Digital Home Thoughts: Radeon 57xx's Are Stuck In The Middle With You

"If the Radeon HD 5870 was characterized by roughly twice the computing resources as Radeon HD 4870, then the Radeon HD 5770 represents a halving of Radeon HD 5870. You’d think that’d yield something that looks a lot like the Radeon HD 4870 to which you’re already accustomed—and you’d be close to correct."

ATI is currently going through a release-fest right now, having just revealed their prized Radeon 5800 series. The 5700 series, while a little more pedestrian, seems to keep in line with what the market is offering right now. Both the 5770 and 5750 are priced to sit in the mid-range category of video cards and perform similar to those in the $125-$175 range, but they do offer some neat new bells and whistles such as triple-display Eyefinity goodness and bitstreaming. For those already with a good video card, I do not think it is enough to make you open your wallet, but those looking to build a new computer, this definitely would be the way to go. Tom's Hardware seems to think that these cards could be a viable option for an HTPC, especially with its bitstreaming capabilities, though the fan, albeit quietish, begs to differ. Me, I just hope that this potentially drives the price of their 4870s down, otherwise, the new cards only become an incremental upgrade over the previous generation.