ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Gets Official: 850MHz GPU & 2GB Of GDDR5

Wondering where on earth that ASUS 5870 EYEFINITY 6/6S/2GD5 came from?  Why, it's just the latest card build on ATI's new Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition video card platform, promising to be the first card capable of over 1bn pixels per second in real-world gaming.  Packing a full 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 is capable of 12 times 1080p Full HD resolution by squirting out six separate Mini DisplayPort signals shared – thanks to ATI Eyefinity technology – over six separate panels.

Core GPU speed is 850MHz, and it has 1600 Stream Processing Units, 80 Texture Units, 128 Z/Stencil ROP Units and 32 Color ROP Units.  Meanwhile the memory clock is 1.2GHz and is capable of 153.6 GB/sec bandwidth.  Altogether it's good for 2.72 TeraFLOPS of processing power, 850M polygons/sec and 68 Gigatexels/sec.  There's also 3D glasses support and an integrated 7.1 surround sound controller.

As well as the card itself, in the box there are two mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapters, two passive mini DisplayPort to DVI dongles, and one passive mini DisplayPort to HDMI dongle, just in case you don't have enough native DisplayPort-toting monitors.  There's also ATI CrossFireX compliance, so you can pair two of the cards for around 1.8x the performance.  No word on pricing as yet, but we should see cards using the GPU arriving from today.

Press Release:

AMD Expands DirectX® 11 Gaming up to 12 Times HD Resolution with ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition Graphics

Panoramic computing experience now available with ATI Eyefinity technology across six displays using a single card for the ultimate in entertainment and productivity

SUNNYVALE, Calif. —3/31/2010

Harnessing the world's most powerful graphics processor, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced the ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card. Equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 is the first graphics card capable of rendering in excess of 1 billion pixels per second in today's titles, unleashing PC game environments of unprecedented size and resolution.1 Enthusiast gamers now have access to a seamless, stunning perspective across six displays, enabling up to 12 times more resolution than 1080p HD.2,3

"The ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card opens the door to a new era in personal computing," said Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics Division. "With the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition, PC users get the ultimate panoramic computing experience in one powerful card. By bridging the innovation in ATI Eyefinity technology with broad ecosystem support, AMD is revolutionizing the PC visual experience."

Before today, PC enthusiasts needed two or even three graphics cards to simultaneously drive six independent computer monitors at and beyond 1080p HD resolutions. The ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition delivers that capability in one graphics card, reducing the cost of ownership for a six-screen display while streamlining the ease with which gamers and productivity experts can set up hundreds of possible multi-monitor configurations.

Users can also benefit from a well-developed ecosystem around ATI Eyefinity technology, including broad support by the game development community. Updates in the latest ATI Catalyst™ graphics driver software continue to improve the ATI Eyefinity experience by periodically enabling new features, while a partner program exists to help assist users in identifying ATI Eyefinity-validated components to use in their set-ups.

Features of the new ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition include:

2GB of GDDR5 memory to enable high frame rates and image quality settings in the latest DirectX® 11 games in three- and six-display gaming setups.

Full display flexibility right out of the box, with the inclusion of five adaptors4: two mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapters, two passive mini DisplayPort to DVI dongles, and one passive mini DisplayPort to HDMI dongle.

Support for 3x2 display configuration with new configurations supported in upcoming ATI Catalyst™ software updates.

Broad support for software developers worldwide including Bioware, Codemasters, EA, and Turbine who have adopted ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology in the latest DirectX® 11 games such as DiRT™ 2 from Codemasters and Battlefield Bad Company 2 from EA DICE.

The ability to use ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU technology in conjunction with ATI Eyefinity multi-display capabilities as released in ATI Catalyst™ graphics drivers version 10.2, enabling increased gaming performance when driving high-resolution ATI Eyefinity display groups.

ATI Eyefinity technology enhancements were made available in ATI Catalyst™ graphics update version 10.3, including bezel compensation, which helps simulate a more integrated display surface by adjusting for display bezels.5

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

1. In tests AMD achieved an average 80.6 FPS in the game "Left4Dead 2" using a six screen configuration with one ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition card, 80.6 x (1920 x 1080 x 6) = 1.002 billion pixels per second

2. Full HD resolution is considered 1080p (1920x1080 = ~2.1 megapixels). One ATI Radeon graphics card with ATI Eyefinity technology supports up to 2560x1600x6 = ~24.6 megapixels for 12 x full HD resolution.

3. ATI Eyefinity technology can support up to 6 displays using a single enabled ATI Radeon™ graphics card with Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems – the number of displays may vary by board design and you should confirm exact specifications with the applicable manufacturer before purchase. ATI Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for spanning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors, and/or certified DisplayPort™ adapters to convert your monitor's native input to your cards DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s), are required.

4. Boards initially released to market will be manufactured by AMD and will include the five adapters/dongles as listed above. Future variants designed by AMD Add-in-Board partners may ship with different numbers and/or types of dongles/adaptors. Please confirm the exact dongles/adapters included with such partner boards prior to purchase.

5. To enable bezel compensation, the pixel densities of all monitors in the display group must be within a 5% tolerance of each other.