5970 Reviews

[HOOfan 1]

HardOCP states that they'll be going live with their 5970 review at 11PM CDT... so, in about 45 minutes.

Here it is

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/11/18/amd_ati_radeon_hd_5970_video_card_review

 

[Wreckage]

Here it is

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/11/18/amd_ati_radeon_hd_5970_video_card_review

The problem currently is it is being held back by drivers, software, and the applications themselves. Current drivers are not without problems on the new Radeon HD 5000 series. There are a slew of games that have some kind of issue with this new graphics series from AMD. If it isn’t lack of AA support or poor AA performance then it is just overall slower performance than it should be in games.

Unimpressive. :\

 

[error8]

Why no 2560 tests?
Also, take a look at the Farcry 2 results:
http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/articles/view.php?id=3072&cid=3&pg=5
Why is 5870x2 so much faster (almost double) at 1920 compared to the 5970 (actually come to think of it they're getting way more than double a 5870...maybe a game bug?)? Maybe they're reusing numbers from a different test which had a different system config?

It's probably because 5870 has higher stock frequencies then 5970.

 

[Schmide]

The problem currently is it is being held back by drivers, software, and the applications themselves. Current drivers are not without problems on the new Radeon HD 5000 series. There are a slew of games that have some kind of issue with this new graphics series from AMD. If it isn’t lack of AA support or poor AA performance then it is just overall slower performance than it should be in games.

Unimpressive. :\

Irony that you cut the quote there. Lame

(The following is in the same paragraph directly following the above, taken out of context, quote)

There are a handful of games now that we have played where we feel performance is not where it should be for this new series, including but not limited to Batman, Resident Evil 5, and Borderlands. Not to be overlooked but all the titles with issues on AMD GPUs are NVIDIA TWIMTBP games. Coincidence?

So basically inferring, since nVidia can't compete fairly, sabotage is in order?

Edit: I have to add that misquoting something is not something new, you seem to have a knack for specifically misquoting something, (by edit* or omission) to show something different than the intent of the original author!

*Batman thread anyone??? You still have yet to reverse the edit.

 

[error8]

The problem currently is it is being held back by drivers, software, and the applications themselves. Current drivers are not without problems on the new Radeon HD 5000 series. There are a slew of games that have some kind of issue with this new graphics series from AMD. If it isn’t lack of AA support or poor AA performance then it is just overall slower performance than it should be in games.

Unimpressive. :\

Oh well, this is what always happened with their X2's cards, when they were released. We'll probably have to see another 1 or 2 Catalyst releases until everything is put in order.

 

[zagood]

"The Radeon HD 5970 essentially squeezes two Cypress XT chips onto a single GPU"

It's an engineering masterpiece!

Gotta love hardware review sites that rush to meet the 12am NDA time.

 

[Cookie Monster]

How long is this card? looks like 11~12 inches!

 

[thilanliyan]

It's probably because 5870 has higher stock frequencies then 5970.

Not enough to be almost double the speed.

 

[dguy6789]

Looks very nice.

 

[Borealis7]

I, for one, welcome our new 12" overlords.

a review of 5970 XF:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5970_CrossFire/
(dont know how to link in vBulletin)

EDIT: lol @ auto links

 

[WelshBloke]

The problem currently is it is being held back by drivers, software, and the applications themselves. Current drivers are not without problems on the new Radeon HD 5000 series. There are a slew of games that have some kind of issue with this new graphics series from AMD. If it isn’t lack of AA support or poor AA performance then it is just overall slower performance than it should be in games.

Unimpressive. :\

Or you could quote the from the conclusion of the same article.

We’ve said this multiple times already in this conclusion, the Radeon HD 5970 is a solid piece of hardware that is the fastest thing on the planet for gaming right now, period. There is no question that AMD knows how to make excellent GPU hardware.

 

[at80eighty]

Benchmarks are around but did ATi sanction them? Are they even real?

Fight the power! ATI is heading a conspiracy and paid 20 leading tech sites to run reviews & benchmarks.

 

[sciwizam]

I, for one, welcome our new 12" overlords.

You are quite welcome!







That was too inviting

 

[edplayer]

We're getting benchmarks, the date is upon us, and there will be how many for sale? 10? 15?

Here is an excerpt from Anandtech review:

"At $600, AMD isn’t going to sell a ton of 5970s, and the launch numbers reflect this. While the 5800 series cards launched with tens-of-thousands of cards, the 5970 launch will simply be with thousands of cards."

