ATi has timed the promotion of its innovative Evergreen graphics chip with armed forces accuracy. It's the world's foremost DirectX 11 chip so it is no chance that it was launched just in time for Windows 7.

The foremost adaptation of Evergreen to strike the streets are the high-end HD 5850 as well as HD 5870 which, as the model codes recommend, are replacements for the DirectX 10.1 HD 4850 as well as HD 4890. The HIS Digital HD 5870 that we're evaluating is a reference design with an HIS sticker on the cooler along with a voucher to set off a copy of Colin McRae Dirt 2 on Steam when the game is launched later on this year.

The graphics card (as well as the PCI Express power adapters that let you to hook up an inheritance power supply to the two PCI Express connectors) is distinctive of HD 5870 graphics cards that you will also see from Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX as well as others. Give it a month or so and we will see updated designs with custom coolers as well as increased clock speeds.

ATi has made a motivating alteration with the HD 5000 series of graphics cards as they include dual DVI outputs with one HDMI as well as one DisplayPort, plus support triple displays that each has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. Move over dual displays, triple screen desktops are here.

We tested the HIS HD 5870 on a Core i7 PC as well as establish the performance was completely outstanding. If you restore your HD 4890 with the HD 5870 you'll set aside 35W of power draw at unused while the performance increases by 50 percent in hardcore games for example Far Cry 2.

You have the choice of overclocking from the stock speeds of 850MHz/4800MHz to 890MHz/5000MHz but the additional performance only amounts to two frames for each second as well as the power draw boost by 20W, which looks like a poor arrangement.

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