SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity

Pros: I got my 5870 today and installed it in my system. Before I did that, I ran 3DMark 06, and Vantage while my 4870 X2 was installed. Here are the numbers I got when I tested the 5870, and then compared the results to my earlier 4870 X2 results. In 3DMark 06 the 4870 X2 scored 23,379 Points and the 5870 scored 23,127 Points. The separation between the two cards was 1%. In Vantage, my 4870 X2 scored 17,190 points, while my 5870 scored 17,161 points. The difference here is 0.1%. All in all, the cards pretty much ran Identical. Thats great considering the 5870 has a single GPU. I also noted temperature and fan speed differences at idle. The 4870 X2 at idle was 68 degrees Celsius with a fan speed of 27%. The 5870 was 43 degrees Celsius with a fan speed of 21%. The 5870 is significantly cooler, and quieter. All cards were tested at there default clock speeds.

Cons: None... Great card

Overall Review: My system... Asus P6T6 Revolution mainboard, Intel i7 940 overclocked to 3.65Ghz, Corsair 1600 Mhz DDR3 Dominator Ram, Corsair 750 Watt Power supply, and of course the Radeon HD 5870. Since these cards ran so close in speed, could I be Processor Limited?? Not sure. I do know the higher I overclock the processor, the better the frame rates in these tests.

Pros: So far its just insane, you WILL not beat it for the money. The 295 can out run it on some games and not on others but it stays pretty close considering its a single gpu card and a lot cheaper, you can crossfire these for not much more than a 295 and absolutely smoke any game you want to play. This card runs fairly cool, of course I have case ventilation. There is not much in the way of utilities and the drivers are still a little rough, but so far I have not had a single issue with this card and really do not expect any. 2 thumbs up ATI for making a top notch card people can afford.

Cons: I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this card. The drivers will get better - they are not bad now. The price is as high as its going to get which is just great in the bang for the buck rating. When the drivers fully mature this will be the best video card for the money made.

Overall Review: I read a few reviewers that said the new 300 series are just going to blow this away, the 295 is a DUAL GPU card that can't beat it all the time and costs 50% more, on top of that its just a dumb thing to say, if you want to buy Nvidia then buy Nvidia just quit trashing stuff because its not the brand YOU want, it just wastes the time of people who are seriously trying to figure out what they want to buy. When the 300 series cards are released they will probably cost more than the 295 and still not be fast enough to justify the price difference. If they are cheaper then they will have just managed to again anger a lot of their customers over their pricing. They are both good cards, but I think I will stick with ATI, they seem a little more concerned with quality vs price than the competition.

Pros: 0. Better in every way (except benchmarking) than my GTX280's in Tri-SLI. 1. Performance is very consistent across games, with no odd hitching/stuttering. 2. Reasonable price for what you're getting: My 8800GTX back in '06 was $600. 3. Cool/quiet 4. Crossfire scales very well 5. Effortless performance - everything just works.

Cons: 0. ASUS version can alter voltage-> 30+% faster. 1. Very limited supply, so I can't Crossfire yet. 2. Need to download beta Catalyst 9.10 drivers (9.9 won't work) 3. Very long - needs a full tower probably. 4. Not much overclocking headroom (see 0.)

Overall Review: I went from a GTX280 Tri-SLI system which produced great numbers, but was nearly useless in actual gaming. This card provides smooth, worry-free performance and runs cool/quiet. This card is a future classic, like my 8800GTX back in 2006, which is *still* a very good card: very quiet and performs well after over 3 years. ATI, welcome back to the Game.

Pros: Super fast, spent all night maxing out games that I played on medium with my 3870. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky runs smooth as butter. Can't wait to try Dirt 2.

Cons: HUGE, I had to do a lot of rearranging to get this to fit. Its the size of a schnauzer. Search AMD.com for the latest graphics driver, don't worry about the CD.

Overall Review: If you have a 4xxx series, or a gtx 2xx series, you might want to hold off until this card drops in price or a better version comes out. As for me I was a couple generations behind and this card blow me away.

Pros: EXTREMELY fast. It has been shown to be nearly as fast as a GTX 295, and even faster in some games, and it totally crushes NVIDIA's "fastest single gpu card ever", the GTX 285. Comes with two games, drivers, crossfire bridge, and instructions. Crossfire'd, these things make the fastest graphics system on the planet. DX11 capable, future proof, runs relatively cool and consumes relatively low amounts of power for its weight class. This thing really is a GTX 295 competator. Price/Performance wise you cant go wrong with this, $100 less than a 295 and almost the same performance. True, 2x4890 beats it out but if you choose a 5870 you get DX11, not to mention much better power consumption and temps, and you can always add another 5870 in and get a truly brutish gaming computer.

Cons: There was initially some strange compatibility issue between this and my EVGA X58 Motherboard, I *think* it was stuck in low performance 2D mode, but anyway I fixed this by updating my Mobo bios and resetting all the preferences to default. After I did this I was able to reapply my overclock and everything was OK, so it appears those with EVGA X58 mobos may want to clear defaults and update bios after installation of this card, although this issue could be specific to my card.

Overall Review: ATI is really taking the crown away from NVIDIA, and the 5870 is a fantastic buy. Can't really go wrong with this one. 5 very well deserved eggs.

Pros: single gpu, intense amount of shader power,very low power usage. i have 2 of these in my i7 920 rig. they replaced 2 gtx 295's. its a night a day difference.Min frame rates are so much better. no micro stutter problems.i was unable to beat my previous vantage scores but everyother synthetic takes a win to these guys.I also had 2 4870x2's at one point . I did not enjoy those cards. Massive driver problems and just seemed to be "unstable" best bang for the buck out there in my opinion. I decided to whip out crysis warhead and I can actually play it @1920 enthuisast with 4X AA with out crazy frame drops every time you turn around quickly. the 295's showed better fps with fraps but had constant drops and lots of flickering in the distance. 2 gpu's is always better than for(right now) when it comes to "gaming". first time in a long itme Ive been happy with the next gen.

Cons: 5870x2-gt300 card is long for a mid tower.but i wouldnt let a box influence your purchase.

Pros: fantastic card, double the power of my 4890 with the same power consumption, overvoltable.

Cons: not taking an egg off because the thing is like a day old, but the drivers could be better. also their new antialiasing thing, while looking a lot better than the old one, actually significantly drops the framerates. but I assume thats because of the drivers being so new. Also, ugliest logo ever.

Overall Review: will not fit in a stock (dell/gateway) case, at all. I had to move a hard drive in my antec 900

Pros: I just bought this video card over a week ago. I mainly bought it for the recent reviews and specs, and the fact my recent card died. Everything is working great so far with no problems. I'm at least doubling my fps from my previous card, 8800GTX. Resolution = 1920 x 1080.

Cons: Nothing negative so far.

Overall Review: Ex. RE5 ran at 55 fps on avg w/my old card on very high w/o vsync. Now i'm running on avg at 124 fps. I'm very pleased with this product so far.