AMD’s Radeon HD 5830: A Filler Card at the Wrong Price
by Ryan Smith on February 24, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Also Announced: Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition
While we were being briefed about the 5830, AMD also used the opportunity to tell us about the 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition. You may better know this card as Trillian, a card that AMD was showing off (but not naming) all the way back at their 5800 series launch event in September. The 5870E6 is the 6 port mini-DisplayPort card that AMD was using to drive their 6 monitor and 24 monitor setups during the event.
AMD is finally ready to launch the card (and we’re assuming the 6 display Samsung mega-monitor is done too) which is why AMD is announcing it today. We have the complete specs of the card, but AMD is not quite ready to discuss its performance so we have yet to receive a sample card nor can we talk about its expected performance until a later date.
| AMD Radeon HD 5970 | AMD Radeon HD 5870E6 | AMD Radeon HD 5870 | AMD Radeon HD 5850 | |
| Stream Processors | 2x1600 | 1600 | 1600 | 1440 |
| Texture Units | 2x80 | 80 | 80 | 72 |
| ROPs | 2x32 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| Core Clock | 725MHz | 850MHz | 850MHz | 725MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1GHz (4GHz data rate) GDDR5 | 1.2GHz (4.8GHz data rate) GDDR5 | 1.2GHz (4.8GHz data rate) GDDR5 | 1GHz (4GHz data rate) GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus Width | 2x256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Frame Buffer | 2x1GB | 2GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Transistor Count | 2x2.15B | 2.15B | 2.15B | 2.15B |
| TDP | 294W | 228W | 188W | 151W |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 40nm | TSMC 40nm | TSMC 40nm | TSMC 40nm |
| Price Point | $599 | >$400 | $400 | $300 |
In a nutshell, the 5870E6 is a 2GB version of the 5870 equipped with 6 mini-DisplayPorts for its output. The core and memory clocks are the same as the regular 5870, while the extra RAM is to cover the larger framebuffer that would be required for such a large surface (6 1080P monitors would be 12.5MP). AMD has to equip the card with 16 GDDR5 chips in 16bit mode (as opposed to 8 chips in 32bit mode) to get 2GB of memory, so the power usage of the card will be 228W under load, and 34W idle. This means it will take a 6pin PCIe power plug and an 8pin power plug to drive the card, the only 5800 series card to have such a requirement.
AMD will once again be using the 5800/5900 series trademark shrouded cooler, this time with a full vent along the second slot to deal with the additional heat from the extra GDDR5 chips. At this point we don’t know how long the card will be, although we wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being longer to fit the extra GDDR5 chips and power circuitry.
In order to drive adoption and to make things a bit easier for buyers, AMD will be having their partners include a number of dongles with the card so that no one is caught completely off guard by the exclusive use of mini-DP. The 5870E6 will come with 2 mini-DP to DP dongles, 2 mini-DP to single-link DVI dongles, and a single mini-DP to HDMI dongle. This will give the 5870E6 a similar degree of output flexibility as the 5870, even though it’s composed entirely of mini-DP ports.
Since this is still being driven by Cypress, the clock source limitation has not changed. Cypress only has 2 clock sources for DVI-type displays, so the 5870E6 can only drive up to 2 DVI/HDMI displays using passive adapters. Furthermore if you want to drive a 2560 display or a 120Hz 1920 display, you’re going to need active adapters regardless of clock sources. So if you’re thinking of buying this as a 2GB 5870 to drive your 2560 DVI monitor, you’re still going to be shelling out another $100 for an active adapter. Even with the dongles, it’s clear that this card really is meant to be paired with DP/mini-DP monitors for the long-run.
As for pricing information, AMD has not announced a final price for the card. But since the regular 5870 is already at $400 it’s safe to tell you that this card will be in excess of $400.
