AMD Radeon HD 5970 Dual-GPU Card Sweeps Benchmarks 201
MojoKid writes "AMD launched yet another high-end graphics card based on their Radeon HD 5800 series technology, and this time it's a dual-GPU variant. Considering the fact that AMD's Radeon HD 5870 is currently the fastest single-GPU powered graphics card currently on the market, the new dual-GPU powered Radeon HD 5970 should offer performance that completely outclasses any other single graphics card on the market right now. The card has 3200 stream processors under the hood, though its graphics engines are built on 40nm manufacturing technology, so power consumption isn't actually too insane. The card does exceptionally well in the usual benchmarks, as expected." HotHardware has begun providing single-page views — a user-friendly decision. PCPer.com also has coverage. And pcpro.co.uk wonders whether, at 13" (33 cm) in length, the new card will even fit in most PC cases.
I'm not sure why PCpro is whining... (Score:5, Insightful)
For benchmark bragging rights, it doesn't even have to fit into a case. It'll just be tested benchtop, get the numbers it needs, and be a success. For price-insensitive gaming enthusiasts, it barely matters if it fits in an existing case. The sort of people who buy the top-of-the-line card(rather than the 90% of the performance, 50% of the price model) can (and will) just buy a new case.
Re:asf (Score:3, Insightful)
first porst!
Actually you were second. Betting you wish you had that graphics card now so that the page would have rendered quicker allowing you to post faster :)
Re:The problem is.... (Score:4, Insightful)
While proprietary support for ATI cards in linux can indeed suck, they do have far better support from the Free drivers. Of course, if you are buying this card to use with the Free drivers, you probably need to rethink your purchase.
That said, I'm a linux user who doesn't do heavy gaming so I don't get big expensive graphics cards, and ATI will be my first choice for the forseeable future.
AMD's Idea of "Launch" (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a comment on AMD's business, marketing, and PR, rather than their technical team. AMD has unquestionably won the latest round against NVidia, who will have to wait until next year (and miss the holidays) before they have a shot at retaking the top performer and price-performance crowns back.
But let's be real. The 5850 and 5870 have already "launched" too. But unfortunately AMD's idea of a "launch" is "you can buy it 4-16 weeks from now."
I see a lot of companies "making their deadlines" this way. i.e. by not actually making them. Surprised at how often the press gives them a pass on it.
Fix your damn drivers! (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, the card can be the hottest thing in existence but if the system reboots due to a driver (per the system log) and there are numerous complaints, maybe you should spend more time getting the drivers right.
I have a pair of ATI 4870's. When I put it into Crossfire mode, the games work great. When I take them back out of crossfire, the system can reboot 4 or 5 times during Windows startup before the system finally starts. Occasionally the system will reboot during regular Windows startup. Log errors indicate a problem with an ati driver. (I have three monitors. Going into crossfire loses access to the other card with two monitors so I have to come out of crossfire to recover.)
Comments in the forums is to upgrade the drivers. But jeeze, I have to use a registry cleaner and driver cleaner to get every little bit of older ati driver from the system or I have no end of driver problems when I upgrade. Once it's cleaned and an upgrade installed, it brings it back to the occasional reboot and reboot when coming back from Crossfire.
If you can't get your drivers right, people won't buy your cards more than once and the folks that do and experience problems will turn folks away from your business. I know I recount this story on the forums I frequent.
[John]
Re:I'm not sure why PCpro is whining... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or case manufacturers could, oh I don't know make cases that support cards that are the maximum length of what is allowed in the PCI-E spec? Even these new cards are still a little shorter than the maximum allowed.
Re:Fix your damn drivers! (Score:3, Insightful)
I always buy nVidia because it may not always be the fastest, but it will always work better than ATI, especially on Linux. If you happen to be able to use the free ATI driver, I hear things are pretty good :)
The thing that makes this utterly pathetic is that I've been having problems with ATI drivers since the Mach32. All these years, and ATI still can't figure out how these driver thingies work.
Re:games? (Score:3, Insightful)
No. NVIDIA's binary blob as well as the open source versions still work better than the ATi cards in any machine. Heck, I would say the ATi drivers don't work very well in Windows.
Legacy in 2 Years Time? (Score:3, Insightful)
Judging by this year's AMD/ATI driver support, support for this card will probably be considered "legacy" and cease to be maintaned in a couple of years.
