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But it wasnt all that long ago that acquiring the unquestioned number-one card would set you back 600and some people were buying two to achieve even faster performance and higher resolution.

But you dont need to wait for those games to arrive to tap this chips powerthe good news is that its supremely fast with the most demanding games on the market right now.

But Cypress is more than twice as large as the GPU used in the 4770 (334 square millimeters, compared to 137 square millimeters), and this enabled AMDs engineers to pack a staggering 2.15 billion transistors onto the chip.

That transistor count, in turn, enabled them to build 1,600 stream processors in a single GPU.

This card (XFXs model number HD-587A-ZN, so you can differentiate it from the more souped-up SKUs that are sure to follow) runs the GPU at a core clock speed of 850 MHz and its 1GB of GDDR5 memory at 1.2GHz.

GDDR5 memory delivers data four times each clock cycle, which gives it considerably more bandwidth than GDDR3 memory (which transfers data only twice per clock cycle).

AMD integrated four 64-bit memory controllers into the chip, for an aggregate 256-bit memory interface.

Youll also need a minimum of a 500-watt power supply with two six-pin power cables to feed this beast (XFX provides four-to-six- pin adapter cables, in case you need them).

But for all its power, this card is remarkably quiet, even under heavy loadsyou neednt worry about a noisy cooling fan intruding into stealth moments of your gaming sessions.

The mounting bracket on XFXs card is outfitted with two dual-link DVI outputs, one HDMI output, and one DisplayPort.

Using some combination of the three will enable you to drive three 32-inch displays at their native resolution of 25601600 simultaneously.

We plugged in a 24-inch Gateway FHD2401 LCD and set each game to that displays native resolution of 19201200.

But much of the appeal of gaming on a super-fast card like this is turning on features that you wouldnt dare play around with on lesser hardware.

And here again, XFXs card exceeded our expectations, delivering this graphically intense first-person shooter at a jaw-dropping 71.8 frames per second.

The 5870 didnt break a sweat as it churned out an astonishing 137 frames per second.

This card effortlessly delivers todays best games at phenomenal frame rates even at high resolution and with all their visual effects enabled, meaning that if you want the absolute best video card, this is the one to buy.

AMD has come up with a GPU that smokes the competition, and XFX has hung what we feel is a very reasonable price tag on their version of it.

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