ATI Drags DirectX 11 Cards Under $100
While I'm not entirely convinced by the benefits of DirectX 11 yet, ATI has done everyone who is a major favour today by making the entry level for compatibility lower than ever before...
The AMD owned unit has announced the Radeon '5670' which is made at the same 40nm manufacturing process at the existing 5700 line and yet drops prices to under $100. It will sit just above the existing 4670.
Raw specs? The 5670 comes with a core clock speed of 775MHz, GDDR5 memory at 1000MHz (in either 512MB or 1GB), a data rate of 4Gbps, 64MBps of memory bandwidth and a claimed overall computer power of 620Gflops. Yes, it isn't going to drag Crysis along at 100fps at 1920 x 1200 resolution - but in terms of bang for your buck it is hard to beat.
Away from the 3D performance, the 5670 can support up to three displays thanks to ATI's Eyefinity multi-monitor tech and third parties can extend this to four if they choose to produce a two slot design. There is also HDMI 1.3a output, hybrid crossfire compatibility and the usual GPU based transcoding and hardware Flash acceleration that gives your CPU a well deserved rest.
5670 cards go on sale immediately with the 512MB edition hitting that all important $99.99 RRP with the 1GB version a still highly affordable $119. Look out for your favourite third parties unleashing an avalanche of these cards as we speak...
TECH TIP
Pros: Well... it's the 5870 - it's fast. Although the only games I've got that really test it are probably Call of Pripyat and the new Aliens Vs. Predator game (it looks really good I have to say). It does a great job in both games. I can crank all the DX11 effects and the regular "sunrise slowness" in Stalker isn't really noticeable with this card.
Looking now at power consumption and astonishingly, despite being such a fast card, the HD 5970 isn't the most power hungry card on test. That said, the two cards that do beat it are the previous generation dual-chip cards, so that's not surprising. Regardless, the total system power figures of 143W at idle and 330W under load aren't in the realms of the ridiculous.
While I'm not entirely convinced by the benefits of DirectX 11 yet, ATI has done everyone who is a major favour today by making the entry level for compatibility lower than ever before...
