AMD today launched the next generation ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards that support Microsoft DirectX 11. AMD says that the new cards will offer more than double performance when compared to previous generation. The cards are made using 40nm process technology and feature 1,600 stream cores capable of 2.72 teraflops per second performance. The HD 5800 series also uses third generation GDDR5 memory for up to 150Gbps memory bandwidth.

AMD is shipping two cards in HD 5800 series Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 5850. The HD 5870 has 1,600 stream cores, 850MHz engine clock and 1GB GDDR5 memory running at 1.2GHz. The HD 5850 comes with 1,440 cores running at 725MHz speed and 1GB GDDR5 memory running at 1GHz speed. AMD says that the new HD 5870 graphics card can offer over 80 percent higher antialiasing performance when compared to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 and on average it is at least 20 percent faster in every task.

The new cards will also support AMD’s recently announced Eyefinity technology that can merge up to six 24-inch displays into single virtual display with up to 7680 x 3200 resolution. AMD will also release special edition Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 graphics card with six HDMI ports later this year for unknown price. The Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 are available today priced $380 and $260 respectively. You can get more information about the cards on ATI’s website.