Amd Radeon Hd 5000 ((new)) -

But AMD had a secret weapon: the (codenamed Hemlock). They simply glued two Cypress chips onto one board via a PLX bridge chip. The HD 5970 was a dual-GPU monster that became the fastest graphics card on the planet for over a year. It was so fast that it held the performance crown until NVIDIA’s GTX 580 launched a full year later.

In the late 2000s, the graphics card world had a clear pecking order. NVIDIA was the king. Their GeForce GTX 200 series, particularly the monstrous GTX 280 and later the refined GTX 285, were the undisputed performance champions. AMD (then ATI, before the 2006 acquisition) had been playing catch-up with their Radeon HD 4000 series. While the HD 4870 and 4890 offered great value, they couldn't quite topple NVIDIA’s single-GPU crown. amd radeon hd 5000

The HD 5000 series was more than a product. It was a statement: Never count AMD out. And for one glorious year—from December 2009 to late 2010—they were the undisputed kings of the graphics card world. The dragon had been slain, and the legend of Evergreen was written. But AMD had a secret weapon: the (codenamed Hemlock)

The flagship chip was codenamed . The Launch: December 2009 – The Bombshell On December 15, 2009, AMD unveiled the Radeon HD 5870 . It was so fast that it held the