AMD Radeon HD 6870 Reference Design Looks Refined, Ready to Market

[Mr McC]

and my criticism would be laid on those who don't wait for something to acutely come out before we get SO deep into hypotheticals.

That's a fair comment, but nothing about the name change aids clarification or benefits the consumer in any way: that much we know already.

 

[dir_d]

I'd love to say naming isn't important but it is.

The 5850 destroyed the 4850
The 5870 destroyed the 4870

It looks like:

The 6870 equals the 5870
The 6850 equals the 5850.

I personally find that sad. You expect the next gen to be more powerful. I know giving same performance for lower wattage is an increase but personally i called that making a more efficient model.

I think it will mean stupendously silly prices and the card i await (the Cayman) will be perhaps excessively priced. I am no NV fan when it comes to marketing but AMD may lose some of their fan base if they keep turning the dollar buck thumbscrews.

However, we all, I am sure, are waiting for W1zz's review.

Look at it this way...these cards are sort of a refresh on the same node so honestly it would make sense for them to equal each other then have a 69X0 card trump over the rest.

Because ATI added some new features and changed the way the shaders work they couldnt keep the refresh as the 5000 series. I think ATI did the right thing by renaming the cards to which model is supposed to compete with, ie... 6870=5870. We will just see if the top dual card will be named 6990 or 6870x2 or 6970x2.

 

[wolf]

This is one thing i had not been thinking about before and assume other are nto thinking about, could the name change be relative to a change in power due to the change in shader architecture .

the change in architecture is the most promising thing to me, it has a lot of potential.

 

[bear jesus]

the change in architecture is the most promising thing to me, it has a lot of potential.

It has got me thinking, if 480 (yes i know higher clocked shaders) nvidia cuda cores beats 1600 AMD stream processors then could 1280 new AMD stream processors beat 1600 old ones, i would hope yes.

 

[1Kurgan1]

Interesting, will be waiting for performance numbers, doubt I'll have the money for one right off the bat.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I think we need to wait until performance is revealed before making an snap decisions. We currently don't have any reliable information to know how these cards perform yet.

 

[erocker]

I think we need to wait until performance is revealed before making an snap decisions. We currently don't have any reliable information to know how these cards perform yet.

Yes, and while the naming is a bit concerning, I do believe AMD knows what price/performance is.

 

[Delta6326]

How is this naming scheme confusing? it will be just like these names but instead of 5870, 5850 it will say 6870, 6850 and in the parentheses it will say (Barts Xt, Pro) most likely
5870,5850

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I recall similar fud being posted about the 5870 series before release. How it was just a refresh, it wouldn't be much faster than 4870, etc. To later find out that the opposite was true and nvidia didn't have a response for several months. I see the same thing happening again. People really need to reserve any opinions until actual verified performance is shown to know what's going on. Instead of repeating the same thing over and over again when AMD is about to releases a new series of cards. IMO, it's getting really old.

 

[cadaveca]

If it's getting old, maybe it's time to stop paying attention, ECH. Marketing has quite obviously led to this, so you have noone to blame but them. Of course it's the same every time..they lack any real skill at this stuff...they could so totally do things better, but they don't...




I mean really...do you honestly have any faith in AMD/ATi's marketing practices? Do you really?


Frankly, I'm a bit sick of all the whining, but I don't say shit.

As far as I am concerned this is still all fake, as you kinda seem to hint at. I'm waiting for official word, but AMD never seems to be able to keep this stuff under control...

They can talk about Bulldozer for MONTHS ahead of release, but can't say shit about these cards? Um...do you see the fail in that logic?

 

[CDdude55]

How is this naming scheme confusing? it will be just like these names but instead of 5870, 5850 it will say 6870, 6850 and in the parentheses it will say (Barts Xt, Pro) most likely
5870,5850

But Barts is supposed to be the middle of the road performance cards(according to that graph that was posted not to long ago), so if the Barts is the 6870 and 6850, then the 6770 and the 6750 would be what?, Cayman?

