ATI Radeon HD5670 Video Card Review

Oops, I did it again. Not me, but ATI. They've gone and cut their latest 40nm GPU in half again, given it a new name, and released a brand new video card that smacks the competition around. The original, full-size die was Cypress, cut it in half and you get Juniper, cut it in half again and you get Redwood. Just four months after the release of their first 5xxx series video card (and two million unit sales later...), ATI is releasing the sixth iteration of DX11-capable hardware. The Radeon HD5670 is targeted at the mainstream gaming audience, which in terms of units (not dollars) is two thirds of the total available market.

With the Radeon HD5670, ATI brings us another card based on class-leading 40nm GPUs and GDDR5 memory. The new card uses the exact same architecture as the HD58xx and HD57xx series; ATI basically cut the Juniper chip in half to create a brand new video card with hardware specs somewhere below the HD5750. How far below is what we need to find out and Benchmark Reviews is pleased to offer you the results of our extensive testing. One of the big differentiators for this card is the lack of any external power connection. The maximum power draw is well below the allowable current provided directly by the PCI-e slot.

The flagship ATI video cards made a huge splash in September, but according to Mercury Research, cards costing over $200 only make up 7% of the market, and the 57xx series landed in the $100-$200 range, which makes up 27% of the market. That leaves a huge opening in the sub-$100 market, and ATI is the first one to offer a DirectX 11 capable card in this segment. The specs indicate a performance level that will struggle with FPS games at high resolution, but will have no problem supporting the millions of people playing World of Warcraft.

About the company: ATI

Over the course of AMD's four decades in business, silicon and software have become the steel and plastic of the worldwide digital economy. Technology companies have become global pacesetters, making technical advances at a prodigious rate - always driving the industry to deliver more and more, faster and faster.

However, "technology for technology's sake" is not the way we do business at AMD. Our history is marked by a commitment to innovation that's truly useful for customers - putting the real needs of people ahead of technical one-upmanship. AMD founder Jerry Sanders has always maintained that "customers should come first, at every stage of a company's activities." We believe our company history bears that out.

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