Windows 7 DX11 Cards

To compete Radeon HD 6000


Nvidia is working on a mid-life kicker chip, something that will replace Fermi and something that will have to deal with the competition until Kepler comes at 28nm.

The new chip is designed to fight the Radeon HD 6000 series and of course Nvidia thinks that it has a clear win, and we quite sure ATI thinks the same.

We don’t really know as all the information we are gathering are contradictory. We do believe that Nvidia's kicker comes after Radeon HD 6000 launch, but there is a big chance that you'll see this new Fermi, let’s call it Fermi 1.5 even in late 2010.

These plans are not fixed yet, at least we don’t know that they are, but it looks that Q4 2010 will be quite interesting when it comes to graphics market.

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Full specs for Bart XT and Pro


Following the leak from Chiphell a few weeks ago, a forum member on Pcinlife published a full slide taken from the what appears to be a legit AMD slide. This time we can see full details of both Radeon HD 6750 and Radeon HD 6770, or simply Bart Pro and XT.

The slide compares Radeon HD 6700 series to couple of Radeon HD 5700 and 5800 series cards, which gives you a more clear picture of what we can expect once these cards show up at the market. The radeon HD 6750 should be placed and perform close to the HD 5850, and although it has the same clocks as the Radeon HD 5850 (725MHz for the Core and 1000MHz for memory) it will have less Stream Processors, 280 compared to the 288 on the HD 5850, less texture units, 56 compared to the 72 on the HD 5850, which also means less compute performance that ends up at 1624 TFlops compared to the 2088 on the HD 5850.

The HD 6770 ends up close to the HD 5870. It has the same amount of Stream processors, 320, although they are a bit differently organized. It has less texture units as well, so the HD 6770 ends up with 64 (16x4) compared to 80 on the HD 5870. This one should end up clocked at 900MHz for the core and 1050MHz (4.2Gbps) for memory.

The specs look quite good for now, and it looks like AMD will sell these ones quite easily. This also means that Cayman, high-end parts, will end up a lot faster than the HD 5800 series, at least when compared how well the HD 6700 compares to the previous HD 5700 series.

You can find the slide Link Removed.

Ref: As above..

Im pretty sure my 5770 has 800 stream processors and an 5870 has 1600 you forgot to add the following x5 after the SPU count other than that I see the upgrade path from an 57xx would most likely be an 67xx card unless you have a gazilion bucks just lying round to splurg on an 6870

In fact those figures are all over the place, something I missed when initially posting the article.. I won't be buying a 6870 though regardless of performance. My 5870 will have to last at least another year.. Or until they reach the 28nm node..

Indeed as will my 5770 of which I may just buy a second one if prices fall far enough or pick one up on our local auction site Trademe.co.nz (NZ version of Ebay) we shall wait and see

Digitimes is reporting that AMD has postponed the planned HD 6000 series by a few weeks. The cards were reportedly supposed to launch on October 12, but it appears that we won’t see them till November.

It’s not like AMD is in much of a hurry, as its old HD 5000 series is still more than a match for fresh Nvidia cards. It is rumoured that Nvidia will cut prices in October to keep up with AMD’s new parts. Nvidia is also planning to introduce the low-end GT 430 in mid-October.

However, it’s worth noting that Nvidia has already cut Fermi pricing several times this year. The GTX 460, which is arguably Nvidia’s most competitive card at the moment, is a good example. When it launched it retailed at €199, which quickly went down to €179 and then in went even lower, quite a bit lower in fact. At the moment, the GTX 460 is available for just €130 in some European markets.

In contrast, AMD has not adjusted the prices of most HD 5000 cards since their launch, nearly a year ago.

More here.

Update: Minutes after posting the story we were informed by some people in the know that the launch will indeed go ahead as planned. We can expect some fresh and tasty Radeons in two weeks, but mass availability should probably be expected sometime in November. As for Nvidia's price cuts, well it's not like they have much choice.

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Faster ones

AMD would not bother to launch cards that are not faster than the previous generation, as this is simply the nature of things. They simply have to be faster than the previous generation.

We got confirmation that the HD 6000 series launch is still on schedule for October 18th and that Barts PRO and Barts XT are going to replace Cypress, Radeon HD 5800 series boards. This is a clear indication that the new card is going to end up faster than the Radeon HD 5850 and most likely HD 5870 which is something that most of us didn’t expect.

Still the real deal are Cayman PRO and XT that are scheduled to launch in November time, and these ones should once again raise the bar. Nvidia has something to counter the Northern Islands at least in the high end, but we still have to find out more details about it.

