To Quote -- pulled together from a couple articles:

"...The [HD5870] final spec includes a 256-bit memory interface, 32Mx 32 GDDR5 chips, dual-slot cooler, 850MHz core, 1600 Shader units and 1200MHz memory speed.

Let us not forget that the card comes with Crossfire bridge connector and at least DVI to VGA adapter and Dirt 2 game coupon..

The [HD5850] card has dual slot cooler and just as HD5870 needs two PCIe power plugs to get enough juice. It works at 725MHz core and 1000MHz GDDR5 memory. The chips are the same as on the Radeon HD 5870, 32Mx32 and the memory bus is 256-bit. This part of the spec didn’t change from 4870, RV770 times.

The [HD5850] card will usually come with Dirt 2 coupon, DVI to VGA adapter..

The launch is tomorrow."

They are guessing $399 and $299 as the price points.

Interesting that ATI can stay with the 256bit memory interface, while Nvidia runs at 512. GDDR5 maybe?

399$ would be a killing move for Nvidia, still selling the GTX285 for about the same price.

I really picked the wrong time to aim for a new build, didn't I?

Yes, the GDDR5 is basically twice as fast so makes up for the interface width.

AMD tried 512 with the HD28xx. It made the chip too big, too hot, too expensive. So, they went GDDR5.

Maybe this is a good time for a new build, because a lot of new stuff is hitting -- and you can complete your build with a totally up to date, new generation system. Thus, it should "last longer" and be more "satisfying". I think maybe last month would have been a bad time.

I cannot justify buying now. My current system plays all my games visibly smoothly. So, nothing I could buy would make things "look" better. I have to wait for a new blockbuster game I want to play to need a faster system. Nuts -- I like to upgrade

Hmmmmm, I think I'll build a multimedia PC for use with our HDTV. I could use my old gaming parts and buy new for my gaming system. Yes, that's a good idea -- I'll seriously consider it

LOL. You like to upgrade? I think it's a nightmare. But Arma2 and some of my flightsims are charting the limits of my CPU quite clearly, and there are some visual FX I want to enable which I can't.

I like to upgrade IF I have the money...but right now I'm going to have to sit on the sidelines and just wait All this talk is making me antsy!!!

The HD5870 is listed for sale at Newegg for $379.99. However, they seem to be sold out already.

more reviews

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=16315

How did I miss this multi-monitor capability?

Wow Six!

I must still be lost in space.

I'm going to wait it out for a bit for third parties to come up with better cooling solutions.

My lil 4830 does just fine with my 20' monitor

Nice little comparison of HD5870, GTX285 and HD4890, picked from the SimHQ Arma boards (not my own discovery).

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/09/22/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5870_video_card_review/13

5850 reviews...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5850,2433.html

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3650

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17652

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/09/30/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_review

The competing Nvidia GTX300 was announced today. So far, no live technical demo or release date.

The GTX300 architecture is "brand new" for Nvidia. Initial press is that it is aimed at GPU computing. For example, many can be combined to make a supercomputer. This was foreseen by some pundits. The question is -- does optimizing in that direction (more circuits for general computing) detract from the performance/price of game graphics (i.e. gamers pay for circuits they may not use).

All in all, it sounds good and very expensive -- being roughly 50 percent bigger than the HD5870 die. Its planned to be a definite challenge to multi-core conventional CPUs. Nvidia thinks a "cheap" CPU combined with one of their cards will make a better overall computer for games and serious engineering/science/economics calculations.

Now, bring on the performance numbers.

Competition is good

Looks like it won't be out in any volumes before next year though.

On the topic of computing - it would be nice if certain games with single core architecture (like Thirdwire sims, BoBII) could implement the PhysX API to take advantage of unused GPU power. Right now these titles (and others) are still CPU bound in framerate while the GFX card is bored to death with the little amount of work it does. In fact even for Arma2 - a very new game and with highly detailed GFX - the CPU is often the bottleneck.

Now wouldn't it be great if Nvidia came up with an universal API that allowed the Windows OS (so all games automatically can take advantage) to tap into the power of unused GFX cycles for speeding up CPU-bound games? Basically a kind of "load balancing" which would ensure that no matter if a title is GFX or CPU limited, it gets best mileage.

That could work. Thing is, Nvidia looks to be going proprietary. For example, if you have an ATI GPU, you cannot use an Nvidia GPU next to it for Physx. I might have bought an Nvidia card for Physx support -- now it makes no sense. I'm making a separate post to highlight this development.

Ouch!

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-fakes-fermi-boards-gtc/