ATI’s forthcoming dual-GPU graphics card, codenamed Hemlock, has been pictured in the labs of AlienBabelTech.com, which we were pointed to by the good folks at Engadget. The first surprise is that the site calls the card an ATI Radeon HD 5970, rather than a HD 5870X2. While the latter would be consistent with previous generation Radeons, the newer name makes more sense to us, as it’s clearer to the uneducated that a HD 5970 is superior to a HD 5870.
The pictured card definitely has two GPUs, as the cut-outs in the rear of the cooler show the two mounting points quite clearly. With the Radeon HD 5870 measuring an unwieldy 11in in length, it’s no surprise that this card measures an incredible 12.5in long – and it only just fits in AlienBabelTech’s Antec Twelve Hundred case. The length is a consequence of ATI using only one PCB in the HD 5970, rather than sandwiching two circuit boards together, as in some previous dual-GPU Nvidia cards.
AlienBabelTech’s source - the mysterious ‘DJ’ - says that ATI ‘is pretty confident that they will win this round of the GPU war with Nvidia’s Fermi architecture’ and that ‘ATI has something special up their sleeve, but are waiting for Nvidia to release their DX11 cards first’. DJ is clearly not a journalist then, as we all know that companies are singular.
Click to enlarge
It seems that AlienBabelTech posted performance numbers for the HD 5970, but were forced to take these down by AMD/ATI. The site was allowed to keep its preview images online. ATI was also kind enough to inform AlienBabelTech that the card it has was an engineering sample, and that ‘the board, the drivers, and the [v]BIOS are not finished… according to AMD, the leaked pictures are not the final card.’
Let us know what you think of the new card (and whether you think it’ll shrink at all) in the forums.
And now you can read our full review of the Radeon HD 5970
The pictured card definitely has two GPUs, as the cut-outs in the rear of the cooler show the two mounting points quite clearly. With the Radeon HD 5870 measuring an unwieldy 11in in length, it’s no surprise that this card measures an incredible 12.5in long – and it only just fits in AlienBabelTech’s Antec Twelve Hundred case. The length is a consequence of ATI using only one PCB in the HD 5970, rather than sandwiching two circuit boards together, as in some previous dual-GPU Nvidia cards.
AlienBabelTech’s source - the mysterious ‘DJ’ - says that ATI ‘is pretty confident that they will win this round of the GPU war with Nvidia’s Fermi architecture’ and that ‘ATI has something special up their sleeve, but are waiting for Nvidia to release their DX11 cards first’. DJ is clearly not a journalist then, as we all know that companies are singular.
Click to enlarge
It seems that AlienBabelTech posted performance numbers for the HD 5970, but were forced to take these down by AMD/ATI. The site was allowed to keep its preview images online. ATI was also kind enough to inform AlienBabelTech that the card it has was an engineering sample, and that ‘the board, the drivers, and the [v]BIOS are not finished… according to AMD, the leaked pictures are not the final card.’
Let us know what you think of the new card (and whether you think it’ll shrink at all) in the forums.
And now you can read our full review of the Radeon HD 5970
RELATED ARTICLES
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review
October 14 2021 | 15:04
Want to comment? Please log in.