INTRODUCTION
As usual when a new generation of graphics cards is released, the first cards to hit the market are the high-end cards. In this case, the HD 5870 and HD 5850. These have subsequently been followed by the 5770 and 5750 and soon we will see some lower-end versions as well.

The launch of the HD 5800 series brought with it a couple of technological innovations. “ATI Eyefinity” is a technology that allows a single card to support up to 6 monitors. “ATI Stream” allows GPU accelerated calculations, OpenCL gives us parallel GPU-CPU processing. However, the most important update is support for DirectX 11 which already brings full support for Windows 7. This time around, Microsoft promises that the DirectX API update will bring a direct increase in the ratio of graphics quality to graphics quality. the use of system resources.

AMD says that its new GPU can hit 2.7 TFLOPS, which doesn’t really say much about the GPU’s performance in real-world situations (gaming), but it does tell us that it is indeed a very powerful data processor. The manufacturing technology has now been reduced to 40nm, which should mean lower power consumption and heat generation.
Talking about power consumption, AMD now promises that the maximum consumption will not exceed 190W at full load and in idle mode the card will not exceed 27W. If this is correct, it would be a huge improvement compared to their previous generation of cards.

ASUS EAH5850 SPECIFICATIONS
Ok, enough rambling about all the new technologies and promises of the new AMD series, here are the hard facts of the Asus HD 5850 card:

ASUS EAH5850 (Radeon HD 5850)
Radeon HD 5850 GPU
40nm manufacturing technology
1440 Stream Processors
Texture Units 72
ROP 32
GPU speed 725MHz
Memory 1GB GDDR5
Memory speed 1000MHz (4Gbps)
256 bit bus
Memory Bandwidth 128GB/s
Cooling system Reference, double slot
D-Sub video outputs (adapter included)
2 DVI-I
hdmi
display port
HDCP Compliant Yes
CrossFireXY compatibility
2 x 6-pin PCIe external power
Maximum consumption 170W
Supported Technologies DirectX 11, DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.1, UVD 2, ATI Stream, ATI PowerPlay, ATI Eyefinity, ASUS Splendid, ASUS Gamer OSD, ASUS Smart Doctor, Voltage Tweak

Asus hasn’t added any physical toggles on this card; It is basically the Asus version of the generic AMD 5850. However, Asus has a series of software tools that help us overclockers to reach the maximum potential of this card; the “Gamer OSD” and the “Smart Doctor”. This last application will be very useful as it allows us to play with the core voltage.

ASUS EAH5850, FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The card comes in a nice cardboard box with lots of aggressive printing. As usual with graphics cards, ASUS bets heavily on overclocking tools. Also, the bundle (EAH5850/2DIS/1GD5) includes the DIRT 2 game. When I opened the box, I almost got a little Apple feeling for a moment when I saw the black cover with the Asus logo in gold. Under the lid I found two boxes. The largest box contained the graphics card itself, wrapped in a standard anti-static plastic bag and protected by white foam material. The other box contained the accessories.

Except for the DIRT 2 game (digital download, no DVD), the accessories didn’t really impress me; CD with drivers and applications; a printed manual; a power adapter (2 molex to 1 x PCIe 6-pin), a DVI-VGA adapter, and a CrossFireX bridge.

ASUS EAH5850 IN DETAIL
My first impression was that it really does look powerful with its red and black finish. The card faithfully follows the AMD reference card in all aspects. This is a large card, the length is 240mm and it occupies two slots. The fan is 70mm and I hope it’s not too loud, but looking at the fairly small air exhaust on the back of the card, I’m not feeling too positive.

The front of the card contains two 6-pin PCIe connectors that would theoretically provide 150W to the card. Although I wanted to remove the cooler and take a closer look at the PCB, I decided to drop that intention as I would have to loosen a multitude of screws and it was impossible to remove just the case without cleaning the cooler as well, which felt a bit too risky. One great thing about the new AMD cards is their connectivity. They include two DVI-I, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. With ATI Eyefinity technology, it is possible to use 3 monitors simultaneously with this card, not bad.

MY TEST SYSTEM
Ok, here comes the list of hardware components I used for this test:

Test equipment
AMD Phenom II x2 550 3.9GHz Processor
Zalman CNPS9900A LED Cooler
ASUS Crosshair III Formula Motherboard
ASUS EAH5850 graphics card
integrated sound card
Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333 2×2GB Memory (7-7-7-21)
Samsung SP2504C hard drive (SATA II, 7200rmp, 8MB)
Zalman ZM660-XT Power Supply
Chest Cooler Master 690 cm PURE

Operating system and software
Windows 7 64bit operating system
BIOS 0805 System Drivers
Catalyst 9.10
DirectX August 2009
Landmarks 3D Mark 06
3D brand advantage
Furmark 1.7
Unigine Heaven Landmark
Games The Last Remnant
Tom Clancy’s Hawx
street fighter iv
They reside Evil V
weak can cry 4
stalker clear sky
WEAPON 2
Cry 2 Revolutionary Armed Forces Officers Club
Crysis warhead
Other software CPU-Z 1.52
GPU-Z 0.4.5
OCCT 3.1

And here are the screenshots of my setup:
The main changes to my test setup are that I included the “Unigine Heaven” benchmark software and removed Lightsmark 2008. The main reason for this is that it allows me to compare the performance difference between DirectX 10 and DirectX 11.

COMPARISON RESULTS
I will not compare these results to the result I have received on previous graphics card reviews since my test system was updated. I was very interested in what the performance comparison between DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 would yield. As you can see from the graphs above, the results were the opposite of what I expected, performance was actually lower with DirectX 11 than with DirectX 10.

PLAY TESTS I
It is interesting to note that performance remains high even when filters are added. This is something that AMD has corrected from their previous series that really suffered when filters were added. Otherwise, the same here; performance is very good, but I won’t do direct comparisons with previous reviews.

PLAY TESTS II
The second batch of games includes more demanding games as usual. This test clearly shows that the EAH5850 has a lot of power under the hood and it was only in two games where the FPS rate did not stay stable above 30 FPS at the highest possible settings.

OVERCLOCKING, REFRIGERATION AND CONSUMPTION
On the packaging, Asus emphasized the “Voltage Tweaking” that is done with the Asus Smart Doctor software that also allows us to modify the frequencies of both the core and the memories.
It’s a dream to work with Asus’ tool to overclock the card and it’s amazing how far this card can go.
The card’s cooling system is very efficient. The fan is noisy at full power, but over all it didn’t bother me too much.
I measured the total power consumption of my system in idle mode and at full load, here are the results:
Clearly the difference is huge and it should be as AMD’s PowerPlay technology has drastically decreased power consumption in 2D.

OVERCLOCK RESULTS
Ok, here are the results of the overclocking tests:
The increase in 3D Mark Vantage was really impressive and this is also confirmed by the 6 FPS increase in Far Cry 2 and the increase also exists with filters enabled.

RECOMMENDATIONS
I must first praise AMD for the work they have done with this card. It is both energy efficient and high performing, very impressive. Asus has taken AMD’s reference design and added a lot of value to it with its smart technologies and software tools. The main advantage of this Asus card is, of course, its overclocking ability, which is fantastic. ASUS EAH5850 is now on sale at a price ranging from $270 to $300, which is very competitive given its performance, overclockability, and the fact that it includes DIRT 2.