AMD's dual-GPU flagship graphics accelerator, the Radeon HD 5970, is closer than you think it is. Slated for 18th Nov, it includes every feature that allows AMD to reclaim the performance leadership it yearned for since the beginning of this year. In a series of company slides sourced from XtremeSystems Forums, it is learned that this could be one of the first accelerators which AMD "openly" markets as having a "Massive Headroom" for overclocking. While the clock speeds on the HD 5970 are lower than those on the single-GPU HD 5870, AMD lifted limits on what the driver-level ATI Overdrive software can offer in terms of clock speeds. While the engine (core) and memory speeds are set at 720/1000 MHz, the unlocked ATI Overdrive lets users take the clock speeds all the way up to 1000/1500 MHz. That's 30% for the core, and a stellar 50% for the memory.

To back such speeds, AMD seems to have splurged heavily on top-notch components on the PCB. To begin with, the PCB holds two high-grade AMD Cypress GPUs, each with all its 1600 stream processors enabled. The GDDR5 memory, while clocked at 1000 MHz or 4 GT/s, is technically rated by its manufacturer to run at 1250 MHz or 5 GT/s. All systems are powered by high-grade digital PWM voltage regulators, with independent Volterra VRM controllers that allow real-time monitoring, and software voltage control. Barring the five-odd cylindrical solid-state capacitors, Japanese pure ceramic surface-mount capacitors are extensively made use of.

Sources at TSMC told Hardspell that the next graphics processor (GPU) by ATI/AMD, the RV870 in the works have specifications such as:

• 40nm or 45nm fab process
• 140 sq. mm die size
• 192 ALUs, 960 stream processors
• 256-bit GDDR5 memory controller

It is believed that this GPU could perform 1.2 times better than RV770, purely based on the paper-specs.

Another interesting news is that R800, unlike its predecessors the R700 and R680, might not be a dual-GPU card but the world's first dual-core GPU.

The Taiwanese team of Tom's Hardware revealed several confidential (no more) slides pertaining to the AMD R700 product line, exposing details of the product codenamed "Spartan". It's now confirmed that it comes with a total of 2 GB of GDDR5 memory spanning across sixteen 1 Gb chips.

The picture is that of the HD4870 X2 itself in an angle never pictured before:The first slide shows certain details about the R700 "Spartan", the GPU core speed isn't disclosed yet. Crucial bits: 32Mx32 GDDR5, driver version 8.52 or later, deviceID: 0x9441.

With the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, codenamed R700, inching towards an August launch, ChipHell released fresh pictures of the R700, these are product images of the card in the form in which it will be sold, all built to order.

Visually, the R700 can be regarded as a black colored R680 (HD 3870 X2). While early shots of the cooler showed it to have a red colored leaf-blower, these shots show a black one. The appearance can be described as: Black PCB, black see-thru cooler cover, black leaf-blower, black heatspreader over the rear-side of the PCB.

The guys over at PConline.com.cn have managed again to be the first to post a full review of a graphics card that should be available later next month, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB (R680). First thing you'll notice is that the card beats NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 Ultra in every Futuremark benchmark and almost every game by quite a margin. Have a good time reading the full story here.

Here are some leaked pictures from ATI R680, courtesy of ChipHell. What you'll see on the PCB are 2x RV670XT GPUs and one PLX chip for communication between the two cores. All the sixteen memory chips (8 on the front and 8 on the back side) are missing from the board, probably because of the early development stage (that's not a finished product). Source said the card is using 0.7ns GDDR4 memory.

If everything goes by plan, in January next year AMD's R680 GPU which consists of two 55nm processor cores, can make its debut. Although not confirmed the R680 will consist of two RV670 GPU cores on the same board, at least according to the specs given. The company also made quick mention of the RV620 and RV635 GPU cores. These cores are nearly identical to the previous RV610 and RV630 processors, but will be produced on the 55nm node instead. As mentioned, all three of AMD's new GPUs are scheduled to launch next month.

The dual-RV670 GPU graphics card coming from AMD/ATI within the next few months is coming along very well. It's slated for a release in early January/February, and will not be any bigger than the current RV670. Instead, to fit the additional GPU, it will be longer. The R680, thanks to a dual-slot cooling solution, will sport massive stock clocks (800MHz!). We'll keep you posted as more R680 rumors arise.

While AMD is working very hard to ensure the RV670 launch will be a success, we're hearing very little about the alleged "R680" graphics card. According to AMD's partners, R680 is indeed a real AMD graphics card that is currently in development. At this point, it is supposedly a dual-RV670 solution, and we may be seeing it in retail channels before Christmas. We'll keep you posted.

Although there are no firm details about the specs yet, AMD has essentially confirmed that it is working on an R680 graphics processor by including it in the latest set of beta Catalyst drivers. According to VR-Zone the R680 will be released during the first quarter of 2008 and will support PCI Express 2.0, DX 10.1, Double Precision FP, Quad Crossfire and UVD, with a core clock frequency of 800MHz+ and 512MB/1GB GDDR3 memory. I would like to emphasise that those specs are just rumours though, and AMD has not made any official comment yet.