The ATI Radeon HD 5670 (~US$100) from AMD offers DirectX 11 ready hardware at the $100 price point, competing with the GeForce 9600 GT, GeForce 9800 GT, GeForce GTS 250, Radeon HD 4770, and Radeon HD 4850.
Features:
- 400 Shader Processors
- 20 Texture Units
- 8 Color ROPs
- 775 MHz Core Clock
- 1000 MHz GDDR5 Memory Clock
- 128-bit Memory Bus
- 4 Gb/s Data Rate
- 0.62 Compute Power (TFLOPs)
- 0.627 Transistors (Billions)
- 61W Maximum Power
- 14W Idle Power
Guru of 3D sees the Radeon HD 5670 as an excellent product for HTPCs:
“The Radeon HD 5760 is ideal for the lady's and gents that play games occasionally in a non-extreme way. It suits the regular PC user that that a lot of desktop work, or uses his/her PC as net or work PC. Next to that, and we have mentioned this several times now, the 5600 card series will be an excellent product for HTPCs. The sheer shader units count the GPU has embedded on it makes it very suitable for 1080P content playback with software like Media Player HT edition, in that software you can utilize and enable the shaders to post process image quality to a higher level. Next to that the embedded video processor (through UVD 2.0) will easily decode and accelerate your BluRay movies over the GPU. We can't wait to see some products with even more silent customized cooling.” [Guru of 3D | HD 5670]
HotHardware appreciates the Radeon HD 5670’s value performance and features:
“The Radeon HD 5670 will be available for purchase immediately at on-line retailers, in 512MB and 1GB flavors. If you're in the market for an affordable graphics card as an upgrade from an integrated solution or last-gen mainstream card, the Radeon HD 5670 is worth a serious look. AMD has just lowered the DirectX 11 cost of entry to below 100 bucks, and has done so with a product that doesn't skimp on features and offers very respectable performance for the money. That makes the Radeon HD 5670 a solid value in our book.” [HotHardware | HD 5670]
AnandTech feels that the Radeon HD 5670 is a "good enough card”, but still prefers an HD 4850:
“So where does that leave the 5670? The 5670 does surprisingly well against the 9800 GT. It wins in some cases, trails very slightly in a few more, and then outright loses only in games where the 5670 is already playable up to 1920x1200. From a performance standpoint I think the 9800 GT is ahead, but it’s not enough to matter; meanwhile the “green” 9800 GT shortens the gap even more, and it still is over 10W hotter than the 5670. The 5670 is a good enough replacement for the 9800 GT in that respect, plus it has support for DX11, Eyefinity, and 3D Blu-Ray when that launches later this year.” [AnandTech | HD 5670]
ExtremeTech compared the Radeon HD 5670 to the GeForce GT 240, and preferred the GT 240:
“Both the ATI Radeon HD 5670 and the PNY Verto GeForce GT 240 deliver modest gaming power for their $99 price. If your needs are simple—you're just looking for something to pep up your off-the-shelf (or off-the-download games) games, and maybe transcode some videos—either card should be sufficient. …
If you're choosing between a standard 5670 and a 512MB GT 240, we can solidly recommend the later. If, however, you plan on doing more serious gaming of any kind, or you want to play at resolutions much above about 1,680 by 1,050, you'd be better off spending just a little bit more for almost any other more powerful card. These cards have their limits—either should be an okay purchase for you as long as you don't make plans to exceed them.” [ExtremeTech | HD 5670]
Tom’s Hardware thinks that the Radeon HD 5670 will sell well if it goes down to the $80 price tag:
“It is this cutthroat ~$100 environment where the Radeon HD 5670 will be forced to sink or swim at $99. Here it will have to compete against the similarly-performing $80 GeForce 9600 GT, the slightly-faster $95 GeForce 9800 GT, the clearly-superior $110 Radeon HD 4770, and the vastly more attractive $110 Radeon HD 4850 / GeForce GTS 250. Purely from a performance standpoint, it would be madness to buy the Radeon HD 5670 instead of spending a couple dollars more for the Radeon HD 4850 or GeForce GTS 250. DirectX 11 isn't much of an issue here.” [Tom’s Hardware | HD 5670]
PC Perspective sees the Radeon HD 5670 the most well-rounded of next-gen GPUs:
“The new AMD Radeon HD 5670 graphics card is a great addition to the completely revamped lineup of graphics cards using ATI technology. With it AMD has solidified DX11-ready hardware in the market for prices under $100 while moving features like Eyefinity and triple-LCD support to a wider user base as well. The performance of the card is only on par with other $100 graphics boards like the GeForce GT 240 so we can't call it the runaway performance leader, but if you or someone you know is going to be looking for a GPU for under a Franklin, the HD 5670 is the most well-rounded of next-generation GPUs.” [PC Perspective | HD 5670]
As reviewed by a number of enthusiasts, the ATI Radeon HD 5670 is a good card for the regular desktop user, occasional gamer, and web surfer. This is also an excellent card if you are looking to build an HTPC.