Antilles, the new Radeon HD 6970 dual X2 card should also launch later this year.

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Radeon HD 6800 series




Link RemovedA lot of rumors on the upcoming AMD Graphics card line seem to be invalid. Some websites have jumped onto that, let me iron out some of the gossip.
Despite rumors from DigiTimes earlier this week that mentioned delays of the Radeon HD 6000 series until November, we still think that the Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 graphics cards will be released on October 18th, give or take a day.
As you guys know, both cards will be and are based on what is now know as the 'Barts' GPU. One rumor is correct though, the 6800 series will in fact be segmented into mid-range, and not high-end as many people expected.
So the Radeon HD 6800 will segment itself in the mid-range market, whereas the Radeon HD 5800 series will be updated with the Radeon HD 6900 (Caymen) series, with a dual-GPU part named Radeon HD 6990 (Antilles).
So that is certainly something to think about, as the naming scheme has changed. The 6800 products will be targeted directly against NVIDIA's GTX 460 series products (GF104). The Radeon HD 6850 will be faster than the Radeon HD 5830 and the Radeon HD 6870 will be faster than the Radeon HD 5850.
The Radeon HD 6870 will be a pure reference product, while the Radeon HD 6850 will see many custom designs and boards. In the end it will be all about pricing. Here are some leaked (unconfirmed) specs that show the differences in-between some of the old and new products:


Ref: Radeon HD 6800 series

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Galaxy's mysterious GTX 460 PCB design that we have seen a while back is actually a GF104 GTX 460 card with AMIMON's WHDI technology for some wireless PC to TV fun.

Previously pictured PCB had a Mini-PCIe connector on-board, something that wasn't seen before and although there has been a lot of speculation about additional PhysX dedicated GPU or TV Tuner, first pictures have finally shed some light regarding it.

The Mini-PCIe connector is used for AMIMON's WHDI technology that is capable of streaming HD content to a separate box that can be connected to the TV via a cable. The card features five antennas, DVI, DisplayPort and a mini-USB USB port on the backplate. The card hasn't yet been officially announced by Galaxy, but we guess the official announcement will come soon enough when we will have more details.

WOW that's a really nice stylish bit of kit there.... On a different subject, I just had to RMA my Powercolor 5870 over to Holland, but the upside is they saying since my model is out of production I should get one of the newer versions... Just making do with a spare 4650 I had lying around for the time being, not that I've had much time off to game lately.

What happened to the card?

nowt major, just had the green speckles issue when idle in desktop... just annoying more than not working.

Was it like that when you got it or did it only recently appear? Been overclocking it hey?? ;D

Nah it was like that when I got it, figured would give time for catalyst drivers to be tweaked but after 5 months not so RMA'd. *note* issue was only when idle, when gaming there was no issue.

Well since last talked about it, Powercolor (TUL/Netherlands) have already despatched me one of the newer factory overclocked 5870's via TNT, so should have it for the weekend, all I can say is 10/10 to TUL/Netherlands for a 5 day turnaround on the RMA... and Jase Lin of TUL/Taiwan for organising the whole thing, as I didn't have the receipts for it.

Barts GPU ready


The guys over at it.com.cn have finally cleared up the controversy surrounding AMD's naming scheme that has been rumoured for quite some time, and it looks like that the new HD 6800 series performance GPU series will indeed be based on Barts GPU.

According to several leaked slides, the Radeon HD 6870 is going to be based on the Barts XT GPU, while Barts Pro is reserved for the HD 6850. Of course, AMD's higher performance Cayman and dual GPU Antilles based cards should come at a later date. The pictured card is described as the HD 6870 reference design and despite its similarities with the Radeon HD 5800 series, there are quite a few differences as well. The card appears to be as long as an HD 5850 reference card, although it's something that has still to be confirmed.

The rear panel is where all major changes are to be seen, at least on the design side. The exhaust part looks to be a bit wider, and the output selection is a whole lot different. The pixellized card features two DVI, one HDMI and two mini DisplayPort outputs. Although the precise details regarding the Eyefinity aren't revealed, there are some rumours that the card could have a support for up to five displays.

The leaked documents also list a "Eyespeed" feature that hasn't been detailed, but we are sure that more info will show up pretty soon. You can find the original post Link Removed - Invalid URL.






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Slower than HD 5800 in 3DMark

The first rumoured performance details regarding AMD's Barts-based HD 6800 series have leaked online, and although these numbers are far from being confirmed, they do make sense as the upcoming HD 6800 series ends up marginally slower than the HD 5800 series and a bit faster than Nvidia's GTX 460 card.