Fight the power! ATI is heading a conspiracy and paid 20 leading tech sites to run reviews & benchmarks.

Pay attention when you are reading next time

 

[Painman]

Like I said over at the H-place... Looky @ teh PCB Pr0n

Room for 375W of power input, and several unused solder pads for more power components to handle it.

It's disappointing that the 5970 only equals 5850 X-Fire, at least at this time, but as far as I can see, this is not the end-all and be-all for this particular rv870 platform. It's obviously been designed to do more, and it's only a matter of soldering on the right crap.

There's only so much powder that can be kept dry once a reviewer tears off the heatsink. :biggrin:

 

[at80eighty]

Pay attention when you are reading next time

try your own advice on your writing

 

[BFG10K]

Current drivers are not without problems on the new Radeon HD 5000 series. There are a slew of games that have some kind of issue with this new graphics series from AMD. If it isn’t lack of AA support or poor AA performance then it is just overall slower performance than it should be in games.

That quote from [ H ] mirrors my own findings quite closely. The problem is by no means limited to the X2 series either.

I hope Terry Makedon forwards the extensive bug report I sent to him to his driver engineers.

 

[Idontcare]

The problem currently is it is being held back by drivers, software, and the applications themselves. Current drivers are not without problems on the new Radeon HD 5000 series. There are a slew of games that have some kind of issue with this new graphics series from AMD. If it isn’t lack of AA support or poor AA performance then it is just overall slower performance than it should be in games.

Unimpressive. :\

Or you could quote the from the conclusion of the same article.

We’ve said this multiple times already in this conclusion, the Radeon HD 5970 is a solid piece of hardware that is the fastest thing on the planet for gaming right now, period. There is no question that AMD knows how to make excellent GPU hardware.

OMG this made me laugh so hard. Now that was a good zinger

 

[Tempered81]

this card looks cool:

 

[AzN]

I don't get why AMD dropped memory speeds when memory speeds doesn't really effect power consumption. It performs more like 5850x2 than a full blown 5870x2.

 

[error8]

GDDR5 affects power consumption. It has been proven with 4870, that by significantly reducing the GDDR5 clocks, the card would consume way less energy in idle. GDDR5 really needs juice to function properly. But that still doesn't justify why has ATi chosen to reduce clocks that much, when the average oc of the 5970 is 800 / 1200 mhz. Hell, on guru3d they even managed to take the GPUs up to 900 mhz.

 

[palladium]

Looks like a very good card, too bad the PSU (esp. overclocking) and case requirements are kinda steep. Am really considering this card as my upgrade this x-mas, screw the waiting for Fermi.

Speaking of Fermi, I wonder how nV is going to work around the 300W TDP limit when they release their single PCB dual GPU card - the Fermi core is likely to be a larger die so power consumption is likely to be higher than a Cypress core.

 

[palladium]

GDDR5 affects power consumption. It has been proven with 4870, that by significantly reducing the GDDR5 clocks, the card would consume way less energy in idle. GDDR5 really needs juice to function properly. But that still doesn't justify why has ATi chosen to reduce clocks that much, when the average oc of the 5970 is 800 / 1200 mhz. Hell, on guru3d they even managed to take the GPUs up to 900 mhz.

I think they underclock so much to keep within the 300W limit.

 

[Painman]

I don't get why AMD dropped memory speeds when memory speeds doesn't really effect power consumption. It performs more like 5850x2 than a full blown 5870x2.

There are are 16 GDDR5 chips onboard. The default TDP of the card is 294W. That's not much wiggle room. Each increase of mem clock MHz is amplified in power consumption by 16x because each chip needs more power. That only matters as far as AMD adhering to a spec for a retail product. You don't have to.

AMD invites you to OC/OV the card, and is apparently offering the tools in the form of a core/mem overvolt app.

If you relied only upon AT's "reliable" hardware review, you might have missed that...

 

[AzN]

GDDR5 affects power consumption. It has been proven with 4870, that by significantly reducing the GDDR5 clocks, the card would consume way less energy in idle. GDDR5 really needs juice to function properly. But that still doesn't justify why has ATi chosen to reduce clocks that much, when the average oc of the 5970 is 800 / 1200 mhz. Hell, on guru3d they even managed to take the GPUs up to 900 mhz.

Where has this been proven? Links? Core is what eats power. Memory although consume power will only consume fraction of what the core consumes. You probably saw a combination of the core and memory redux affecting power consumption.

It couldn't possibly eat 5-10 more watts for 1200mhz from 1000mhz.