Sapphire to launch HD 5870 and HD 5850

Bengaluru: Saphire Technology prides itself to have achieved development in graphics by providing the fastest single GPU. It has also introduced a video card which supports the advanced graphical features exclusively available in Microsoft DirectX 11. It is the first of its kind. Progressing yet again, it speaks highly of two upcoming launches, Saphire HD 5870 and HD 5850.

Sapphire HD 5870 is based on graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, the second generation of GPU to be built in its 40nm process. This is the very first series of graphics solutions to support the forthcoming DirectX 11, soon to be introduced with Windows 7 and supported in Windows Vista. It has a memory interface of around 150GB/s memory interface. It supports the fifth generation GDDR5 memory. Its architecture is complete with a total of 1600 stream processors and 80 texture units. HD 5870 has twice the computing power of the previous generation. The company predicts its compatibility with existing DirectX10.1, DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0 games and applications. They hope that it will excel in softwares which use DirectX 11. It is energy efficient as its active power consumption is less that 190W. And using Dynamic Power Management, the card has a super low-power idle mode at 27W.

Simultaneously Sapphire plans to launch HD 5850 soon. It has a slightly smaller configuration of 1440 stream processors and 72 texture units. This will offer users access to the same new generation technology and full DirectX 11 support at a lower price point.