AMD unveils 'world's fastest' graphics card

Advanced Micro Devices is laying claim to the world's fastest graphics card at it continues an assault on Nvidia at the high-end of the graphics chip market.

HD 5970 packs two fast graphics chips

(Credit: Advanced Micro Devices)

As teased last week by AMD senior vice president Rick Bergman at a financial analyst meeting, the "Hemlock" graphics card--now officially called the ATI Radeon HD 5970--is AMD's top-of-the-line graphics product.

"It's in production. You'll be able to buy it at e-tailers around the world...Five Teraflops out of this baby," Bergman said last week. A teraflop is a trillion floating point operations per second, a key indicator of graphics performance.

Review site Tom's Hardware called it the "fastest discrete (standalone) card in the world."

The card integrates two graphics processing units (GPUs) for a total of 4.3 billion transistors. It also boasts 3,200 stream processing units and 160 texture units--tiny individual processors for accelerating graphics. And it supports Microsoft's DirectX 11 for speeding up graphics in Windows 7.

The 5970 will ship in Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktops from Dell's Alienware unit and allow "massive overclocking," according to AMD. Overclocking allows users to ratchet up chip speeds beyond the card's specified rating. "The unrivaled overclocking capabilities of the ATI Radeon HD 5970 are enabled by the unique design of the card, which features advanced fan and vapor chamber technologies and a fully vented exhaust to keep the card cool and ensure overclocking headroom using ATI Overdrive technology," AMD said in a statement.

A maximum resolution of 7680x1600 is achieved by driving up to up to three displays at once.

AMD cited games that will benefit from the card such as Electronic Art's Phenomic's BattleForge, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (GSC Game World), Battlefield Bad Company 2 (EA Dice), DiRT 2 (Codemasters), Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion), and the update to The Lord of the Rings Online (Turbine).

Though prices will vary, some retailers are currently listing the price at $599.

[Tod Smith]

Now all we need is the games!

[slickuser]

OpenCL compatiable? I want this baby on Snow Leopard machine!

[coryschulz]

Finally, now we can run Vista.

[Mr. Dee]

A very clueless comment, considering that Vista's problem was never GPU related but more associated with RAM and CPU requirements. Windows Vista was released at a time when the average system came loaded with 512 MBs of RAM and single core 1.8 GHz processor.

[sharmajunior]

LOL, Good one.

[darkmerkaba]

HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!

[KandyMan114]

perhaps I can finally run crysis at max now... maybe...

[sharmajunior]

I hope so, had so much trouble with lags on that game.

[zyxxy]

What is the power dissipation on this?

[ClaBR]

294 W maximum, 42 idle, 1x 8-pin + 1x 6-pin power connectors

[eekitsericc]

phew,<br /><br />that thing is powerful.

[man_w_balls]

That card is simply too big. It will not fit in many people's computer cases. <br />My older 8800 card is at least 3-4" shorter than that, and just barely fits in my full-ATX case.

[topanaris]

This card is meant for hardcore gamers not for persons looking to just occupy an empty PCI Express slot,

[ClaBR]

It's meant for the enthusiast public, who usually have the large cases. It will never be widely used since in order to fully use its power, you need to run games at resolutions of 1920 x 1200 or higher, multi-monitor and the rest of the computer needs to be high end as well (processor no less than a Core i7, 6 GB RAM, fast hard drives, etc), otherwise the other components will become the bottleneck of the system. Also, the price tag o $600 is not for everyone.

[dennisl59]

I predict the United Nations will convene a special committee to investigate the Carbon Footprint, Power Consumption and Effect on Global Warming on this obvious excess by American Industry. And Congress will levy a special "Excess Power for Graphics Cards" tax on anyone who dare to buy this product for their own 'pursuit of happiness'. Finally, a 10 day waiting period, with Federal Background Criminal Check will be required. In my opinion.

[Endbringer]

LOL. The sad thing is you might not be too off what our current masters plan for us.

[shootfirst]

I think if you look close enough it states that the card cannot be sold in California.

[tinlizziedl]

That's better than a Federal Individual Carbon Quota Check, isn't it? Does the price of the card include an acre of offset trees planted in peat?

