The more my games stutter and the more my HD content skips frames, the more I think about that wonderful day when I shall put together a beautiful new system with all new hardware. The trouble is that Intel’s got the processor thing locked down and AMD has the lead on graphics. I don’t really want to mix and match, but the pull of the Radeons might prove to be too strong. That new 5800 series is looking mighty fine, sir, mighty fine.
They didn’t drop all of a sudden as some hardware is wont to do, and the rumored specs have been around for a while, but of course, we don’t comment on rumors here at CrunchGear. Too much integrity.
The new flagship card runs at the same core clock speed as the old one, but it has twice the stream processors and texture units and a much-improved memory clock speed. Judging from the transistor count, it looks like the new 40nm process basically just allowed them to fit a huge amount more of the same stuff on the same card without worrying as much about heat or power draw. So this is less a revolutionary step and more a dangerously turbo version of the old 4800 series.
Of course, they’re also DirectX 11-compatible, and they’re at least working on making the most popular GPGPU protocols work with them as well. OpenCL and such, you know.
Anandtech’s review of the 5870 suggests that while this is certainly the fastest single GPU solution available today (for gaming and such at least), it’s not the leapfrog that was expected, and you can get more performance from putting a couple older cards into crossfire. At any rate, I’m not interested in the flagship models. The 5850 is the sweet spot: $260 MSRP for a huge improvement over the last flagship design, and you’ll probably be able to get it for much less once the novelty wears off and prices drop. Do I have my next video card picked out? Very possibly.
Update: The Inquirer has a pretty exhaustive list of reviews if you want to get dirty.
why would you not want to mix and match??? It’s not like the other graphics card manufacturer is Intel…so you’re not going to have the processor and gpu match unless you go with an AMD cpu.
Plus, Intel’s chipsets natively support Crossfire, so what’s the issue with mixing and matching?
Also: either your chart or the info in the article is off. You say it runs at 1.6GHz, but the chart still says the core clocks in at 850MHz…
Unless you’re referring to a clock speed I’m not familiar with (the memory clock isn’t near 1.6, nor has it come close to doubling), your article’s messed up
Duhh, my fault. I was combining the 1600 stream processors with the MHz in my mind.
As for mixing and matching, I’ve been looking into doing a whole-AMD system. There are benefits to it, certain GPGPU stuff and performance tweaks that are only for AMD CPU + GPU and a compatible mobo.
I see, I thought you were stuck on the Intel cpu’s.
As for this card, in all actuality, this is anything but a “dangerously turbo…4800″. There are actually some significant architecture changes, including support for DX 11, and greater GPGPU functionality, plus a lot of technical, behind the scenes stuff that really makes this card worth the 5800 name. It is, of course, based on the 4800, just as that was based on the 3800, but it’s enough of a different beast that I think it’s worth its name.
Good article though, I hadn’t heard about it, and I think I’m being nitpicky.
I appreciate the info. I’ve been out of the loop RE video hardware lately. I’d say there’s greater GPGPU potential, but at the moment there are still compatibility issues.
What I’ve always told my friends who ask me what processor they should get is: unless time IS actually money, i.e. you need processing power to do your job faster and make more money (graphics, video, 3d-rendering), then there is no point in spending the extra bucks to get the top end Intel chips.
So if you’re not doing that, you really have your choice between Intel and AMD in the medium range processors. I’ve always liked AMD, they seem to be a good value, and I very much like their whole-AMD platforms. (I just built one a few months ago for myself, actually.) Pretty sweet looking card. Myself, I have a 4890 that should last me quite a while. Might buy another one just to fiddle around with them in crossfire when they drop in price a bit more.
Great pic of Clarkson!