ATI Radeon HD 5850 launch date confirmed?

A little bird has told us that we won't have to wait long for the lesser HD 5800 card to arrive.

With the ATI Radeon HD 5870 ever so slightly disappointing, our attention now turns to the other HD 5000-series that are imminent. A little bird has revealed that the lesser HD 5850 will launch 'very early October' so it looks like we won't have to wait long. We should clarify that the pictures used in this article don't necessarily reflect our source, the images are merely for illustrative purposes.

Judging by the pre-order prices, the HD 5850 looks to be around £200-220 when it does finally launch, and the specs don't look so dissimilar to those of the HD 5870. The lesser GPU may 'only' 1,440 stream processors (rather than the 1,600 of the HD 5870) and operate at 725MHz rather than 850MHz, but it still connects via a 256-bit memory interface to 1GB of GDDR5 memory.

The memory of the HD 5850 runs slightly slower than that of the HD 5870, but ATI hasn't cut the ROPs from the lesser GPUm nor the range of display outputs. Peak power has been shaved from 188W of the HD 5870 to only 151W for the HD 5850 - this is due to the fewer stream processors and lower clock speeds. Both cards still require two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors though.

Here's a low-down of comparative specs and pre-order pricing:

ATI Radeon HD 5850 launch date confirmed?


Prices in the US seem to be between $299 and $259 (ex tax) depending on where you go and what brand you want.

ATI Radeon HD 5850 launch date confirmed? ATI Radeon HD 5850 launch date confirmed?
Quite a few HD 5850 cards will come with DiRT 2, click to enlarge

So, there we go - could we have a repeat of the Radeon HD 3800-series on our hands, where the lesser card of the range was actually the more desirable? At this point, a £100 saving for a few less stream processors and slightly lower clock speeds seems a good deal. Let us know your thoughts in the forums!
Quote crompers 24th September 2009, 14:05
good prices, these should come down to £150 fairly soon. excellent bang for your buck
Quote yakyb 24th September 2009, 14:09
is that a typo 4870 on table?
Quote Claave 24th September 2009, 14:11
Quote:
Originally Posted by yakyb
is that a typo 4870 on table?

lols, I'm so used to typing 4870 by now...
Quote Dosvedagna 24th September 2009, 14:12
Im really looking forward to this card...

should be pre-ordering one soon - just gotta wait for some decent benchmarks to make sure theyre the real deal
Quote l3v1ck 24th September 2009, 14:13
For the price difference, the 5850 looks to be miles better value than the 5870.
Quote docodine 24th September 2009, 14:14
5870 was disappointing? Your review gave it 9/10s for everything besides value..
Quote tejas 24th September 2009, 14:51
I call a paper launch. The 5870 cannot be bought at Ocuk, Scan or Ebuyer. All have zero stock.

People love to knock Nvidia over their poor paper launches but it looks like ATI want to get in on the act. Shameless....
Quote mclean007 24th September 2009, 14:52
Good stuff, bring it on. The sooner it launches, the sooner we'll see price drops and (hopefully) a 5770.
Quote mi1ez 24th September 2009, 15:12
Let's see some benchmark's before we make any conclusions...
Quote javaman 24th September 2009, 15:31
Typo on first line of the third paragraph "The memory of the HD 5850 runs slightly slower than that of the HD 5850"
Quote H2O 24th September 2009, 15:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by tejas
I call a paper launch. The 5870 cannot be bought at Ocuk, Scan or Ebuyer. All have zero stock.

People love to knock Nvidia over their poor paper launches but it looks like ATI want to get in on the act. Shameless....

They might have had some stock. Newegg had very limited stock in the US (it sold out within 5 minutes of launch), and ETA for the new stock is 9/28 or 9/29.
Quote rodrigobiz 24th September 2009, 16:36
I read that the 5850 card overclocked via ASUS software its almost the same as a stock 5870, and a 5870 don't overclock as much as the 5850.

