AMD debuts ATI Radeon HD 5800 series

AMD officially released the ATI Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 5870, the first two graphics cards with DirectX 11 support. The Radeon HD 5800 series features 2.15 billion transistors on a 40nm chip and offers up to 2.72 teraFLOPS of computing power.

The ATI Radeon HD 5870 features 1600 stream processors, a 850MHz core, 2.72 teraFLOPS single precision processing power, 544 gigaFLOPS double precision processing power, 1GB GDDR5 clocked at 1.2GHz and a TDP of 188W.

The Radeon HD 5850 on the other hand has 1440 stream processors, a 725MHz core, 2.09 teraFLOPS of single-precision computing power, 418 gigaFLOPS double precision, 1GB GDDR5 clocked at 1GHz and a TDP of 151W.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the most powerful processor ever created, found in its next-generation graphics cards, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series graphics cards, and the world’s first and only to fully support Microsoft DirectX® 11, the new gaming and compute standard shipping shortly with Microsoft Windows® 7 operating system. Boasting up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series effectively doubles the value consumers can expect of their graphics purchases, delivering twice the performance-per-dollar of previous generations of graphics products. AMD will initially release two cards: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850, each with 1GB GDDR5 memory. With the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series of graphics cards, PC users can expand their computing experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, accelerate their computing experience with ATI Stream technology, and dominate the competition with superior gaming performance and full support of Microsoft DirectX® 11, making it a “must-have” consumer purchase just in time for Microsoft Windows® 7 operating system.

“With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cars driven by the most powerful processor on the planet, AMD is changing the game, both in terms of performance and the experience,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. “As the first to market with full DirectX 11 support, an unmatched experience made possible with ATI Eyefinity technology, and ATI Stream technology harnessing open standards designed to help make Windows 7 that much better, I can say with confidence that AMD is the undisputed leader in graphics once more.”

Here are some marketing videos from AMD: