AMD's Radeon HD 5870: Bringing About the Next Generation Of GPUs
by Ryan Smith on September 23, 2009 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The First DirectX 11 Games
With any launch of a new DirectX generation of hardware, software availability becomes a concern. As the hardware needs to come before the software so that developers can tailor their games’ performance, it’s just not possible to immediately launch with games ready to go. For the launch of DirectX 11 and the 5800 series, AMD gave us a list of what games to expect and when.
First out of the gate is Battleforge, EA’s card-based online-only RTS. We had initially been told that it would miss the 5870 launch, but in fact EA and AMD managed to get it in under the wire and deliver it a day early. This gives AMD the legitimate claim of having a DX11 title out there that only their new hardware can fully exploit, and from a press perspective it’s nice to have something out there we can test besides tech demos. Unfortunately we wrapped up our testing 2 days early in order to attend IDF, which means we have not yet had a chance to benchmark this title’s DX11 mode or look at it in-depth.
We did have a chance to see the title in action quickly at AMD’s press event 2 weeks ago, where AMD was using it to show off High Definition Ambient Occlusion. As far as we can tell, HDAO is the only DX11 wonder-feature that it current implements, which makes sense given that it should be the easiest to patch in.
The next big title in AMD’s stack of DX11 games is STALKER: Call of Pripyat. This game went gold in Russia earlier this week, with the English version some time behind it. Unfortunately we don’t know what DX11 features it will be using, but as STALKER games have historically been hard on computers, it should prove to be an interesting test case for DX11 performance.
DIRT 2 is a title that got a great deal of promotion at AMD’s press event. AMD has been using it to show off their 6-way Eyefinity configuration, and we had a chance to play it quickly in their testing labs when looking at Eyefinity. This should be a fuller-featured DX11 game, utilizing tessellation, better shadow filtering, and other DX11 features. Certainly it’s the closest thing AMD’s going to have for a showcase title this year for the DX11 features of their hardware, and the console version has been scoring well in reviews. The PC version is due December 11th.
Finally, AMD had Rebellion Games in house to show off an early version of Aliens vs. Predator. This was certainly the most impressive title shown, with Rebellion showing off tessellation and HDAO in real time. Unfortunately screenshots don’t really do the game justice here; the difference from using DX11 is far more noticeable in motion. At any rate, this game is the farthest out – it won’t ship until Q1 of next year at the earliest.
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ilnot1 - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
In fact, going by the lowest Newegg prices, this is how the top setups would stack up today:5870 CF .......= $760
GTX 285 SLI .= $592
GTX 295 .......= $470
GTX 275 SLI .= $420
5870 ............= $380
4890 CF ........= $360
4870 X2 ........= $330
This would make the 4890 CF or the 275 SLI setups the best value. And yes I realize there will be availability issues and price adjustments over the next month or so.
DominionSeraph - Thursday, September 24, 2009 - link
you forgot:4870 CF: $260-280
and how about the $180 4850 CF, which is probably the best price/performance for sub-1920x1200 gaming. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517...">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517... You can even get 1GB versions for ~$190.
ilnot1 - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
Another very good review, thanks.But piggy backing on what wicko said, I'm surprised you didn't include two 4890 in CF. Seeing as how you can get two 4890 for less than a 5870 (whenever they are actually available). $180 x 2 = $360 < $379. And this from Newegg, not some super special sale price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
It's something we would have included if we had the cards. I don't have 2 4890s, and we couldn't get a second one in time.AnotherGuy - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
as always anandtech roxnbjsl2000 - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
Finally time to upgrade..SiliconDoc - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
Not only all that, but when there were 13 big titles for PhysX and a hundred smaller ones, we were told here, "Meh", who needs it.Now, we have a papery and unavailable (egg)except by pre-order(tiger) 5870 launch, a not-existing 5850, with guess what ? NO DX11 games!
Oh wait, there is actually just ONE - see page 7 of review. LOL
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Conclusion ?: " It looks like NO(err.. just one) DX11 games ready, so... it also looks like NVidia is launching at the right time, and ATI blew their dry unimpressive wad on a piece of paper porn. "
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Gee no one crowing about the first DX11 card... imagine that...
Good thing , too, considering how 13 big or a hundred titles small of PhysX enhanced games was "nothing to change one's purchase decision over". At least Anand got addicted to Mirror's Edge with PhysX enabled before concluding in the article "meh" this PhysX thing is ok if you like this game, but who cares...
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Now we have the DX11 pre DX11 games launch with a paper product, so crowing about it wouldn't be too fitting, huh.
monomer - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - link
Why would a developer would release a DX11 game before DX11 is even available?SiliconDoc - Friday, September 25, 2009 - link
Why would a developer release a DX11 card before DX11 is even available ?(I suppose you'll have to unscrew your hate nvidia foil cap, and grind in the red spikes in it's place to answer that one.)
However, allow me, instead.
1.I have been running windows 7 32&64 for quite some time now, not sure why you haven't been.
2. Battleforge, an ATI promo game, as noted in the review, has released their DX11 patch, hence, with W7 from MSFT (the beta+ free trial good till March 1st 2010 or something like that) I believe any gamer has had a reasonable chance to preview DX11.
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So anyway...
cactusdog - Friday, September 25, 2009 - link
Ya , ATI has done it again. Excellent performance for a fair price. If Nvidia released this exact card it would be $150-$200 more expensive.LOL, Nvidia sales are gonna be slow for a while.