Following the storming success of the recently introduced SAPPHIRE HD 5800 series, SAPPHIRE Technology now introduces the HD 5700 series, setting new standards for performance, value for money and features.

Only the second product line to fully support the forthcoming DirectX 11 from Microsoft, the new HD 5700 series brings many of the exciting architectural and performance features of the HD 5800 series to users on lower budgets. The HD 5700 series is based on a new GPU from the ATI division of AMD built in low power 40nm technology. This new series includes support for the new instruction set of DirectCompute 11, hardware tessellation, accelerated multi-threading capability, support for ATI Stream and the ability to display across up to three monitors simultaneously with ATI Eyefinity.

The beans are spilled on the final specifications of AMD's "Juniper" mid-range GPU architecture, and the two SKUs based on it, namely the ATI Radeon HD 5770 and Radeon HD 5750. Leaked alleged company slides on XtremeSystems Forums, reveal exactly how Juniper is a 50% downsizing of Cypress' machinery, in having half of nearly all its vital-statistics, if you may. Juniper features 10 SIMD engines physically, amounting to 800 stream processors. It holds 40 texture memory units (TMUs), and 16 raster operation units (ROPs). With a 128-bit memory interface churning out up to 76.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth by utilizing 4.8 GT/s GDDR5 memory chips, the fact that Juniper is half of what Cypress stands for specs-wise, becomes clear.

In the next two slides are pictured and detailed the two SKUs based on the GPU. The ATI Radeon HD 5770 is the top-end implementation, which makes use of all the components present on the GPU. With a core clock-speed of 850 MHz, and memory speed of 1200 MHz, the GPU churns out a shader compute power of 1.36 TFLOPs. The idle and max board powers are rated by AMD at 18W and 108W, respectively. It becomes clear that AMD is eying the US $150 price point with this part. The Radeon HD 5750 on the other hand, has one SIMD engine disabled, and eds up with 720 available stream processors. It comes with 1 GB or 512 MB of GDDR5 memory, and clock speeds of 700 MHz core, and 1150 MHz memory (4.6 GT/s). With these, the Radeon HD 5750 manages a shader compute power figure of 1.008 TFLOPs. The rated board power consumption figures have also come down on this one, with 16W idle, and 86W max. This one targets the $109 (512 MB) and $129 (1 GB) price points. Both accelerators are DirectX 11 compliant, and support ATI Eyefinity technology supporting up to three 2560 x 1600 pixel display heads. According to the slides, they should be unveiled this Tuesday the 13th.

Gamers are always pushing for the ultimate realistic gaming experience, and the XFX Radeon HD 5870 graphics card brings them three enormous steps closer to their ideal. First, ATI Eyefinity Technology enables gamers to see things like never before, with the ability to spread out across three displays at resolutions of up to 1080 pixels. Offering the first-ever "wrap-around" in-picture experience, gamers can surround themselves in the digital world, or, if productivity is the goal, maximize workspace with the ability to see more windows simultaneously.

Second, ATI Stream Technology ensures that today's demanding games play faster at higher resolutions. This state-of-the-art technology boosts systems performance by offloading tasks that were previously sent to the CPU to the GPU. The result? A more evenly balanced platform that can handle greater capacities at faster speeds.

AMD today launched the most powerful processor ever created, found in its next-generation graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards, and the world's first and only to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11, the new gaming and compute standard shipping shortly with Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Boasting up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series effectively doubles the value consumers can expect of their graphics purchases, delivering twice the performance-per-dollar of previous generations of graphics products. AMD will initially release two cards: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850, each with 1GB GDDR5 memory. With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards, PC users can expand their computing experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, accelerate their computing experience with ATI Stream technology, and dominate the competition with superior gaming performance and full support of Microsoft DirectX 11, making it a "must-have" consumer purchase just in time for Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

"With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cars driven by the most powerful processor on the planet, AMD is changing the game, both in terms of performance and the experience," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. "As the first to market with full DirectX 11 support, an unmatched experience made possible with ATI Eyefinity technology, and ATI Stream technology harnessing open standards designed to help make Windows 7 that much better, I can say with confidence that AMD is the undisputed leader in graphics once more."

American retailer ZipZoomFly.com has listed one of its first ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products, these ones from HIS. Both the HIS HD 5870 1 GB (H587F1GDG), and HIS HD 5850 1 GB (H585F1GDG) stick to AMD's reference board design, and sport a unique "sword" sticker theme compared to the manga characters used by another popular AMD partner.

Both accelerators are DirectX 11 compliant, and support ATI Eyefinity technology to connect to three display heads with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution. Connectivity options include two DVI-D, DisplayPort, and HDMI with 7.1 channel audio. While the HD 5870 has 1600 stream processors, clock speeds of 850/1200 MHz (core/memory), the HD 5850 has 1440 stream processors, with speeds of 725/1000 MHz (core/memory). Going by ZipZoomFly's pricing, the HIS HD 5870 1 GB is priced at US $399, while the HIS HD 5850 1 GB stands at $299.

At "experience events" on three continents this week, AMD and its industry partners introduced ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, a revolutionary feature in the upcoming next generation ATI Radeon family of DirectX 11 enabled graphics processors.
This unique AMD innovation gives PCs the ability to seamlessly connect up to six ultra high definition displays in a variety of portrait and landscape configurations giving viewers a stunning new perspective on their PC experience. ATI Eyefinity is powered by one AMD graphics card for up to 12 times 1080p high-definition resolution, which approaches eye-definition optical clarity. ATI Eyefinity technology brings AMD closer to delivering true eye-definition experiences, where the display of a virtual environment is so detailed that it seems optically real to the human eye. Using ATI Eyefinity technology in a single PC, it is now possible to power displays with a combined theoretical resolution of 268 megapixels, roughly equivalent to the resolution of a 90 degree arc of what the human eye sees. For reference, today's average 19 inch LCD display typically has an image quality of only slightly more than 1 megapixel.