Conclusions
The case against the Radeon HD 5830 was made quite clearly in the value scatter plot on the preceding page. This graphics card's price-performance proposition just isn't terribly attractive. That matters a lot in a product like this one, which is essentially a negotiation between the GPU maker and the consumer: we'll cut the price this much, the performance that much, and then see what you think. The fact that you're still better off on an FPS-per-dollar basis with a GeForce GTX 260 than a Radeon HD 5830 is a rather disappointing development in a market where we're used to seeing practically uninterrupted progress.

The case in favor of the Radeon HD 5830 demands our consideration, as well, and is surprisingly multi-faceted. The Radeon HD 5000 series has many benefits, including the highest quality texture filtering and the fastest, best antialiasing capabilities on the market. DirectX 11 is still a bit of an unknown, but game developers do seem to be adopting it. Compared to an older card like the GTX 260, the 5830 may offer higher performance, superior visual effects, or some combination of the two in upcoming games. Beyond that, the 5830 has the ability to drive three monitors at once and play games on them, thanks to AMD's Eyefinity feature. And we can't forget that the peak power draw of our 5830-based system was about 25W lower than our GTX 260-based one.

Potential buyers will also have to consider the value of the Modern Warfare 2 game bundle that AMD and some of its board partners are offering. That's a $60 game, after all, and it should be packaged with many of these cards, as will other games in some cases. We're not always big on game bundles, but MW2 is a heckuva lot of fun. Of course, if you already own it like many of us do, that won't matter much to you, I suppose. And if card makers really charge an extra $25 for the MW2 bundle, we'll be less than compelled.

One question we can't yet answer is whether the 5830's lower power draw will translate into lower noise levels than your typical GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4890. That will depend, of course, on the coolers selected by the board guys, just as the game bundles do. As a result, the ultimate value proposition of a given 5830 card isn't something we can precisely gauge.

Overall, though, here's what I think. The Radeon HD 5830 fills a gap in AMD's lineup that desperately needed filling. The fact that AMD decided to address that need in this exact way, however, is ultimately disappointing. Given the current shortage of viable alternatives and the 5830's richer feature set, we may end up tentatively recommending the 5830 as the card to choose in this price range, but we can't do so with any great enthusiasm. Perhaps once the final products have reached the market, we'll have some more positive indications. The 5830 had a chance to win our unqualified recommendation, though, and it simply hasn't done so.