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Now that the ATI Radeon HD 5870 has been released to mixed reviews, focus is now turning to it's little brother, the 5850. Whilst it only has 1,440 stream processors and a GPU running 125Mhz slower than it's bigger brother, it is built with the same 256bit memory interface to 1Gb GDDR5 memory. Memory speed is slightly slower but the ROPs are the same as the 5870. As a result of this, power usage is lower at only 151watts maximum.

ATI Radeon HD 5870 specifications:

• Stream Processors: 1,600
  
• GPU frequency: 850MHz
  
• ROPs: 32
  
• Memory: 1GB GDDR5
  
• Memory frequency: 1.2GHz (4.8Ghz effective)
  
• Memory interface: 256 bit
  
• Memory bandwidth: 128GB/s
  
• Outputs: 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
  
• Dimensions: 9.5inch x 5inch
  
• Power Input: 2x 6pin PCIexpress
  
• Maximum power usage: 188watts
  
• Idle power usage: 27watts

ATI Radeon HD 5850 specifications:

• Stream Processors: 1,440
  
• GPU frequency: 725MHz
  
• ROPs: 32
  
• Memory: 1GB GDDR5
  
• Memory frequency: 1.0GHz (4Ghz effective)
  
• Memory interface: 256 bit
  
• Memory bandwidth: 128GB/s
  
• Outputs: 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
  
• Dimensions: 11inch x 5inch
  
• Power Input: 2x 6pin PCIexpress
  
• Maximum power usage: 151watts
  
• Idle power usage: 27watts

The 5850 is expected to be released this October for between £200 and £220. As the specifications are only a little less than the 5870, and coupled with a lower price, could this be the more popular card in the range?

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