The wheel has now come full circle: AMD, once content to leave the high end of the graphics processor market to Nvidia, is lording over its rival with a GPU that's not only supremely powerful, but reasonably affordable, too. Then again, affordability lies in the eye of the beholder, and you might not think that $380 for a new video card is the least bit reasonable. But it wasn't all that long ago that acquiring the unquestioned number-one card would set you back $600-and some people were buying two to achieve even faster performance and higher resolution. But the 5870 isn't just scorching fast, it's also the first-and currently only-GPU that's capable of playing games based on Microsoft's DirectX 11, the next-generation programming environment that promises to open new whole new vist-uh, well, let's just say DirectX 11 should enable game developers to build some fantastic looking new games. But you don't need to wait for those games to arrive to tap this chip's power-the good news is that it's supremely fast with the most demanding games on the market right now.



Link: DigitalTrends