Friday, September 18th 2009

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 Smile for the Camera

by
btarunr
 Discuss (148 Comments)
Here are the fist pictures of Sapphire's Radeon HD 5800 series offerings: Radeon HD 5870 1GB and Radeon HD 5850. The cards sport the usual sticker design of a CGI girl in a reddish background. With these cards having the cosmetic "red-streak" cleaving the cooler shroud in the center, the so is the sticker. This is also perhaps the first public picture of the Radeon HD 5850, and our size projections were right: While the Radeon HD 5870 maintains a long PCB, the HD 5850 is about as long as a Radeon HD 4870 (reference design). Both accelerators stick to the reference AMD design.

* Images removed at request of Sapphire * Google for alternate source
Source: Hermitage Akihabara

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148 Comments on Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 Smile for the Camera

#126
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
newtekie1I disagree, the HD4850 wasn't just crippled because of memory, it was clocked a far bit lower on the core/shader clock also. That drastically affected performance. The HD4870/4890 had issued competing with nVidia's GPUs with over 100 GB/s, and it had plenty of memory bandwidth. The over 100MHz downclock on the HD4850 was more of a performance factor than the GDDR3 memory bandwidth.

I don't believe that a HD5850 with GDDR3 would perform that much worse than the incarnation we are seeing here.
Of course memory isn't the only thing that downscales HD 4850, don't think people are that stupid, that you can jump from one component to another just to show that that one component we're debating on doesn't cripple the GPU as much, and hence you should be right.

And I do believe that GDDR3 would have crippled HD 5850. It would not have been able to target GTX 285 with sub-100 GB/s memory bandwidths.
Posted on Reply
#127
stevednmc
heres my question..will getting a single 5870 be better than my 2 4850's in crossfire? Cuz if that the case..i want one. and then later, another one!
Posted on Reply
#128
air_ii
I think that it could be poorer yields that made ATI harvest 5850 dice. It could also be that 5870 is so bw limited that lower clocked 5850 would not be that much slower and would cannibalise the 5870. Either way, it doesnt matter to prospective 5850 buyers
Posted on Reply
#129
air_ii
stevednmcheres my question..will getting a single 5870 be better than my 2 4850's in crossfire? Cuz if that the case..i want one. and then later, another one!
I'm pretty sure it would. And it would eat half the power as well.
Posted on Reply
#130
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
stevednmcheres my question..will getting a single 5870 be better than my 2 4850's in crossfire? Cuz if that the case..i want one. and then later, another one!
Yes it will.
Posted on Reply
#131
stevednmc
True enuff, would also run cooler in my case as well..of course eventually id have to get another one to run in crossfire, just because, well because i can!


would love to see some benchmarking for sure.
Posted on Reply
#132
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
btarunrOf course memory isn't the only thing that downscales HD 4850, don't think people are that stupid, that you can jump from one component to another just to show that that one component we're debating on doesn't cripple the GPU as much, and hence you should be right.

And I do believe that GDDR3 would have crippled HD 5850. It would not have been able to target GTX 285 with sub-100 GB/s memory bandwidths.
Well, the only people that can really answer that are the engineers at ATi. We've both made out beliefs clear, but the fact is that neither will be confirmed, unless they release a GDDR3 version down the road(or someone downclocks the HD5870 to give GDDR3 memory bandwidth and does test, maybe we can get W1z to do it).

And I really don't think targetting the GTX285 is intelligent in any way, and I really hope that is not what they had in mind when making these cards.
Posted on Reply
#133
OneCool
Love those fake ass stickers
Posted on Reply
#134
Woody112
Don't think I'm going to buy another ATI card till they up the memory bandwidth. What this thing could do with 512bit bus. I've pretty much always owned ATI but going to hold out for Nvidia's answer to this card. They will be using ddr5 and with their larger bus width, it's going to be a killer for sure. Just my opinion, I think ATI screwed up sticking with the traditional 256bit bus.
Posted on Reply
#135
wolf
Performance Enthusiast
stevednmcheres my question..will getting a single 5870 be better than my 2 4850's in crossfire? Cuz if that the case..i want one. and then later, another one!
From the 'leaked' specs and what is on paper, yes it should act slightly better than two 4850's in CF scaling perfectly, but that's on paper, and nobody knows for sure yet.

