The Cypress ASIC used in the AMD ATI Radeon HD 5830 is sent directly to the AIB partners, giving them a lot of design flexibility. Due to the increased core voltage vs. the HD 5850, AMD is recommending partners use the reference XT board design, for the increase power and cooling it offers. This also means it can retain the 256-bit memory interface bus (cue cries of joy from the 128-bit bus detractors!). However, the render back end is more in line with the Juniper core, as ROP count of the HD 5830 halves to 16.

AMD 5 Series Comparison

In a group phone call with AMD, Rage3D heard how the AMD ATI Radeon HD 5830's "straight to AIB shipment" provided the most flexibility in partner design and configuration. AIBs are open to select custom coolers or VRMs, as well as increase memory or display output configuration.

Below you can see some of the different designs expected to hit the shelves:

Sapphire

HIS	PowerColor

Gigabyte

XFX

It is going to be interesting to see where the ATI Radeon HD 5830's 55% lower texture fillrate than the HD 5850 limits performance. The HD 5830's equivalent memory bandwidth should easily feed the core engine - and any core overclocking you can do will start to close the gap on the Radeon HD 5850.