Radeon HD5970

INTRODUCTION

While we still are waiting for NVIDIA’s first DirectX 11-capable cards and probably will have to wait a few months into 2010 for them, AMD is getting busy releasing a steady stream of new cards to the consumers. When the HD5870 and the HD5850 was released AMDS spelled out their strategy and promised to follow up the cards first with the HD5770/HD5750 and then with the “Hemlock” card, the rumored HD5870X2. So far AMD has kept their promises and it is indeed the “Hemlock” that we are looking at today although the name has been changed to HD5970.

We have been used to AMD talking a lot about having the best performance/price ratio and indeed a lot of their success lately has come from the fact that they have had affordable cards with great performance. With the HD5970 however AMD am using a different tune. The HD5970 is marketed as the fastest video card currently available by a large margin and a card where AMD has gone out of their way to create the best possible video card for the enthusiast with lots of headroom for overclocking. Forget cheap and affordable. The HD5970 takes on the GTX295 at its own turf with a price around $500.

Is AMD getting overconfident? Are these promises just regular marketing hype? Read on to hear our take on the HD5970, the largest video card that we have seen so far.