The confusion for me is what code name belongs to what card. I'm hearing a ton of different answers.

Lets just wait for the benchmarks and performance of these cards though, as that's the most relevant thing that no one can actually prove right now.

 

[finndrummer]

So theres no new features? Still just eye infinity?

+EyeSpeed ???

+3D

Nice looking cards but crappy renaming.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

If it's getting old, maybe it's time to stop paying attention, ECH. Marketing has quite obviously led to this, so you have noone to blame but them. Of course it's the same every time..they lack any real skill at this stuff...they could so totally do things better, but they don't...




I mean really...do you honestly have any faith in AMD/ATi's marketing practices? Do you really?


Frankly, I'm a bit sick of all the whining, but I don't say shit.

As far as I am concerned this is still all fake, as you kinda seem to hint at. I'm waiting for official word, but AMD never seems to be able to keep this stuff under control...

They can talk about Bulldozer for MONTHS ahead of release, but can't say shit about these cards? Um...do you see the fail in that logic?

I think you are talking on your own soapbox as it really isn't related as a response to my post. I'm talking about the opinions made without waiting for performance proof 1st. IE:Thinking that the card will suck before waiting for official performance data a few weeks before launch. Something I consider as fud. That has nothing to do with AMD's marketing. Furthermore, none of the performance claims that have been made were verified only opinionated. That's not marketing . So again, it would make sense to wait and see 1st before making snap decisions (as was the case with the 5800 series and 4800 series). Which in and of itself is getting old.

 

[Mindweaver]

I'm just confused why they show the lower end XT's before the top end XT's? It's kind of like showing everybody the new 9600 XT when everybody was waiting on the 9800 XT!.. I wonder if they are having heat issues with the higher end cards? I don't know only time will tell. :grabs a chair and waits:

EDIT: Pulls out my 9800 XT and rubs it for good luck!...hehehe

 

[wolf]

I think that just like Barts they are trying to keep a lid on it as long as possible thats all. and I have a feeling instead of Cayman being 2x Barts like Cypress was to Juniper, it will be 1.5x, because that's about as far as they can go on 40nm while still not weighing in too heavy or hot.

 

[cadaveca]

I'm talking about the opinions made without waiting for performance proof 1st. That has nothing to do with marketing. Furthermore, no of the performance claims that have been made were verified only opinionated. That's not marketing .

Yeah, you got it exactly.


Why isn't marketing fixing this crap? why do they talk aobut Bulldozer now, but basically nothing about 6-series?

People would have a much better idea of what's going on if they(AMD) were a bit more open, as they are with Bulldozer.

But marketing does nothing, so you are left listening(reading) to everyone's guess, unless you ignore pre-release threads. You come in bitching about the speculation, but that's all we got!

Maybe you should pop into the TS server some time, ECH. What I say is exactly what I mean.

AMD's gpu marketing is at fault here, and that's all. If they did thier jobs, none of this crap would be speculation...so go bitch to them. Your post basically told everyone to shut up, and sry, but I'm not listening to you. Did you read the thread title?

People really need to reserve any opinions until actual verified performance is shown to know what's going on. Instead of repeating the same thing over and over again when AMD is about to releases a new series of cards. IMO, it's getting really old.

Title's pretty obvious..."design looks refined, ready to market"

Looks...so noone really knows. Thank you, Mr Obvious.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Yeah, you got it exactly.


Why isn't marketing fixing this crap? why do they talk aobut Bulldozer now, but basically nothing about 6-series?

People would have a much better idea of what's going on if they(AMD) were a bit more open, as they are with Bulldozer.

But marketing does nothing, so you are left listening(reading) to everyone's guess, unless you ignore pre-release threads. You come in bitching about the speculation, but that's all we got!

Maybe you should pop into the TS server some time, ECH. What I say is exactly what I mean.

