Final thoughts and rating
Having a single Radeon HD 5970 graphics card is, in the nicest possible sense, overkill for most people. Our review of the twin-GPU goliath highlights that users need to run sky-high resolutions and image-quality settings to get the most out of the card.So adding a second card and placing them in two-card, four-GPU CrossFireX is, tenuously, analogous to sticking a six-litre engine in a Ford Fiesta - there's plenty of power but you need the supporting components to match. Indeed, a 2,560x1,600 monitor isn't really enough to tax the cards, so it's just as well AMD has Eyefinity support, assuming it works in a CrossFire setup. We'd recommend using a 4GHz-clocked Core i7 chip and a trio of 24in (1,920x1,200) monitors, really.
Throwing financial sense out of the window for a second, the cards' power produces some staggering results, beating out the erstwhile champion GeForce GTX 295 SLI in all but Crysis. We're confident that performance will be good enough to handle games released in 2011, let alone 2010.
As a technology showcase, Sapphire's Radeon HD 5970 in CrossFireX are very, very hard to beat, but just be prepared to shell out close to £1k for the privilege. The price makes them pointless for most folk, for sure, but does much to polish AMD graphics' halo - and perhaps that's the very point.
Emanating from a direct consequence of testing these cards, we'll be re-running the tests with a three-monitor setup. Stay tuned for that.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB CrossFireX is evaluated with respect to our 'extreme components' criteria.
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB in CrossFireX
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB in CrossFireX
HEXUS Where2Buy
Sapphire doesn't currently sell its stock-clocked Radeon HD 5970 in the UK. However, a pre-overclocked card - the Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 OC - can be ordered now from the following retailers:
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As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum. |
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HEXUS Right2Reply
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