Radeon HD 5870 1GB ATI Video Card XFX Unboxing Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2010-05-08
·
728 words · ~3 min read
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So today on my video blog unboxing, we have the XFX Radeon 5870. So this is the
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new well the DirectX11 card on the market right now. So that means if you
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want to run DirectX11 titles, which are coming out on Windows 7, you will need a
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5870. And the 5850 is actually coming shortly. So as I said before, this is an
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XFX card. So, even though it's using the reference cooler like all of the 5870s
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at launch, you do get the benefit of XFX's five-star support, which means
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you've got a double lifetime modder friendly warranty. And I'm pretty sure
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there are other benefits, too. But, uh, this is an unboxing, so we'll go with
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the unboxing aspect of it. Okay. I love this. I've seen this before with XFX's
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cards. It's a door hanger. Do not disturb. I'm gaming. Awesome. It also
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has a convenient little thing which has your part number and your serial number.
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So, if you ever need to call XFX support, you've got all the info you
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need right there. Here's your quick installation guide showing you how to
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install the card in your system. Then you have a full installation guide which
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shows you how to install the drivers. So, they're instructing you to use the
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XFX included CD, but by the time these cards are actually out there, you're
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going to want to download the latest drivers on ati.com. So, here's your
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driver installation CD. And then we have, oh, congratulations on your
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purchase of a new hi Radeon graphics card. And you get a copy of Dirt 2,
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which is included, as far as I know, with all 5870 graphics cards. So, let's
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see. Let's do the accessory package here first. Okay. In here, we have a
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Crossfire bridge, uh, two Molex to PCI Express 6 pin
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adapters, and one DVI to VGA adapter.
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Now, that brings us to the card itself,
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which you can see is incredibly well packed in here with all this foam.
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That's awesome to see. Okay, here we go.
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This is the XFX Radeon
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HD5870. Now, here, let's just start at the back of the card and move our way to
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the front. So, we've got DisplayPort, which is an open standard, a lot like
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HDMI, except with HDMI, which we also have, you got to pay a royalty. Now,
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like all HD series cards for the last couple generations, you do get audio out
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via HDMI. So, that's really cool. Then, you've got dual DVI as well as those
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other display standards. So, you can actually run up to three monitors off of
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this card. Now, here you've got your vents. So, let's uh go around. We'll
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have a look at the sticker design because the sticker design is going to be the major difference between all of
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the launch cards. So, you can see the fan here sucks air in from the back and
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from the top of the card and then exhausts it out that little tiny vent.
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Now, that is a bit of a limitation of the design, but there's not much we can do about it. This has been kind of
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compared to the Batmobile in uh in shape here and I think that's definitely an
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accurate comparison. It's pretty cool looking from the front up on the top.
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Let's get to the uh the nononsense features here. So, we've got two PCI
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Express six pin connectors. This is a very power efficient card, so there's no
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need to go crazy and put on a bunch of 8 pin sort of connectors. When it's
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installed in your case, it's going to look a little bit something like this. You got your ATI Radeon graphics logo
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thing here. And then on the back, we've seen this before with the launch
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versions of the GTX 260 and 280. We've got a full heat sink on the back cooling
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the RAM in addition to your back plate. So, I really like to see that, too. This
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is a PCI Express 16x card. And I think
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that pretty much sums up the Radeon HD5870.