AMD's gpu marketing is at fault here, and that's all. If they did thier jobs, none of this crap would be speculation...so go bitch to them. Your post basically told everyone to shut up, and sry, but I'm not listening to you. Did you read the thread title?

Why do you forget history so fast though? This crap is similar to to what was posted about the 4000 series and 5000 series. Once the card was released it was later forgotten and never told from again until some (like me) make reference to it as a response to your post. What I'm saying is there is no need to go through all that again in the 1st place. Perhaps learn something from the fud from days past instead of being so quick to forget what happened. To later repeat the same crap again.

IMO, AMD's marketing doesn't have to try to correct or verify information so close to release. We are only days away from any real information at this point. Unless the dates have changed...

 

[cadaveca]

Yes, and I agree, of course.

But who controls that?


MARKETING. Go yell at them for not doing anything better this time. If anything, it's worse this time.

And yes, days away, so they should stop sitting on thier hands, and get to work, fixing things. Instead, they do nothing. It's not like they have other stuff to do..unless they aren't really capable of doing a good job...oh right, this is AMD we are talking about.


Nevermind, move on.

 

[CDdude55]

I think it's good to have some speculation and some curiosity as to what this series is going to turn out to be, but of course, all this is just from what we have seen from a bunch of different sites and not much of it is actually confirmed.

It's really just a matter of waiting as everyone has said, but of course, every time one of these threads come back up, the only thing we can do is bring rumor and speculation.

 

[Lionheart]

The card looks awesome, but seriously piss off with the new name scheming

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Yes, and I agree, of course.

But who controls that?


MARKETING. Go yell at them for not doing anything better this time. If anything, it's worse this time.

And yes, days away, so they should stop sitting on thier hands, and get to work, fixing things. Instead, they do nothing. It's not like they have other stuff to do..unless they aren't really capable of doing a good job...oh right, this is AMD we are talking about.


Nevermind, move on.

We will simply just disagree here. I can't see why I would blame marketing for someone's snap decision on a product's performance that wasn't released yet. They have committed to a certain date to reveal information about their new products/services and it's been the norm for sometime now. As I recall something their competitor also adhere to in one fashion or another.

 

[Mindweaver]

Yea screw the name scheme.. I just want to know which one is the fastest and where can i buy one!...lol

 

[Lionheart]

Yea screw the name scheme.. I just want to know which one is the fastest and where can i buy one!...lol

I like the way you think

 

[wolf]

...seriously piss off with the new name scheming

Yea screw the name scheme.. I just want to know which one is the fastest and where can i buy one!...lol

I like the way you think

wait, what?

 

[cadaveca]

We will simply just disagree here. I can't see why I would blame marketing for someone's snap decision on a product's performance that wasn't released yet. They have committed to a certain date to reveal information about their new products/services and it's been the norm for sometime now. As I recall something their competitor also adhere to in one fashion or another.

Again, I can only use Bulldozer's marketing, coming from the same company, to base my opinion on in this situation. Clearly there is a huge difference between the two sides of AMD's marketing, and frankly, Bulldozer's marketing is far better. There's little to no speculation left there, and yet, none knows how it will perform.

I don't care what any other company is doing. I mean really now...the old "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" really fits in to describe my thoughts on that.

I don't care what they commited too...or what any other company does...I'm not talking about other companies, just AMD here. You don't justify stupidity because everyone else is stupid. And making bad commitments, and then holding them, is stupid too.

You know... yes, I may be asking for alot, but guess what...if none asks, nothing will ever change. And clearly AMD/ATi's marketing department hasn't learnt anything either...adn that really needs to change.

There's NOTHING on the AMD site about these cards. A simple official page saying Barts is this 6870, etc, reveals nothing, and would quell alot of the rumours.

But instead they are waiting? They are gonna lose sales(and thereby marketshare and consumer confidence) that way.