ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB: The World's Fastest Graphics Card

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Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky

As we start looking at the real-world tests, it’s immediately apparent that two Radeon HD 5870s at $800 offer more performance than one Radeon HD 5970 at $600. In turn, that Radeon HD 5970 at $600 keeps its nose in front of two Radeon HD 5850s at $600.

The Radeon HD 5970 maintains a minor lead over two Radeon HD 5850s in CrossFire once anti-aliasing is applied.

Suddenly, the recent price increase on 5850 cards makes a lot more sense. At $249, a pair of Radeon HD 5850s would offer compellingly-close performance for $100 less than a Radeon HD 5970. At $300 a pop, however, it makes a lot more sense to spend $600 on a Radeon HD 5970.

Once again, the 5970 puts a significant gap between itself and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 295. It’s even able to smoke a pair of GeForce GTX 285s, which run about $370 a piece ($740 in SLI).  

Chris Angelini
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.
193 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cyberkuberiah
    today's a great day for graphics , as the bar's been raised again !
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    bawhaha i was waiting for this
    5970 picture of it in size comparison is priceless to me it's freaking huge card.

    But really how are they going to get 2 chips for 5970 when they can't even get 1 for 5870 :)
    Reply
  • notty22
    Wonder if this would get the same framerates as a 5870 in a AMD 965 system ?
    Reply
  • In your face Gt240 =P
    Reply
  • I'm getting more concerned with Nvidia these days. They keep playing with these low-end cards and haven't made anything all that great in almost a year. Hopefully Fermi doesn't turn into Itanic II.
    Reply
  • amdgamer666
    Sweet, another amazing card to drool at, too bad I can't afford it. Thanks for including CF'ed 5870's, that's what I wanted to compare it to the most. The release seems to coincide with the driver update. Everybody make sure to update your drivers to 9.11 :)
    http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
    Also, because 9.11 is out, you can also try out Adobe's Flash 10.1 prelease to try out GPU-accelerated flash
    http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/
    Exciting times
    Reply
  • commodore64
    Wooww...4.3 billion transistors, low idle power, it's pricey but this baby has lots of potential :)

    I think ATI driven NVIDIA into a corner this time, i love the competition :)
    Reply
  • christop
    Sweet but can't see spending 600 on a card...
    Reply
  • 7amood
    commodore64i love the competitionThere is no competition yet >_< prices are way up there!!!
    Reply
  • Honis
    Good article!

    I'll wait for a price drop since there are 0 DX 11 games out currently. Hope this forces further drops in the 4870s.
    Reply