That means no more xorg/kernel updates for you!
If the drivers were *truly* open sourced this would never be an issue.
Of course you can buy a "supported" card every 2 years and upgrade.
If you have a laptop with a "legacy" card, well your pretty much f*****!
Thanks but no thanks
Re:games? (Score:4, Insightful)
Odd. I have either the 4830 or 4850 (I can't remember which) and it's working fine under Linux (I use the proprietary drivers). Oh well, sorry to hear that. I should have known when I said support was good I'd immediately get posts from people who'd had problems. Hopefully they'll resolve your issues soon. The release cycle seems pretty fast - certainly far, far better than it used to be.
Re:AMD's Idea of "Launch" (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, I have no doubt a few thousand of them have shipped overall. But these cards launched in September. They are still so far off from meeting demand that it is a joke.
Have a look around for your card today. You will find every retailer out of stock. ETAs are now running into December when they are given at all. And you will find it on ebay, for a ~25-50% premium. Most customers who want this (at anywhere near the MSRP) are still waiting 2 months after the launch, and that could turn to 3 months or more.
Imagine if every company "launched" this way.
Re:Legacy in 2 Years Time? (Score:3, Insightful)
Either you're mistaken or ATI's driver download page is broken. They still list 9.3 as the latest driver for anything before the 2000 series.
See: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Legacy/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.7&lang=English [amd.com]
I think you're confusing ATI with Nvidia... Nvidia still supports all of their cards back to the TNT2 with their binary blob. There's no new features for older cards of course, but they'll actually work with modern Xorg and kernels.
Microsoft ruined PC gaming... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's Microsoft's fault. They have now, single handedly, broken their own market. No longer do we need to upgrade our PCs, or our PC graphics cards, or even our OS. No, now all we need to do is get on the bandwagon and buy an XBox console, which has a lifespan of about 5 years.
So instead of spending $2,000+ on a PC with a $400+ graphics card (every two years) and a new OS every 5 years, now we just spend $400 and buy a bunch of games at $50 to $60 dollars a pop.
Hmm, I wonder how that worked out business wise? Let's dwell on that...
1. Major PC vendors markets: Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, Gateway, etc? Destroyed. Now they end up selling a bunch of low-end netbooks and cheap $500 PCs, enough for browsing the web, watching videos, listening to music, etc.
2. High end $400+ video graphic cards market from nVidia and AMT/ATI. Destroyed. Nope, who needs a video card that a game doesn't use. After all, all games are now made for consoles, and the consoles are all over 4 years old!
3. 64 bit multi-core computing for home? Destroyed. After all, who needs multi-core computing except for the business and science/eng/tech sectors? A 32 bit (aka 4G RAM) computer works just fine for the internet, office, and financial management of home users. Ok, some may need to edit photo's and movies, I'll grant that.
The problem is that the Microsoft business manager bean counters just didn't think the problem through. The PC gaming market was pushing the technology envelope forward, for better or worse. And all other vendors and software markets (aka the Windows eco system) benefited from those gains. Later they realized, uh oh!, we are shooting ourselves in the foot, and tried to keep it going with "Games for Windows". Little did they realize, by that time, it was all over.
I may never buy another PC, or graphics card again. Someone please explain why I should? Does the amortization of costs actually benefit us over the long run? Stuck with 4 to 5 year old console technology that does not push the envelope? Unlike some slashdotters, from a game, I want a total and absolute simulated environmenal realism. I don't just want to "play a game". I can muck around with Monopoly if I just wanted to "play a game". No I want to be emersed, as if I have been taken to another world. Games must be worth my time, not just something to fidget around with while I'm bored. I want photo-realism, possibly ray traced real time graphics, with true weather and environmental sounds. That's the goal I "was" chasing. That "was" the goal I was helping by buying the latest and greatest tech. But now, Microsoft has just killed that goal for me.
Side note: It seems all vendors of all types now from cell phones, to PC hardware and software, are all hell bent on getting every living being on the planet on some kind of subscription service. To that I say "One Time Cost" is better than the "Recurring Cost" model.
So what, we save it on games (Score:4, Insightful)
In holland CE Edition of Dragon Age PC cost me less from Bart Smith Online then the console version.
Oh and I got better graphics.
And modding tools.
And mods.
But sure, you go play with your console, you posting this from anyone of them? Oh, so you need a PC AND a console? I only need a PC.