The discrete graphics adapter ATI Radeon HD 5870 was officially introduced by the manufacturer in 2009. This accelerator was the first device that officially supported such an API as DirectX 11. The latter circumstance allowed to significantly increase the speed of the graphics subsystem in a number of tasks. In addition, this adapter had advanced technical specifications. Therefore, for a long time, it was still an actual solution for assembling high-performance computers.
Destination. Delivery list
The graphics adapter ATI Radeon HD 5870, as noted earlier, belonged to the manufacturer's line of the most productive discrete accelerators. Therefore, such an accelerator was most optimally used precisely as part of gaming computers. Moreover, its technical specifications were innovative and allowed the system to process program code of any degree of complexity. Also, such a discrete accelerator was perfect for creating graphic stations. Therefore, such computers specialized in processing high-quality images. In other cases, such a high-performance and expensive adapter was impractical to use. It has too high a cost and when implementing less demanding tasks, its hardware will not be fully used.
The delivery list of such an accelerator, as a rule, included the following:
- discrete adapter;
- a disk with documentation, diagnostic utilities and, of course, a driver;
- operation manual for this modification of the graphics subsystem;
- warranty card.
The only drawback that the owners of such an accelerator indicate is the lack of bonus discs with games in the delivery list. But this practice became widespread much later, and in 2009, none of the manufacturers of this marketing step has yet come up with.
Specifications
The ATI Radeon HD 5870 features emphasize that it was based on the RV870 graphics chip, codenamed Cypress. This modification of the chip is made using 40 nm technology, and the number of transistor elements in the surface design, which are part of it, is 2 154 million pieces.
This microprocessor includes 1,600 shader units. Also, this chip is equipped with 80 TMU units and 32 ROP modules. All of these elements operate at a nominal clock frequency of 850 MHz.
The interface for connecting to the PCI system board is EX version 2.1. You can use another revision of this interface for switching, but in this case all the PC resources will not be fully loaded. Also, the accelerator was equipped with ports for image output DVI, HDMI and Display Port. If necessary, you can also output the picture to the VGA connector of the monitor in analog format, but in this case, you must additionally use a special adapter.
Memory subsystem
The main RAM in the nominal version for ATI Radeon HD 5870 is 1Gb. But some manufacturers equipped such devices with 512 MB in order to save costs and reduce the cost of the accelerator. The type of chip used in this device is GDDR5, which operate in nominal mode at an effective frequency of 4800 MHz. The capacity of the RAM switching bus to the video buffer is 256 bits. As a result, such an accelerator could produce a bandwidth of 153 Gbit / s. That is, it is a very, very fast accelerator, even by today's standards.
Test stand. Its specifications
The test bench for checking the accelerator performance included the following components:
- CPU Core 2Quad Q9550;
- Intel based i945 motherboard;
- Noctua cooler model NH-U12P;
- RAM DDR3 2 modules of 1 GB with a clock frequency of 1333 MHz;
- SATA drive with a nominal capacity of 160 GB;
- a power supply whose output power is limited to 850 watts;
- a monitor with a diagonal of 17 ”and a maximum resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 and a refresh rate of 60 Hz.
Performance
As previously noted, the nominal amount of RAM for the ATI Radeon HD 5870 is -1Gb. The characteristics of this accelerator indicate that it should display a picture in resolutions of 1,600 x 1,200 or 2,048 x 1,536. In the 3DMArk'06 package, this accelerator was able to score 21,262 points and outperformed devices such as the HD4890 and GTX285. The first of them was able to score 17,489 points, and the second - 18,523.
In the Crysis game, this hero was able to issue 95 fps in a resolution of 1,024 x 768. At the same time, his competitors in the person of HD4890 and GTX285 were able to issue 68 fps and 70 fps, respectively.
Reviews
The advantages of ATI Radeon HD 5870 include speed and reliability. Its cons were called the owners of high energy consumption and cost. Also, the disadvantages include the fact that this adapter is based on today's outdated architecture and technology. Therefore, this model of video card does not belong to the category of current solutions.
Conclusion
Of course, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 became a revolutionary accelerator in 2009. Its performance has significantly increased in relation to the adapters that were released as part of the previous generation. But since the appearance of this video card on store shelves, a lot of time has passed. Therefore, such accelerators are outdated and it is recommended to replace them together with the rest of the PC elements now.