The first results are coming from XFastest website and show the performance of both the HD 6870 and the HD 6850 in 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark06. The HD 6870 scores P16270 and 19480 which is a bit slower than the previous HD 5800 generation. When compared to the GTX 460 (256-bit 1GB), even the HD 6850 (Barts Pro) ends up faster.

This does make sense as due to the new, unconfirmed, AMD naming scheme. Basically the upcoming Barts HD 6800 series should replace the Juniper based HD 5700 series while the Cypress HD 5800 replacements, Cayman based cards, should come a month later.

These preliminary scores show that the Barts based cards feature impressive performance and certainly have a bright future. Clearly, that the upcoming Cayman-based boards and the dual-GPU Antilles card will certainly look just as good. The mentioned naming scheme might bring a certain level of confusion to the market, but in the end, it will still follow the good old, "higher number is a faster card" theme.

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Barts XT and Pro
AMD has finally made up its mind about the launch of Barts PRO and XT. These new cores will sport Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 brands, but it looks like that they will end up marginally slower than the original 5870 and 5850.

Don’t worry though, Cayman is still supposed to launch this year most likely with the HD 6890 if not 6970 / 6950 brands. We still don’t know these brands but this is something that would not surprise.

The two cards launching on Friday are the Radeon HD 6870, with 1GB GDDR5 as well as HDMI,DVI-I, DVI-D and Dual mini DisplayPort outputs, and the Radeon HD 6850, also with 1GB GDDR5, DVI-I and DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort.

The cards will start shipping to shops by the end of this week or early next week. You should be able to buy them in e-tail / retail shortly after launch.



1050MHz GDDR5 memory
The chip that was supposed to replace Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 and that mysteriously ended up with Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 6850 moniker has finally got its clock. It runs at 900MHz.

As we speak AMD is telling chosen press representatives about the specifics of the chips and how they plan to dominate the word. We still don’t see many ATI Radeon HD 5870 owners to be that hot for AMD Radeon HD 6870. I guess the message is that AMD's Radeon is not as good as ATI’s, and of course we are joking, but let us get burned by our beloved fanboys in the comments section. (You mean to tell me that we have fanboys commenting our stories? No way. sub.ed.)

The GDDR5 works at 1050MHz or 4200MHz if you consider that the GDDR5 is quad band and that the card has a 256-bit memory controller. Of course it has a dual slot cooler and of it supports CrossFire. The card also has two six pin power connectors.

The US retail price should land somewhere around 250 USD and we guess that 250 euro should be quite realistic price for EU countries that use this currency. We just got word that the price will be closer to €250, not € / $300 as originally reported.

Launch is on the 22nd October, next Friday and this should be the availability day, at least for a few lucky ones as everything indicates that Radeon HD 6870 might be in short supply.

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GTX 580 to counter Cayman


According to some fresh rumours, Nvidia is working on a new GPU that should counter the HD 6900 series. According to the info, the GTX 580 will show up in December and should be based on the 40nm GF110 GPU, an improved version of the well known and not very succesful GF100 GPU.

The GF110 based GTX 580 should be an improved GF100 GPU with 512 CUDA cores and 128 texture units, which should end up as a decent improvement compared to the GF100. The rumoured card should be equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 512-bit memory interface.

The two main questions are the TDP and the actual price of such a card. As you already know, AMD will have its Cayman based HD 6900 cards ready by the end of November, which means that Nvidia will be late and according to what we can guess from these specs, Nvidia's new card will probably end up more expensive. The rumoured TDP places the GTX 580 "close" to GTX 480, and it will need one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-Express connector.

The TDP is not a big issue as we already know that Cayman XT will end up with similar "sub-300W" TDP and will need a same 6-pin + 8-pin power connectors. This leaves Nvidia some breathing room, at least if the card ends up to be as good as Nvidia hopes. Of course, this means that AMD will get some competition from the green team and that should hopefully be a good thing for the market as the prices will eventually go down.

More here.

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Oh great
The US retail price should land somewhere around 250 USD and we guess that 250 euro should be quite realistic price for EU countries that use this currency

so I'll be lookin at somewhere in the vicinity of $600~700 NZ dollars seeing as how the
HIS Radeon HD5850 HDMI DisplayPort Dual-DVI 1GB is still $447.35 and the
HIS Radeon HD5870 iCooler V HDMI DisplayPort Dual-DVI 1GB is $606.05

it's certainly looking like it'll be cheaper to go with another HD5770 for CF