Oct 20, 2010 12:39 GMT  ·  By

Just about everyone's talking these days about AMD and their next-generation GPU series, the HD 6800, the fact that we're only a couple of days away from the official launch making the wait even more difficult.

Anyway, some of us were lucky enough to be able to catch a glimpse of these devices a bit earlier-on than others, and we can honestly say that we really loved what we've seen, so we've decided to share at least part of the experience with you.

So, as you will certainly remember from one of our latest articles on this topic, the first two video boards to make their appearance will be the AMD Radeon HD 6870 and the HD 6850, official press shots being already released.

However, during the only pre-release to be held in Europe, we've had the chance to take a very close and personal look at these cards, installed in a couple of test systems.

The devices in question were HIS implementations, which shouldn't really come as much of a surprise, given the company's long-term relationship with AMD (the Radeon HD 5970 and Radeon HD 5670 we've previously tested were manufactured by the same integrator).

From the looks of it, there weren't that many differences in terms of overall design, at least when compared to the reference cards depicted in the official press shots, and we can testify to the fact that they ran pretty smoothly, generating a very small amount of noise.

Before we go, we'll have to tell you one more thing.

As you probably suspect, we know a great deal more about the upcoming cards (including the sweet official specs, as well as some comparative benchmarks), and we can't wait to share them with you, but, unfortunately, you'll have to wait just a tad longer (until Friday morning, to be precise) in order to find out the nitty-gritty on the new HD 6800 series graphics cards from AMD.

Photo Gallery (5 Images)

AMD Radeon HD 6870 - I
AMD Radeon HD 6870 - IIAMD Radeon HD 6870 - III
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