14 DAY TRIAL // Even though one may expect the Barts GPU to be the one used in AMD's next dual-GPU card, it seems that the Sunnyvale, California-based company has different plans for the so-called Radeon HD 6990 X2.
As end-users know, AMD is working on the HD 6970, a Cayman GPU-based board which will supposedly have 2 GB of memory and which may or may not have been delayed.
That board will see to the high-end market and may or may not prove to be more powerful than NVIDIA's own upcoming card, the GeForce GTX 580.
Enthusiasts that are interested in ultimate graphics card power may also know that AMD is designing a dual-GPU board.
Said card, apparently called Antilles and slated for December, will be known, as already mentioned, as Radeon HD 6990 X2 and will utilize a pair of Cayman chips, the same GPU as the one used in the HD 6970.
The existing HD 6000 cards, the Radeon HD 6850 and HD 6870, are powered by the Barts chip.
The supposed reason that the report invokes for not using Barts in the HD 6990 X2 is that, if it was the one chosen, the final performance would not be high enough compared to the existing HD 5970.
Unfortunately, no actual information is known on the board, except for some speculation regarding power draw and some hints about the chip itself.
For one, Cayman will supposedly resemble the Barts used in the HD 6950, while its thermal design power is speculated to reach roughly 300W.
There is no question as to whether or not it will be fast, but one can be sure that NVIDIA won't just take this lying down.
Regardless, more information on the GPU itself, and the possible capabilities of the HD 6990 X2, will be unveiled once the HD 6970 debuts, which may or may not be on November 22.