Sapphire 5850 Xtreme

introduction

Originally released in 2009, the AMD HD58xx series graphics card quickly gained popularity due to their ability to fully support DX 11, providing a completely new level of tessellation. Released in October of 2009, the HD5850 filled the lower end of the performance slot and was able to deliver great performance for its price. Originally, the HD5850 was oriented towards users who wanted that extra punch, but didn't feel the need to go overboard with their graphics. However, for those that wish to take full advantage of the HD5850, CrossFire is available, and considering the low price of the graphics card, this should be easily accessible.

With the great success of the 5850, vendors like Sapphire have decided to release an extreme and more powerful version, in order to keep up with the changes that occured in the gaming industry over the past year. Today, Sapphire announced the release of 5850 Extreme graphics card, priced at $150 USD, though it can be bought for as low as $150 USD on Newegg.com. The card is equiped with 1440 stream processors, 72 texture units, as well as support for up to 1 GB of GDDR5 Memory at a bandwidth of 150 GB/s.

While the release of older graphics cards like the HD5850 might seem redundant to some, the higher price-to-performance ratio of the newer HD6850 might make some buyers lean towards older cards. The price difference is especially apparent for those that wish to use the 5850 in CrossFire: HD5850's in CrossFire are roughly $35-50 cheaper. While the benefits of purchasing the 5850 have been clearly outlined, let us take a closer look and see if this card is in fact worth the price.