Introduction

It's hard enough to be a video card manufacturer that embraces both sides of the fence, let alone one that only specializes in one of the two major producers of GPUs. Companies like PowerColor, Sapphire and HIS need to really have stand out versions of popular models. The good news for these companies is that half the work is done; ATI have managed to produce a great line-up of models for us to choose from.

Now it's up to the partners to make what is a good card a great one. PowerColor have actually gone a bit crazy lately; they've got a number of really stand-out models in the series which include models from the 5600 series all the way to the 5800 series.

In a testbed that's been filled with mid range and low end cards, it's nice to have something that packs a real punch go back in there. The HD 5870 we're looking at today is part of the PCS+ series and as soon as you pull it out of the box, the card screams at you.

It's great to see a new PowerColor card arrive in the labs and even better that it's a part of the HD 5800 series. Before we have a closer look at the card and its specifications, we'll have a quick look at the bundle first up.