14 DAY TRIAL // While NVIDIA may be preparing to release its entry-level video card, Advanced Micro Devices is not slacking off either, being close to releasing the whole HD 6000 line, of which the HD 6850 has now been allegedly pictured.
The Radeon HD 6000 series of video controllers is based on the same manufacturing process, 40nm that is, as the HD 5000 series.
Still, even so, the new family of GPUs they are based on are more powerful than their predecessors and meant to give NVIDIA's Fermi chips a run for their money.
The AMD Radeon HD 6870 high-end card has already been pictured and, to some extent, detailed, although its frequencies are still under wraps.
Now, the HD 6850 has, apparently, been detailed as well and a photo of it has reportedly made its way to the web.
The board is powered by a graphics processing unit with a clock speed of 775 MHz and features 1 GB of GDDR5 VRAM running at 4,000 MHz.
Furthermore, the model is designed with 800 Stream processors and a memory interface of 256 bits, which should enable a significant level of gaming and multimedia prowess.
Not only that, but its maker also threw in DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort video output connectors, no doubt for Eyefinity support and compatibility with a wide range of displays.
Finally, the whole device takes up two PCI Express slots and will draw the necessary extra power from the PSU, via one or more 6-pin PCIe connectors.
Needless to say, CrossFire multi-GPU setups are supported by this Barts-powered video adapter.
Of course, users should keep in mind that these are, in the end, only rumors, so any has as much of a chance to prove false in time as it does of being true. Unfortunately, pricing and availability details have not even been alluded to.