AMD launches Radeon HD 5850 and 5870

Finally, AMD is playing the DirectX 11 card with these two GPUs, just in time for the Windows 7 launch.

Despite the anemic-looking list of DX11 titles, things are bound to improve over the coming months, just as happened with all DX incarnations before this. The difference here is platform adoption. While users seemed less than willing to take on Vista and its DX10, Windows users seem to be begging to move to Windows 7 due to Microsoft's promises of enhanced performance.

Physically speaking, both cards are huge and have a lengthwise shroud with BMW-like air intakes on one end and exhausts on the dual-slot bracket. This has always made sense, as it takes the hot air out of the case instead of dumping it inside.

If you think about it, these GPUs are mostly brute force, just like what Nvidia did with the GT200 chip, only the economics of this are better since you can fit a lot more RV870 dies on a wafer using a 40nm process. You don't see a linear performance increase over the previous generation, but from AMD's numbers we won't be surprised if a HD 5890 SKU comes along soon with a 1GHz or higher GPU. The power features are also extremely welcome. We can recall the initial power issues with the HD 4850 and HD 4870 when those cards came about.

These cards are set to replace the aging ATI 4850 and 4870 cards on the market and will start shipping at $US299 and $US399, respectively.

In the best-case scenario possible, we'd have both AMD and Nvidia releasing new graphics cards on the same day - or week, really - with reviewers being able to pit them against each other directly. As things stand, it seems that ATI has retaken the graphics performance crown away from Nvidia.

So, to recap. Single die, twice the raw horsepower, DX11 feature set, drives 3x2560x1600 displays, lower power consumption at idle - hopefully with better thermals than the reference 4850 and 4870 - and a price premium to cause some upset to the competition. Oh, and the timing is just about right, too.

With no news from the Nvidia camp and AMD's dual-GPU Hemlock likely out by Christmas, definitely poisoning the season for the green goblin, AMD/ATI shouldn't have much trouble mopping up in Q4.

Oh, and that famous 6x4 Quadfire setup from the NDA'd presentation you saw elsewhere... that's a special card that'll be launched shortly, or at least in due time, we guess.