The ATI Radeon HD 5970, the Most Powerful Video Card in the World
By Rico, 9:09 am Tue Nov 24 2009 - Featured, Gaming - 4 Opinions
To be fair, there are more powerful graphics hardware available on the market, but for the average consumer, nothing beats the ATI Radeon HD 5970. Thanks to Asus Philippines, we got a unit to try out.
Remember the computer I was putting together? Turns out part of the package was an HD 5970. More specifically, the Asus EAH5970. Everything about this card is large-scale, from the way it takes up two expansion slots on the back of your PC, to its 12″ length, and its 2GB of GDDR5 of memory. This card contains two separate GPUs working in tandem, like Nvidia’s GTX 295, a competing card that lost its performance crown to the HD 5970. In other words, the 5970 is the equivalent of two video cards bunched into one.
Just how powerful is the EAH5970? Or, for that matter, any variant of the HD 5970? When fully maximized and paired with the right computer hardware, the video card can power up to six separate displays with full 3D acceleration. Running demanding PC games like Half-Life 2 on just one monitor is literally peanuts for the EAH5970. At a test resolution of 1680 x 1050 (the maximum allowable by our test monitor), we were able to run the game with everything set to maximum (6x AA, 16x anisotropic filtering) and there was no choppiness whatsoever.
If you had a hard time understanding any of that, don’t worry. Rest assured that the Asus EAH5970 will perhaps be the most powerful video card available to consumers once it hits the Philippine market (launch is soon according to Asus Philippines). Such performance of course comes at a price; the projected SRP for the EAH5970 is P21,990—more than enough to pay for a decent desktop computer! The good news however is that with the graphics card costing on average $600 (P28,079.33) in the US, we Filipinos actually get a better price. (Oops, looks like I misread the email Asus Philippines sent me. P21,990 is the price of the EAH5870, the next most powerful card currently available from Asus. Will try to get a price, but according to the email there are no plans to release the EAH5970 yet!)
I’ll be running benchmarks soon, so stay tuned!
Noel
10:10 am Tue Nov 24 2009
Rico, im interested in the performance of that monster in Crysis in very high detail. Please include that in your tests hehehe.
jpbl1976
11:11 pm Thu Nov 26 2009
At the resolution being tested (1680 x 1050), tests are inconclusive. I can run Crysis at 60fps at very high detail with an nvidia gtx 260/216 gold ed — at the mid-end range of the resolution grid, most of the nvidia gtx line as well as the ati hd4870, will run ‘older’ gpu-hungry (crysis is 2 years old) games quite smoothly provided they’re paired with a speedy cpu/RAM setup.
You’ll need to go to the 1900 x 1200 and 2400 x 1600 level for your tests to become conclusive, although enthusiast sites like tom’s hardware and anandtech do support the notion that the hd 5970 is the speediest video card out there.
Maybe Samsung or viewsonic would like to provide you with a 26″ monitor for test purposes as well?
Rico
11:11 pm Thu Nov 26 2009
Noel: Do you have a copy? I don’t have money to buy one eh! Haha!
jpbl1976: Agreed. In fact, I think two 30″ displays with 2560 x 1600 isn’t even enough to stress the card (unless both are displaying 3D graphics). Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone will be lending me that kind of hardware soon.
Josh
10:10 am Sun Nov 29 2009
amp haha I thought it was a dream come true 22k for that beast pero hmmm sana di maxado mahal