Two new cards, but the HD 6950 makes the biggest impression
The two new Cayman GPU powered graphics cards from AMD, the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950, are here and everything you thought you knew has changed.
Do the Barts, man…
Based on the successful Cypress GPU, the HD 6850 and HD 6870 aren’t direct replacements for AMD’s top-end HD 5870 and HD 5850 cards, despite the fact those have now been discontinued. Instead the HD 6870 is a designed as a cross between the HD 5850 and, frankly irrelevant, HD 5830, with the 6850 featuring an even more cut-down core.
But with GPU overclocking being on the Abbi Titmuss side of easy why don’t we see if we can put some bounce back into their stride?
The graphics card market is going through some interesting times at the moment. Lots of card releases from both parties, more on the horizon, and a growing backlog of pixel-pushers that are being retired from the major manufacturing lines. The good news to you, dear reader, is that this polygon war has produced some interesting casualties. XFX for instance is pushing out its Radeon HD 5870 at… wait for it… wait for it… £189.99. We kid you not.
The younger brother has done well…
NVIDIA is full of surprises, particularly in the 500 series variety. We had GTX 580 tip up last month out of the blue and now we have another revised Fermi-based card: the GeForce GTX 570.
A top-end Fermi card done right, oh yes
We all knew the Northern Island graphics cards were coming from AMD this month – the Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon HD 6870. We had Dexter shipped out to Los Angeles to collect the cards, suffer a little at the vagaries of jetlag and come home and bench them to within an inch of their lives.
What we didn’t know, and what no-one outside of AMD’s rivals NVIDIA knew until manufacturers, such as Asus started leaking specs, was that NVIDIA was planning on launching its spoiler card much earlier than anyone expected.
Tweak, tweak that Fermi…
Finally NVIDIA has given us a graphics card based on its Fermi technology for less than a ton.
The GTS 450 has been priced and specced to go directly up against the Radeon HD5770. In vanilla trim it’s a very close race, but the GTS 450′s overclocking chops mean you can push it past what the overclocked HD5770 can achieve.
Things are set to change again soon with AMD’s HD 6000 series cards and the volume segment of the market in its sights. For now though, cook the clocks of your wee Fermi and enjoy the ride.
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