meant that the Radeon HD 5870 could deliver 8% more performance in Unreal Tournament 3 at 2560x1600, as frame rates went from 60 to 65fps. This is a decent performance boost at such an extreme resolution, and even 5fps extra will be noticed here.

When testing with Left 4 Dead at 2560x1600, we again see a performance gain of 5fps from our overclock, which allowed the Radeon HD 5870 to pull ahead of the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Overall we have seen some nice results at extreme resolutions, and we hope to try and overclock this graphics card further very soon.

When compared to the Radeon HD 4870 the results are staggering, as we saw an 83% performance gain on average, with the Radeon HD 5870 delivering more than twice the average frame rate at 2560x1600 in games such as Far Cry 2, Company of Heroes and Wolfenstein. Just 2 of the games tested dipped below a 60% performance gain, and those games were World in Conflict and Supreme Commander.

Commonly the Radeon HD 5870 appeared to be between 65% and 85% faster than the Radeon HD 4870, which was truly impressive. However the real focus point for us was not the now $150 US Radeon HD 4870 (1GB) graphics card, but rather the previous single-GPU performance king, the GeForce GTX 285. Priced at $350 US the GeForce GTX 285 is just $50 less than the Radeon HD 5870, so how did the two compare?

Based on the 15 games that we tested, the Radeon HD 5870 was on average 45% faster, which is impressive given it is expected to sell for just 14% more or possibly even less than that. While 4 of the tested games provided the Radeon HD 5870 with less than a 10% performance advantage, it was able to double the performance of the GeForce GTX 285 in 3 of the games tested.

If you shape the results to remove the three highest and three lowest results, the Radeon HD 5870 was still on average 39% faster than the GeForce GTX 285. Therefore, in terms of value the Radeon HD 5870 is a far superior product. Furthermore, the Radeon HD 5870 is also a much more efficient product, as it required just 2.5% more power to deliver on average 45% more performance.

The only other alternative we can see to the Radeon HD 5870 right now is a pair of Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards, which will set you back around the same amount and in most cases will deliver better performance. In fact, at 2560x1600, where multi-GPU technology works at its best, out of the 15 games tested the Radeon HD 5870 was faster than the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in 6 of those games, and in many of the games where it was slower, the margin was very minimal.

The disadvantage user’s face when opting for Crossfire is that they will require a motherboard offering dual PCI Express 16x lanes with full bandwidth. Additionally, a pair of Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards will be louder and consume considerably more power at idle and under load. Furthermore, they will not support DirectX 11, so we feel the Radeon HD 5870 is a much better value solution at this price.

In short, the performance of the Radeon HD 5870 has blown us away, as we never quite expected it to be this good. It shall be every interesting to see how the new Radeon performs against current generation graphics cards in upcoming games, such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for example. Furthermore, we are also going to keep a close eye on performance in the games that we have already tested as the ATI Catalyst drivers mature over the next few months.

Not only has the performance blown us away, but so too has the operating efficiency, and the extremely low idle power consumption will help make Crossfire configurations far more viable. While on the topic of Crossfire, we cannot wait to see what the Radeon HD 5870 X2 can do next month, as that is set to be a truly epic product. For now the Radeon HD 5870 looks to be the world’s fastest single-GPU graphics card that provides gamers with the best value option of any high-end graphics card.

Reviewed By Steven Walton