AMD Intros Mobility Radeon 5000 Series DirectX 11 Graphics

AMD Intros Mobility Radeon 5000 Series DirectX 11 Graphics

AMD today introduced its Mobility Radeon 5000 series of DirectX 11 graphics cards for notebooks. The new series includes the Radeon HD 5800, HD 5700, HD 5600, and HD 5400. The Mobility Radeon 5000 series is the first graphics card series for notebooks that supports DirectX 11. They also support DirectCompute 11, which is part of DirectX 11 and allows applications to take advantage of the graphics card's processing power.

AMD says the Mobility Radeon 5000 series has four times the performance per watt over the last two generations of ATI Mobility Radeon graphics cards and also have additional battery saving features, such as the ability to dim the screen without using software. The 5000 series is built on AMD's new 40nm process and support GDDR5 memory. Notebooks with the ATI Mobility Radeon 5000 series will start to become available in January.

 

Definitely not the increase I think people were hoping for and AMD/ATI could have done better....specifically at the top end.

Unfortunately it looks like GPU makers still don't take the mobile market seriously enough to give notebooks anything more than desktop hand-me-downs.

 

^^^Wait wait, you mean your disappointed? Why?

 

hmmm, now I hope they are released in MXM2 so that if HP's bios allows I can upgrade my 8530p That would make me so happy! I know wishfully thinking, but who knows? maybe!

 

The Mobility 5000 cards are based on lower model desktop GPUs...with each model group using GPUs with the same stream processor count. In and of itself this wouldn't be that disappointing except that it results in a performance increase that only comes from the extra clocks gained through the die-shrink or through the type of VRAM used.

I find that troubling because history has shown that not all notebook manufacturers will use the clocks and RAM that the GPU maker suggests and we could easily end up with a muddled mess of cards that overlap or, worse, advertised as a higher model than they really are.


What's more in the case of the Mobility 5850 and 5870 using the desktop HD5770 GPU the new mobile cards end up having the same stream processor count (800) and a lower memory bus (128-bit) than their predecessors. For the Mob. HD5870 the 128-bit memory is compensated for with the use of GDDR5 (if it actually has it this time) but the Mob. HD5850 will still use GDDR3 (as seen in the Acer notebook using that card) so it will have a slower memory bandwidth.

Granted the Mob. 5800 cards will still show an increase in game performance over the 4800 cards because of higher clocks (and DX 11) but it's not as big an increase as it could have been...and definitely not the 25% increase ATI's marketing charts are advertising.

I feel let down because I think they could have designed a mobile-specific GPU with 960 to 1120 SP and/or a 256-bit bus that fit into a notebooks power restrictions but they didn't because it was cheaper to use a lower end desktop GPU and simulate better technology through higher clocks.

 

it has been confirmed that the 5870 on the asus G73@ CES right now has GDDR5. =]

 

It's confirmed when a G73 is in an NBR member's hands and there's a GPUZ screenshot.

AW M17x's 4850+s were confirmed to be GDDR5 up until it was delivered.

 

um...there is a G73, in a member's hand, with a GPu-Z screenshot on the floor at CES.

 

I'm still being skeptical until it's delivered after sale. Floor models at CES don't count.

 

There will be GDDR5 this time around. Just look at all the Asus/Sager preorder models. They all have it.

 

M17x listed GDDR5 on the sales invoice when people first ordered. It wasn't until people got their machines that they found out they were GDDR3.

Dell techs even believed they were GDDR5 until those owners told them otherwise.

 

It will have to be GDDR5 with a 128bit bus.

 

The GTS 250 comes with DDR5 as well. I dont see ATI falling behind. Man, all these new high end GPU's are exciting

 

Depends on naming. Mobility 58xx are based on desktop 57xx, so a logical thing would be extrapolating the memory based on the 57xx desktop GPUs.

 

I wonder what the battery life will be on these things?

 

I am disappointed.

 

Im not too fussed, im actually fairly happy that the new end tech isnt super superior over old tech, i mean i havent had my laptop with that long and it makes me happy to know that the leap isn't, well massive?

The alienwares were definately 4870s though, even without the memory, it was the xt revision of the core.

 

Considering that yours is a 48x0 laptop, but the low end see double the performance while the high end gets a mere 5-10 up...such a shame...

 

Battery life with a GDDR5 model should be pretty good. The desktop cards idle very low compared to the load usage, and I'd imagine these will too. They should certainly be more power efficient than the last run of mobile cards!

 

That is kinda what I was hoping for, to be honest.

But we will see how it fares in its "real time" stats ... must admit I am curious, though!

 

that's just typical dell incompetence. they screwed up enough things i'm not even surprised.

 

Stop bashing Dell, HP has done worse...lol there is an article by CNET published on the Envy 15 using USB 3.0 but HP has no idea of this, even if asked...