Gigabyte Unveils 2 Radeon HD 5600 Cards

Gigabyte brings DirectX 11 to the desktop with two Radeon HD 5600 cards.

Gigabyte announced on Thursday the introduction of two graphics cards that feature the highly coveted 40nm ATI Radeon HD 5600 GPU. The GV-R567OC-1Gl (1 GB GDDR5 memory) and GV-R567D5-512l (512 MB GDDR5 memory) finally brings the highly-anticipated DirectX 11 to your desktop at more Earth-bound prices.

Readers probably already know what the new GPU brings to the table: ATI Stream technology for parallel processing, ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support for those wanting to add additional ATI cards, UVD 2 and PowerPlay. Gigabyte said that the cards will also come packed with company-exclusive features such as native HDMI support (real one-cable connectivity supporting audio), and Ultra Durable 2 technology.

"The Gigabyte GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I feature ATI's latest 2nd Generation TeraScale graphics engine, boasting the power of more than 620 GigaFLOPS with 400 stream processors respectively," the company said. "With 1 GB and 512 MB GDDR5 memory, the GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I provide twice the data per pin of GDDR3 memory at the same clock speeds."

Gigabyte also said that the cards are Windows 7 certified, have picture in picture (PIP) capabilities, and perform dynamic contrast and enhanced DVD up-scaling. The HDMI output provides up to 2 channel 48 kHz stereo or 7.1 AC3, making these cards ideal for HTPCs.

Prices starting at $109 for the 1 GB model. Good for those who want to take on DX11 without breaking the bank. The 512 MB model, when available will be under $100.