I think that the difference in price is to much for a small performance diference.
CrossfireX of dual overclocked 5850 is the way!
Quote Denis_iii 24th September 2009, 17:00
third paragraph
"The memory of the HD 5850 runs slightly slower than that of the HD 5850"
5850 looks sweet, much better bang for the buck
"With the ATI Radeon HD 5870 ever so slightly disappointing"
aside from the price and noise I'm not disappointed, but price will come down and noise can be bettered by changed fan settings
crompers"good prices, these should come down to £150 fairly soon. excellent bang for your buck"
I think the 5850 will likely increase in price due to demand like occured with the 4850 I believe, though that may of been the currency

I've got this unfounded feeling that if it was an nvidia card it would have been better received though probably just to much caffeine this week
Can't wait to see what nvidia comes back with, i'm thinking 4billion transister 40Nm monster huge power hungry gpu
Quote Horizon 24th September 2009, 17:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by H2O
Quote:
Originally Posted by tejas
I call a paper launch. The 5870 cannot be bought at Ocuk, Scan or Ebuyer. All have zero stock.

People love to knock Nvidia over their poor paper launches but it looks like ATI want to get in on the act. Shameless....

They might have had some stock. Newegg had very limited stock in the US (it sold out within 5 minutes of launch), and ETA for the new stock is 9/28 or 9/29.

actually everytime i went to newegg they had stock, even as late as 7PM (-5 GMT) xfx was the last brand to sell out.
Quote Claave 24th September 2009, 18:49
Quote:
Originally Posted by docodine
5870 was disappointing? Your review gave it 9/10s for everything besides value..

Yeah, but it's only as fast as the fastest current generation cards and for the same price as those cards. Not a case of 'OMG, must buy now!' more a, 'Yeah, it's pretty good, but let's see what else you got before i get my wallet out' situation.

Oh, and the wording was 'ever so slightly disappointing'. not out-and-out disappointing. :b
Quote Xtrafresh 24th September 2009, 20:41
I really dont see how you can find it disappointing that this card actually competes eye-to-eye with the dual-GPU variant of last generation. Last generation was also a great one, but they never took the performance crown untill the X2 came out a bit later, exactly like it'll go this time.

Are we all getting spoiled? I mean, performance-crown products have always cost a lot of money. It looks like the 5870 X2 will be around 600 pounds/euros, but that's still less then what the 8800GTX was first marketed for.
Quote she'shighvoltage! 25th September 2009, 04:46
So, I'm assuming this'll be a huge-o upgrade from a 9800GT?
Because I'll be gaming at 1680x1050 and if it can play Crysis on high (AA too, if possible) I'm all for it.
Quote azrael- 25th September 2009, 07:00
I'm looking forward to winning that sweet Sapphire HD5870 Vapor-X to replace my current and ageing 7950GT (really got shafted on this one 3 years ago).

As for disappointing? Like it was said previously the HD5870 has the performance of last year's dual GPU offerings at a price that resembles the GTX285 and it draws significantly less power than other high-end cards. I find that to be a pretty good deal. :)
Quote H2O 25th September 2009, 07:29
Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
actually everytime i went to newegg they had stock, even as late as 7PM (-5 GMT) xfx was the last brand to sell out.

Wow, they had stock that late? I didn't check until around 7 or so, and there were sever reviews by people who said that they sold out within 5 mins of launch. However, I believe that the XFX and possibly the HIS cards were added later in the day, so maybe that is why they were still in stock.
Quote Denis_iii 25th September 2009, 10:35
Quote:
Originally Posted by azrael-
I'm looking forward to winning that sweet Sapphire HD5870 Vapor-X to replace my current and ageing 7950GT (really got shafted on this one 3 years ago).

As for disappointing? Like it was said previously the HD5870 has the performance of last year's dual GPU offerings at a price that resembles the GTX285 and it draws significantly less power than other high-end cards. I find that to be a pretty good deal. :)

sorry to disappoint but I do believe I'll be winning it:)
Quote d4martin 25th September 2009, 18:04
What about 5850x2 and 5870x2 any news of these?
Quote rodrigobiz 25th September 2009, 23:24
there are many pictures of 5870x2 on the net...
but nothing about 5850x2
Quote Timmy_the_tortoise 26th September 2009, 02:10
What happened the ATI being the budget cards?

When the 4850 came out, I got it about a week or two after release for £115..
Quote hiei-warrior 26th September 2009, 08:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by she'shighvoltage!
So, I'm assuming this'll be a huge-o upgrade from a 9800GT?
Because I'll be gaming at 1680x1050 and if it can play Crysis on high (AA too, if possible) I'm all for it.

upgrading from a 9800GT ur bound to notice a BIG difference in performance
Quote tank_rider 30th September 2009, 23:55
any news on if the cooler used on the 5850 is the same as the 5870, if so then it should overclock well too :)
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