Posted in: Desktop computers

I finally got my dirty hands on a Radeon HD5970 and it’s here to stay

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Remember the post I wrote about the announcement of the world’s most powerful video card? Yes, I am talking for the ATI Radeon 5970, which is made of two HD5870 cores. Well, Santa dropped in for a beer sometime around Christmas and left it over.

You can bet he also brought some more PC goodies to match it. But here are some more live shots of the thing.

As you’ll see this monster is as long as my 13” MacBook Pro, while my iPhone 3GS just gets lost when put next to the card.

The even bigger retail box is full of goodies. The HD5970 (made by Sapphire in my case) comes with a free game – Dirt 2 – but you will need to register for a Steam account to download it. Crossfire connector, DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort convertor, two power connector adapters (6 and 8 pins), DVI-HDMI and DVI-to-VGA adapters plus a driver CD are also found in its really huge retail box.

Of course Santa, thought about the beast’s den and the rest of the PC case furniture he left include an Intel i7 920 processor, ASUS Rampage II Gene motherboard, 3x2GB DDR3 1866 OCZ RAM, 1TB WD Black Caviar hard disk and 750W power supply.

I haven’t had enough time to do any tests so far as I barely managed to assembled it but it all adds up for one seriously fast lean, mean machine. The torture tests and power-hungry games are scheduled for the next few weeks and if something interesting pops out, you can be sure I’ll keep you posted.

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