Now that a 1GB version of AMD's high-end Radeon HD 6950 is only a press-release away from becoming a reality, we thought that we could put the issue to rest. But it looks like AMD may have more memory-trimming shenanigans in store, this time for its flagship HD 6970.
According to the latest rumour - courtesy of X-bit labs, which cites a supposedly official announcement - the Cayman XT GPU will be the next to get the chop, dropping the frame-buffer from 2GB to a more mainstream 1GB.
Otherwise, it appears that the cards will be unchanged, meaning that the core will still come packed with 1,536 stream processors clocked at stock speeds of 880MHz.
The source goes on to say that the cut-back cards will start shipping in the middle of February with a retail price of around $279 (£220 inc VAT). Unfortunately this is where things start to get a little unbelievable. The cheapest 2GB HD 6970s currently on the market in the US retail for around $350 (£275 inc VAT), while the 2GB HD 6950 has an MSRP of $299, although there are many available for around the $279 mark. Relative pricing at UK e-tailers tells a similar story.
A 1GB HD 6970 would undoubtedly outperform its slower, shader-deficient sibling despite the frame-buffer disadvantage. Unless a price cut was on the cards for the HD 6950, there wouldn't be much of a reason to buy the slower GPU, making the $279 MSRP for the new board quite hard to believe. On the other hand, if it is true the 1GB HD 6970 would offer a lot of bang for the buck.
With both the GeForce GTX 560 and the cut-back HD 6950 1GB expected to launch next week, we probably won't have to wait long to get the full scoop. In the meantime, we'll just sit back and wait for the battle of the £200 graphics cards to heat up.
