With September 23rd being the day rumoured for enthusiasts to be on the watch for AMD/ATI’s next generation of video cards, the HD 5870 is getting a lot of attention and the company is finding it difficult to keep the lid shut on leaks.

Their new DirectX11 HD 5870 and 5850 are being eagerly anticipated by consumers as the HD 4000 series is starting to show its age – now being year old technology. With the HD 4870X2 discontinued, it leaves only the modest mid range HD 4890 as  ATI’s top card of the line, giving nVidia exclusive control of the the top end.

According to sources at gathering.tweakers.net and alienbabeltech.com the card is a serious power horse, being able to compete with current dual GPU cards! It is manufactured on the 40nm process and said to boast 1600 Stream processors, double the current HD 4890.

Alienbabeltech expands on this,  ”Amazingly AMD doubled the number of SIMD units from 10 to 20.  Since each SIMD unit contains 16 5-D units and a Quad-TMU overall, that means we count 1600 stream processors and 80 TMUs.  We are talking about a new videocard whose core speed is at 850 MHz and whose 256-bit GDDR5 runs at 1200 MHz“. There will likely be both 1GB and 2GB variants

As the photos show, the monster also includes 3 unique video output options, including DVI, HDMI and Display port. Here is where another cool feature crops up, claimed as “Eyefinity”  said to support up to triple displays at 2560X1600 each, with the most powerful models claimed to support up to six!

All of this is said to pull less than 190watts at full load. And what will all of this set you back? Supposedly less than $399.

The little sibling, the HD 5850 also looks very promising with 1440 SP’s and a clock speed of 700/1000. It is expected to be released with a $299 price tag.  To round out the lineup is the HD 5870X2, dual GPU variant, is expected to be announced around October 20th, 2009 and will be the flagship card, doubling up on all the 5870’s features, and expected to be slapped with a sticker price of $599.

Please keep in mind that all information and photos should be regarded as rumours, however the sources do quote “trusted sources” and have some pretty convincing evidence.

Images Courtesy: gathering.tweakers.net

Source: alienbabeltech