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AMD Radeon HD 5970 Dual-GPU Card Sweeps Benchmarks
MojoKid writes "AMD launched yet another high-end graphics card based on their Radeon HD 5800 series technology, and this time it's a dual-GPU variant. Considering the fact that AMD's Radeon HD 5870 is currently the fastest single-GPU powered graphics card currently on the market, the new dual-GPU powered Radeon HD 5970 should offer performance that completely outclasses any other single graphics card on the market right now. The card has 3200 stream processors under the hood, though its graphics engines are built on 40nm manufacturing technology, so power consumption isn't actually too insane. The card does exceptionally well in the usual benchmarks, as expected." HotHardware has begun providing single-page views — a user-friendly decision. PCPer.com also has coverage. And pcpro.co.uk wonders whether, at 13" (33 cm) in length, the new card will even fit in most PC cases.
Well, I will say that I am glad that there is such heavy competition between nvidia and ATI; but I will also say that I do computer repair work for a living (over 15 years). I have had pretty much nothing but problems out of ATI cards over and over again. Driver errors, system lockups, etc. I have used all of the tools from both nvidia and ATI to make sure all drivers have removed from a system before putting in a new Radeon; but it is amazing that even going from one Radeon to another I get the same errors as going from an nvidia to an ATI card. ATI's technical support has always been very friendly but rarely can even help with the problem. Their normal solution: it must be a bad card so take it back and replace it. One time I did that just for shits and giggles - well I did it for 4 times until the local Best Buy said enough try something else. I put in a nvidia and it worked PERFECTLY the first time. I really wanted the Radeon to work. It was cheaper and from the benchmarks, had a little better performance than the geforce. But I wasted much money in time trying to get the thriced-damned radeon to work than I did paying $20 more for the geforce. This has happened again and again with ATI cards. I have tons of issues, get frustrated and get an nvidia card which works perfectly. So I swear off ATI. Then months down the road, the radeon gets awesome reviews and is cheaper so I 'give in' and try again. And the result - the same shit. So, I finally just said NO MORE, and told my clients to use only nvidia cards unless they are willing to pay for all of the time I have to fight with any ATI cards. What has happened? I have had no graphic card problems when installing new cards. Is this the same for everyone? NO. I have friends that do the same thing I do and most of them have had no where near the same problems with ATI cards. But for me, no more ATI Radeon cards.