Radeon HD 5670 20pc faster than GT 240

AMD this morning added its first DirectX 11- and OpenGL 3.2-capable desktop graphics card below the $100 mark. The ATI Radeon HD 5670 sits just above the 4670 and primarily improves on its predecessor's performance by including more stream (visual) processors at 400 versus 320. Besides the enhanced graphics, it's also the least expensive card to support Eyefinity and can drive three displays at once, including merging them into one large virtual screen.

While the 5670 has fewer texture units, 20 versus 32, it runs at a higher 775MHz clock speed and uses much faster GDDR5 memory that pumps data at an equivalent 4GHz data rate.

In practice, the card is estimated to be significantly faster than the GeForce GT 240 it's likely to go up against. AMD expects to beat the NVIDIA hardware by about 20 percent in benchmarks, though actual tests sometimes show a narrower lead.

Boards should be available almost immediately for Windows PCs through various manufacturers and carry an official price of $99 for a typical Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB of video memory; 1GB models should sit at about $119. It should also find its way into pre-built computers as companies like Apple and Dell use the 4670 in existing desktops.

By Electronista Staff