ASUS EAH5870/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Review

The market for Radeon HD 5870 video cards has matured since the launch of this top-tier GPU in September of 2009. In that time, the graphics card world has not stood still, and now that Fermi has finally launched, the title of fastest GPU belongs to the GTX480. Development has continued on both the hardware side and the software side of the ATI family, and the ASUS EAH5870/2DIS/1GD5/V2is one of several new 58xx series cards released by ATI AIB partners in the last few months that follow a decidedly different design pattern. The complexity of the 5870 reference design has given way to a more focused approach that strips away the bells and whistles in favor of mastering the core competencies of modern graphics hardware. A robust power supply, an efficient cooling package, and a simpler system for voltage control; all add up to a bigger bang for the buck, higher reliability and more headroom for overclocking. Several vendors have been trying to find the right recipe for maximizing the value proposition of the Radeon HD5870, and this time Benchmark Reviews is going to look closely at the second generation Voltage Tweak model from ASUS.

Driver updates have been a constant source of improvement and anguish lately, nothing unusual there. ATI has had the DirectX 11 market to themselves for ten months, and their driver package is pretty stable. Too stable, some say, as they wait in vain for the "magic" driver that will unlock the hidden potential behind the HD 5xxx series of GPUs. Sorry folks, it's unlikely to happen. Really; the performance of the Radeon HD5000 series is right where you would expect it to be, based on the number of stream processors, ROPs, memory bandwidth, and ATI's chosen architecture. It's only natural that they've targeted the last several releases at working a few kinks out of some of the more important features. At this point, there's more potential gain in overclocking your card, and ASUS has provided SmartDoctor monitoring and control software to assist with that. With software voltage control, it's easy to explore the outer limits of the HD 5870 and gain 10-15% improvements in gaming performance.

Benchmark Reviews has tested a couple of second-generation cards Radeon HD 5870 video cards lately, in addition to the first round of reference models, so the performance and features of the GPU itself are hardly news. With these second generation products, it's more a question of how each vendor chooses to optimize the card and where they price it. Over twenty HD5870 cards are currently available at Newegg with the basic 1GB of memory, at prices of $389 - $499, so there's a wide range to choose from. Please follow along as we give you a detailed look at one of the latest high-end Radeon models from industry leader, ASUS.

About the company: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

ASUS comes from the last four letters of Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology that represents the inspiration of art and learning. ASUS embodies the strength, creative spirit and purity symbolized by this regal and agile mythical creature, soaring to new heights of quality and innovation with each product it introduces to the market.

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era, with an extensive product portfolio that includes notebooks, netbooks, motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, desktop PCs, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones and networking devices. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today's digital home, office and person. ASUS won 3,056 awards in 2008, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC. With a global staff of more than ten thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company's revenue for 2008 was 8.1 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among BusinessWeek's InfoTech 100, and has been on the listing for 12 consecutive years.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc., also known as ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world's top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. As a leading provider of 3C (computers, communications and consumer electronics) total solutions, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to compete in the new millennium.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 100,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services.

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