[Greg Noel]

Lets see, with the advent of Windows 7, ATI declares a bunch of perfectly fine video cards Legacy.<br /><br />With that insult, upgrading your older Legacy card to a new one generates a lower Aero WEI. (?!?)<br /><br />Until ATI fixes their driver problems I wouldn't go near them. Shame on them.

[Endbringer]

Nvidia has just as many driver problems, especially for Windows Vista and 7. Just look at their handling of dual monitors.

[jpsaply]

Cant say anything for other cards except the Nvidia 8800 GTS. I have been running that card on Windows 7 since release of the Windows 7 Release Client in April. I never had an issue. Nvidia has always been on top of there game, at least with that card.

[shootfirst]

@jpsaply<br /><br />Some people use their computers for more than checking email and trolling cnet forums.

[wangbang]

@shootfirst<br /><br /> Some people use their computers for more than checking email and trolling cnet forums.<br /><br />Yeah, but you can't possibly need a powerful card just for looking at all the gay porn you do

[jpsaply]

@shootfirst <br /> <br />Sorry man. But my rig is setup for gaming. Win 7 is the best thing for a gaming PC. <br /> <br />By the way, who trolling?

[Greg Noel]

Like alot of people I have a bunch of machines for various uses, a laptop for trolling CNet, a dual headed desktop with a brute of a card for Gaming, and an older machine as a HTPC. <br /><br />I've updated them all to Win7, only problem I had was with with the HTPC ATI cards, the three year old "legacy" card developed problems with video source switching. I upgraded, reasonably, to a current generation ATI card.<br /><br />It took over an hour, and a couple hard crashes to get the driver installed proper. Once I did, my Aero rating dropped more than 10% !?! Not a problem I had with my NVidia chipset laptop or my Gaming rig. Or even my Intel Chipset processor for the other head....<br /><br />I understand the WEI is artificial, but ATI must of done this simple test, and released the drivers nonetheless. What is it? They don't care? Incompetent? Cynical?<br /><br />Really this is my fault, if I had done for research before buying the new card I would have discovered how many people have been having problems with ATI, and ATI on Win7 I would have put my dollars someplace else, like I be doing in the future. Lesson Learned.<br /><br />It still leaves a bad taste in my mouth - I won't even consider ATI next time.

[Worf101]

Yipes!!!! Just how long is that thing? Building a new rig next year when the new chips are out and perhaps USB 3, better make sure this sucker's not stickin' out the front of the case first!!!! Funny part is, you can't find a 5870 anywhere for love nor money and now they're bypassing that card? Are you kiddin' me? <br /> <br />Worf

[jpsaply]

Holy Crap Batman! I'll need a house to store that thing. That card is way to big, not to mention expensive. The only way that would fit in my rig is if removed the front fan. But then i would lose alot of cooling. I thought technology was suppose to get smaller, not bigger.

[Michichael]

This just in - blog renamed from nanotech to macrotech :P

[baconstang]

Now I'll NEVER have to leave my mom's basement!

[shootfirst]

Anyone that spends $600 on a video card is out of their mind. I'm sorry there are many great games out there that do not need a graphics card of this magnitude. <br /><br />Also don't we see this type of article like every few weeks...

[KreaT1ve]

Well, I just bought a new computer with 2 x nvidia gtx 295's SLI, and I am in heaven.<br /><br />**** amd, srsly.

[Vepar_S]

Well i just use crossfire on my 4890's. That should keep me happy for now....BUT I want this....hehehehe.

[inachu1]

Sadly as much as I want this video card I can tell you guys one thing. <br />Best Buy will not carry this video for another 3 to 5 years. <br /> <br />For the past year I have been closely looking at the video card section and they lack any video card <br />such as the above. As of this writing the best card I could by was the 270 by Nvidia but that still was not the best card they COULD have carried. <br />So far every gaming card I wanted I had to go to a mom and pop pc store and special order it. <br /> <br />Really sad.

[fdunn3]

It's So Fast You Can't Even Find One! <br />And <br />It can slice a tomato so thin, you'll be eating it for a month!

[aqnguyen87]

I've always been an amd/ati supporter, though long they've been considered the underdog to intel/nvidia, you can't ignore them with their combination of economical pricing and performance... keep it up!!!