ATI Radeon HD 5870: DirectX 11, Eyefinity, And Serious Speed

Benchmark Results: Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV is one of those console ports that has always seemed to favor Nvidia hardware. Here we see all of our cards present playable performance at 1680x1050 and, for the most part, 1920x1200. The only time there’s any real differentiation is when resolution jumps to 2560x1600.

At that point, the CrossFire’d Radeon HD 5870s don’t miss a beat, and the two GeForce GTX 285s maintain 60+ frame per second performance. The single 5870 edges out the GeForce GTX 285, but just barely.

What happened to the GTX 295? This is one of those cases where 896MB of memory per GPU just isn’t enough. The card runs out of GDDR3 and won’t do 2560x1600 at the detail settings we used to test. This is an important lesson. Just because the GTX 295 is tops in Nvidia’s lineup doesn’t mean it’s always the right tool for the job. When it comes to the highest resolutions and detail settings, you want at least 1GB per GPU, and 100MB can make a difference.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • hispeed120
    I'm. So. Excited.
    Reply
  • Can't wait
    Reply
  • crosko42
    So it looks like 1 is enough for me.. Dont plan on getting a 30 inch monitor any time soon.
    Reply
  • jezza333
    Looks like the NDA lifted at 11:00PM, as there's a load of reviews now just out. Once again it shows that AMD can produce a seriously killer card...

    Crysis 2 on an x2 of this is exactly what I'm waiting for.
    Reply
  • woostar88
    This is incredible at the price point.
    Reply
  • LORD_ORION
    Err... I thought I was going to see more for the price. Regardless, I think ATI missed the mark here. I am interested in playing games on my HDTV since me and my monitor don't care about these higher resolutions. Fail cakes... Nivida is undoubtedly going to rape ATI in performance with the 300 series. This is good news for mainstream prices however.... you can ptobably upgrade to a current DX10 board soon for a very good price, and then buy a 5850 for $100 in a year from now. Result? Don't but a 5000 series card yet until the price comes down? Heh, I bet the cards will be $100 less in December if the 300 series launches.

    This is not to say I am an Nvidia fan, just undoubtedly you would do well for yourself to hold off for a bit if you want to buy a 5000 series... as the price will come down for a good price/performance ratio soon enough.
    Reply
  • tipmen
    wait, wait, before I look can it play cry... HOLY SHIT?!
    Reply
  • viper666
    why didn't they thest it against a GTX 295 rather than 280??? its far superior...
    Reply
  • cangelini
    viper666why didn't they thest it against a GTX 295 rather than 280??? its far superior...
    Ran it against a GTX 295 and a 285 and 285s in SLI :)
    Reply
  • Annisman
    I refuse to buy until the 2GB versions come out, not to mention newegg letting you buy more than 1 at a time, paper launch ftl.
    Reply