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Radeon 6000-series cards pose for camera?

by Pete Mason on 6 September 2010, 13:57

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), ATi Technologies (NYSE:AMD)

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With AMD's Radeon 6000-series GPUs expected to be announced in the next month or so, the rumour-mill is cranking up to full-speed leaking morsels of information to the world.  The latest claim to be photos of two upcoming cards - one from the top of the company's range, and another from considerably lower down the scale.

Cayman

Posted on the forums at Chiphell, the first card is supposedly based on the Cayman XT GPU, which would become the Radeon HD 6870.  Obviously there aren't too many details that we can pull from a picture, though the backplate is quite unusual.  There appear to be two DVI, one HDMI and two Mini DisplayPort outputs, potentially allowing for four- or five-way Eyefinity set-ups.  Of course, it's possible that - like the incumbent cards - not all of the outputs can be used simultaneously. 

Other than that, the only visible details are two CrossFire-connectors, two PCIe power-adapters and a red and black shroud similar to those used on high-end 5000-series cards.  Interestingly, the fan is emblazoned with an ATI sticker, though this might just be because it is an early sample.

Caicos

The second picture purports to be a part of the 6300-series, powered by the Caicos GPU.  This is clearly a lower-end card since it features a low-profile, single-slot, passively-cooled design.  According to the source, the card has a 64-bit memory interface, 1GB DDR3 and two outputs.  While one is probably a DVI port, the other could be either HDMI or a full-size DisplayPort connector.

It shouldn't be too much longer until the official announcement of the 6000-series cards, but until then we can all but guarantee that various leaks will continue to fuel rumours about these new GPUs.



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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If I don't see dual-DVI models, I will officially spank someone at AMD.
I'm sure displayport has many excellent qualities, but anyone doing any sort of photo or artwork is NOT going to want active converters on their monitor cables!
chis
but anyone doing any sort of photo or artwork is NOT going to want active converters on their monitor cables!
Why?

The signalling is different, but the picture being sent is the same, the adapters just make this same data available over fewer connections to DVI/HDMI.
chis
If I don't see dual-DVI models…

Of which cards? The 68x0 series will have dual-DVI along with a bevy of other connectors, and assuming they follow the same pattern as the 5k series so will the 67x0s. Low profile cards can't fit two DVI ports, so you'd be looking at an adapter of some kind with a low profile card, and the lower end 6x00 cards are targeted at home users who don't care what adapters their display goes through as long as it gets there in the end. And passive DP - DVI adapters work very nicely as long as you're not trying to get a 3+ screen eyefinity setup working…

Surely the people who would be concerned about native dual DVI in a lower-end card will be going for the FirePro workstation cards, rather than the Radeon consumer cards, and I'm sure they'll be catered for (albeit at a 200% markup ;) )…
chis
If I don't see dual-DVI models, I will officially spank someone at AMD.
I'm sure displayport has many excellent qualities, but anyone doing any sort of photo or artwork is NOT going to want active converters on their monitor cables!

Anyone doing any sort of photo or artwork is going to have a decent monitor with display port… aren't they? I mean, my Dell 2408 does, and its several years old now.
chis
If I don't see dual-DVI models
How can you not see it? The picture clearly shows two DVI ports.
chis
but anyone doing any sort of photo or artwork is NOT going to want active converters on their monitor cables!
Nonsense. The same digital image will appear on your screen. It's 100% digital so even if you have to adapt it 3 times (DP > DVI > HDMI), there will be zero degradation.