Like usual, time will tell, you only need wait a few days now.
Posted on Reply
#136
stevednmc
Im thinking it should be a pretty good increase, especially since i have the 512 versions of the 4850. well, ill sure be watching this closely.
Posted on Reply
#137
CDdude55
Crazy 4 TPU!!!
While you guys are getting these i'll be getting a GTX 260.:)

I am a gamer, so its not like it matters which card i get that much at 1440x900.
Posted on Reply
#138
Anonimo
Woody112Don't think I'm going to buy another ATI card till they up the memory bandwidth. What this thing could do with 512bit bus. I've pretty much always owned ATI but going to hold out for Nvidia's answer to this card. They will be using ddr5 and with their larger bus width, it's going to be a killer for sure. Just my opinion, I think ATI screwed up sticking with the traditional 256bit bus.
Oh god, stop saying "it would be much better with more bandwidht", "BIG CHIPS NEED BIG BANDWIDHT" or " MOAR BITS IS FOR THE WIN".
No one here knows how more bandwidht would affect the performance. Also, ATI engineers are not dumb, they built the chip, they know how much bandwidht the chip needs.

About the Radeons, I think this cooler is more beautiful:
Posted on Reply
#139
inferKNOX
I wonder how the Powercolor PCS+ coolers will be.
I hope they make them vent the heat out of the case unlike their previous cards.
Posted on Reply
#140
Bjorn_Of_Iceland
They Crippled the core for future usage. Since its the only one out there for now, it would makes sense. Now if ever GT300 would out do it, its full core time for them with competitive price.
Posted on Reply
#141
D3M0N-G4M3R
Images removed at request of saphire?? Why.....

Anyways they do looks pretty sweet and a lot better than their predecessors
Posted on Reply
#142
Kovoet
Think I'll be building a second PC around this GFX card when it's out and using a new corsair case.
Posted on Reply
#143
Tatty_Two
Gone Fishing
Woody112Don't think I'm going to buy another ATI card till they up the memory bandwidth. What this thing could do with 512bit bus. I've pretty much always owned ATI but going to hold out for Nvidia's answer to this card. They will be using ddr5 and with their larger bus width, it's going to be a killer for sure. Just my opinion, I think ATI screwed up sticking with the traditional 256bit bus.
In practical terms.... DDR5 effectively doubles the bandwidth so in essence you are getting 512Bit bus, there is absolutely no need for this card to have an effective bandwidth of a Gigabit by giving it a 512bit bus.
Posted on Reply
#144
phanbuey
Tatty_OneIn practical terms.... DDR5 effectively doubles the bandwidth so in essence you are getting 512Bit bus, there is absolutely no need for this card to have an effective bandwidth of a Gigabit by giving it a 512bit bus.
yeah the amount of extra cost $/performance-wise of a 512bit bus prolly isn't worth it.

I am sure that this was the optimal configuration all things considered, I mean I doubt the engineers chose the 256-bit with GDDR5 for sh**s and giggles.
Posted on Reply
#145
TheMailMan78
Big Member
Tatty_OneIn practical terms.... DDR5 effectively doubles the bandwidth so in essence you are getting 512Bit bus, there is absolutely no need for this card to have an effective bandwidth of a Gigabit by giving it a 512bit bus.
Knowledge has been dropped. :rockout:
Posted on Reply
#146
mdm-adph
Tatty_OneIn practical terms.... DDR5 effectively doubles the bandwidth so in essence you are getting 512Bit bus, there is absolutely no need for this card to have an effective bandwidth of a Gigabit by giving it a 512bit bus.
TheMailMan78Knowledge has been dropped. :rockout:
But... but... but... the Nvidia cards have a bigger number!
Posted on Reply
#147
suraswami
did anyone notice the misprint on the box of X2 240e saying 'True Quad Core design'? :laugh::roll:

check that asian website:D
Posted on Reply
#148
Tatty_Two
Gone Fishing
mdm-adphBut... but... but... the Nvidia cards have a bigger number!
5,875 versus 300 ......... I think not ;)
Posted on Reply
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