ATI Unveils First Directx 11 Graphics Card

The ATI Radeon 5000 series, based on the 40nm Cypress chip, launched today, after weeks of leaks, and more or less lives up to the advance, at least spec-wise. The top of the line 5870 contains a phenomenal 2.15 Billion transistors and boasts a pixel fill-rate of 27.2 Gpixels/secondm, making it the fastest single GPU available. True, when compared to Nvidia's GTX 295 it may be not quite as fast, but that is a dual processor card, demanding significantly more power; 750 watts versus the 500 watts the single GPU 5870 will draw.

With DirectX 11 and the required Windows 7 still months away from release, not to mention any DirectX capable games, these cards need to be backwards compatible with Directx 10 and 9, and indeed they are. Current pricing of the 5870 is 380$. The lower-priced 5850 is also available now, and both feature 1GB of GDDR5 memory on board and multi-display capability powered by ATIs Eyefinity technology. For reviews on the new card, check out Tweaktowns post and also Overclock3D, among others.