Finally, we’re left wondering whether this card is a bit ahead of its time. Eyefinity is certainly ready (particularly with the Catalyst 10.3 driver additions that will be coming) but AMD’s current power situation means that they can either offer a 2GB 5870 or a 2GB (1GB effective) 5970, but not a 4GB (2GB effective) 5970. Based on our reviews of the 5870 and 5970 we’re not convinced that a 5870 is fast enough to drive 6 monitors and run games at a high level of detail at the same time, and at the same time more memory would seem to be critical for the frame buffer size that would result from such a setup. With Crossfire Eyefinity fully working as of the Catalyst 10.2 drivers, we suspect anyone serious about a 6 monitor setup is going to want to go for a pair of these cards in Crossfire mode so that they have the rendering performance to drive such a high resolution display. It would be costly (>$800) but then again so would a 6 monitor setup.
We’ll have more on the 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition once it launches.
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Alouette Radeon - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
Only a LITTLE slower than a GTS 250? Do you work for nVidia or something? The GTS 250 is slightly better than an HD 4850 and it's only a DX10.0 card, not even a DX10.1 like the LAST generation of ATi cards. The GTS 250 gets bitch-slapped by the 4870 and 5770. The 5830 is faster than BOTH of those cards! Why don't you go read a book about the video card marketplace instead of opening your mouth and sounding like a complete moron?Alouette Radeon - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
I meant to say a little faster.qwertymac93 - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
4890 outperforms gtx285 in crysis warhead, news to me...yacoub - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
The 5770 as it should have been - with a 256-bit bus. Call me when it's $150 and I'll consider it. If the drivers improve as well.HotFoot - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
At the high-end, AMD has moved the performance benchmark a significant amount. I think the 5870 and 5850 have been very solid.But for everything else in this generation's linup, it seems that performance has taken a back-seat to features. For the lowest-end cards, that makes sense to me as probably a lot of HTPC customers are after those features. But for mid and mid-high cards in the line-up, I'm much more critical on the performance of the card than the features.
I've played only one DX11 game so far. Actually, the majority of games in my library are still DX9. It saddens me that anywhere from $120-240 buys less today than it did a year ago.
vajm1234 - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
well 1st of all lemme starti was expecting a hell more from this but nope dunno whats really goin on here..why it lacks performance??
a) clock to clock performance?
b) leakage?
c)everything u can thought about......????????????????
+ i thought there will be price correction like
225 for 5850
180 for 5830 (even lower now after the differences) and so on
sometimes i feel 5850 is a dual gpu's version of 5750 with two gpu's and slight clock change inserted and connected like "two intel dual core with a hypertranspot channel for quad core" and its just optimized for performance Hell now it feels like its a corssfire issue with 5830 -- which is ACTUALLY NOT THE CASE from what we know about all this architecture.
today i went to buy a 5 series but end up buying a 4 series---
u know if u just think about it for 5 odd min u get the answer as these DX11 features are secondary @ this point than the performance .....
not only that all those features are not proper yet like that OPEN CL issue
@ATI- because of ur @**h*le profit making business we end up with an old generation cards now. FCUK off ur new gen features in price of its performances + not to forget ur NONSENSE PRICING.
Alouette Radeon - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
You know, you're crying awfully loud and it's so damn STUPID! You want to blame someone? BLAME NVIDIA FOR NOT HAVING ANYTHING AT ALL! I mean JESUS H. CHRIST, there are nVidia cards out there that are DX TEN POINT ZERO that are STILL selling for more than the 5830 AND 5850! ATi isn't accustomed to being first out of the gate since nVidia has dominated for the last 5 video card generations. If nVidia would've gotten their act together last summer like they should have, we wouldn't be talking about this right now! Give your head a shake, if the cards aren't priced as you want and you don't want an HD 4xxx card, then DON'T BLOODY BUY ONE!!!ugh
kallogan - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
...when i saw the price and the tdp. What a disappointment.Well played, AMD.
P.S to AMD/manufacturers : I want a single-cooled gpu to fill the gap between 5670 and 5750. Or a single-slot cooled green/unplugged HD 5750 ;-). Or a single-slot cooled HD 4770.
It seems like i'll have to build one by myself ;-)
phawkins633 - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
Well....so much for the paper launch thing.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
I guess now it is a moot point
Parhel - Thursday, February 25, 2010 - link
I'd at least update the article. I mean, it's launch day and they're available for purchase. Heck, the PowerColor model is overclocked, has a custom cooler and is available at MSRP. I'm still a fan of the site, but this is a bit embarrassing.