Radeon HD 5870 GPU Features

The feature set of the ATI HD5870 hasn't changed since its introduction, and is basically common across the entire HD58xx series of cards. The major differences between any two cards in the series are in the number of processing units at various places in the architecture, and the memory interface. For those who perused the mountain of details that accompanied the 5800 series launch, this graphic should look somewhat familiar. This time, there is a full working complement of shaders, ROPs, and texture units; the full power of the ATI Cypress-class chip is available for graphics processing.

All ATI Radeon HD 5xxx Series graphics cards come with ATI Eyefinity Technology, which can instantly triple your visual real estate, up to three displays for the ultimate in innovative "wrap around" capabilities, all with crisp, sharp picture quality. ATI Eyefinity technology engages your peripheral vision and puts you right in the game. At the office, you can multi-task without needing to flip between windows. Ideal for multi-media applications, keep as many palettes or panels open as you would like, while you edit images or videos.

ATI Stream Technology unleashes the massive parallel processing power of your GPU to help speed up demanding every-day applications. Experience fast video encoding and transcoding, so that video playback, editing and transferring content to your iPod or other portable media players is quick and easy.

As the first fully Microsoft DirectX 11-compatible GPUs, the ATI Radeon HD 58xx Series delivers unrivaled visual quality and intense gaming performance. Enjoy in-your-face 3D visual effects and dynamic interactivity, with features like HDR Texture Compression, DirectCompute 11 and Tessellation.

The 58xx Series is further supersized with GDDR5 memory, 1.8X of graphics performance boost with ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode, and unparalleled anti-aliasing and enhanced anisotropic filtering for slick graphics and supreme realism.

ATI Radeon HD 5870 GPU Feature Summary

• 2.15 billion 40nm transistors
• TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
  • 1600 Stream Processing Units
  • 80 Texture Units
  • 128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
  • 32 Color ROP Units
• 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface
• PCI Express 2.1 x16 bus interface
• DirectX 11 support
  • Shader Model 5.0
  • DirectCompute 11
  • Programmable hardware tessellation unit
  • Accelerated multi-threading
  • HDR texture compression
  • Order-independent transparency
• OpenGL 3.2 support₁
• Image quality enhancement technology
  • Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
  • Adaptive anti-aliasing
  • 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
  • 128-bit floating point HDR rendering
• ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology_2,3
  • Three independent display controllers - Drive three displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays
  • Display grouping - Combine multiple displays to behave like a single large display
• ATI Stream acceleration technology
  • OpenCL 1.0 compliant
  • DirectCompute11
  • Accelerated video encoding, transcoding, and upscaling_4,5
  • Native support for common video encoding instructions
• ATI CrossFireX^TM multi-GPU technology₆
  • Dual GPU scaling
• ATI Avivo HD Video & Display technology₇
  • UVD 2 dedicated video playback accelerator
  • Advanced post-processing and scaling₈
  • Dynamic contrast enhancement and color correction
  • Brighter whites processing (blue stretch)
  • Independent video gamma control
  • Dynamic video range control
  • Support for H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-2
  • Dual-stream 1080p playback support_9,10
  • DXVA 1.0 & 2.0 support
  • Integrated dual-link DVI output with HDCP₁₁
    • Max resolution: 2560x1600₁₂
  • Integrated DisplayPort output
    • Max resolution: 2560x1600₁₂
  • Integrated HDMI 1.3 output with Deep Color, xvYCC wide gamut support, and high bit-rate audio
    • Max resolution: 1920x1200₁₂
  • Integrated VGA output
    • Max resolution: 2048x1536₁₂
  • 3D stereoscopic display/glasses support₁₃
  • Integrated HD audio controller
    • Output protected high bit rate 7.1 channel surround sound over HDMI with no additional cables required
    • Supports AC-3, AAC, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats
• ATI PowerPlay^TM power management technology₇
  • Dynamic power management with low power idle state
  • Ultra-low power state support for multi-GPU configurations
• Certified drivers for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP

1. Driver support scheduled for release in 2010
2. Driver version 8.66 (Catalyst 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity technology and to enable a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector
3. ATI Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios which is required for panning across three displays
4. Requires application support for ATI Stream technology
5. Digital rights management restrictions may apply
6. ATI CrossFireX^TMtechnology requires an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard, an ATI CrossFireXTM Bridge Interconnect for each additional graphics card) and may require a specialized power supply
7. ATI PowerPlayTM, ATI Avivo^TMand ATI Stream are technology platforms that include a broad set of capabilities offered by certain ATI Radeon^TMHD GPUs. Not all products have all features and full enablement of some capabilities and may require complementary products
8. Upscaling subject to available monitor resolution
9. Blu-ray or HD DVD drive and HD monitor required
10. Requires Blu-ray movie disc supporting dual 1080p streams
11. Playing HDCP content requires additional HDCP ready components, including but not limited to an HDCP ready monitor, Blu-ray or HD DVD disc drive, multimedia application and computer operating system.
12. Some custom resolutions require user configuration
13. Requires 3D Stereo drivers, glasses, and display

Although most of this article will focus on gaming performance, it's important to remember that the Radeon HD5xxx series has the most extensive and effective streaming video processing technology available today. Many of the features referenced in the list above have real-world implications for seemingly simple tasks like web browsing.

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