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AMD has launched its next-generation ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards supporting Microsoft DirectX 11, the new gaming and compute standard shipping shortly with Windows 7.

AMD will initially release two cards – the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850 – each with 1GB GDDR5 memory. With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards, PC users can expand their computing experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology and accelerate their computing experience with ATI Stream technology, said AMD.

The ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards delivers up to 2.72 teraflops of compute power in a single card, translating to performance in the latest DirectX 11 games, as well as in DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL titles in single card configurations or multi-card configurations using ATI CrossFireX technology, said AMD.

The ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards is supported by add-in-board companies including Asustek Computer, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, Gigabyte Technology, HIS, Micro-Star International (MSI), Multimedia, PowerColor, Sapphire Technology, VisionTek and XFX.