Can a graphics chip to be too powerful? We've been pondering that puzzle ever since AMD launched the Radeon HD 5870. The key metric here is die size which is a factor of the number and size of transistors in any given chip. For the 5870, AMD more than doubled the transistor count compared with the previous generation. So, despite a shrink from 55nm to 40nm transistors, it's a much larger and more expensive chip. The result was a launch price over £300. That's fully £100 more than the 4870's launch sticker.



Link: TechRadar