14 DAY TRIAL // Just as everyone expected, early this morning, AMD has made official the Radeon HD 6790 graphics card that is based on the Barts LE core and is destined to make 1080p gaming more affordable for consumers as its price has been established at $150 US.
The Radeon HD 6790 is based on the Barts LE core, which is a cut down version of the Barts GPU that is used for the Radeon HD 6870 and the Radeon HD 6850.
As a result, the new GPU packs only 800 stream processors, 40 texturing units, 16 ROP units and a 256-bit memory interface that connects to 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer.
The clock speeds of the card are set at 840MHz for the core and 1050MHz (4200MHz effective) for the memory, but the GPU has a large overclocking headroom so most of AMD's board partners have launched customized factory overclocked version of the card.
Just as it was the case with the Radeon HD 5830, AMD's new creation is a third-tier card, so AMD's AIB partners are allowed to come up with their own board designs.
Various reviews of the card have already made their way online and most seem to agree that its performance comes under that of the 768MB version of the Nvidia GTX 460, although AMD's video card winds up being more energy efficient than its rival.
The recommended price tag for the Radeon HD 6790 is set at $150, which makes it just as expensive as the GTX 460 768MB and only $10 cheaper than the faster Radeon HD 6850 and GeForce GTX 460 1GB.
Various AIB partners have launched Radeon HD 6790 solutions, including Sapphire, HIS, XFX, PowerColor, VisionTek, Club3D, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ColorFire. (via TechPowerUp)