AMD Radeon HD 6850 Specs, Pricing Surfaces

[btarunr]

AMD's latest graphics processors is just around the corner, and one of the first of them is the Radeon HD 6800 series. The value version of it is the Radeon HD 6850, its most probable specifications have surfaced. To begin with, HD 6850 is based on AMD's new Barts GPU, built on the 40 nm process. The source mentions that the SKU will have 800 stream cores enabled, from earlier reports we're lead to believe that these stream cores are individually more complex than AMD's traditional 5D (4 simple + 1 complex) approach to unified shaders. There is a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory, the card uses 5 GT/s memory chips, so the memory should be clocked around 1200 MHz (or 4800 MHz effective), if not more. The core is clocked at 775 MHz. Its FOB (freight on board) price is expected to be US $175. Power is drawn from a single 6-pin PCI-E power connector, the draw is expected to be less than 150W. Partners have the option of using a premium blower-type cooler, or a cost-effective heatsink-type cooler. The latter had been pictured a while back, posted below for reference.



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[Tatty_Two]

So this is the bart "Pro" the little brother of the XT?

 

[bear jesus]

With only 800 shaders, although they are improved it does sound like it should be the replacement for the 5750/6750 instead of the next next step up in power. I assume the new shader architecture brings a lot more performance for there to be an acceptable gap between the 6770 and 6850.

 

[Benetanegia]

What is "freight on board" exactly? According to definitions I understand it is the price before shipping to retailers? Before transportation and retailer profits have been added?

 

[HXL492]

The cooler looks a little too plain. I prefer to have a sticker on mine.

Is this is new plan? Nvidia and AMD using coolers other than blower style coolers for better temps or possibly fpr noise reduction

 

[btarunr]

What is "freight on board" exactly? According to definitions I understand it is the price before shipping to retailers? Before transportation and retailer profits have been added?

The price of the card as it's placed on the ship from Hong Kong. So the cost from HK to <insert destination> + import duty of that destination + local distribution + local retailer's margin + all local taxes are to be added. So expect it to be $200~$220 (conservative estimate).

 

[bear jesus]

The cooler looks a little too plain. I prefer to have a sticker on mine.

Is this is new plan? Nvidia and AMD using coolers other than blower style coolers for better temps or possibly fpr noise reduction

The cooler will have a sticker, that is proberley an engineering sample. As far as the cooler goes this type is cheaper thus lower price but board partners will have the option of using this cooler, a blower style or a custom one and this has been common with quite a few cards over the past few generations but before cards got that power hungry/hot non blower style coolers were on almost all cards.

The price of the card as it's placed on the ship from Hong Kong. So the cost from HK to <insert destination> + import duty of that destination + local distribution + local retailer's margin + all local taxes are to be added. So expect it to be $200~$220 (conservative estimate).

I would agree, with varying costs between board partners i would hope they all come under about $250 max... but under $200 would be much nicer .

 

[Benetanegia]

The price of the card as it's placed on the ship from Hong Kong. So the cost from HK to <insert destination> + import duty of that destination + local distribution + local retailer's margin + all local taxes are to be added. So expect it to be $200~$220 (conservative estimate).

Yeah, that's what I thought, but in that case $200-$220 looks very conservative indeed. Most retailers I know usually add some 25% for themselves, although that includes local transportation and taxes (but not VAT).

 

[Tatty_Two]

I would agree, with varying costs between board partners i would hope they all come under about $250 max... but under $200 would be much nicer .

especially as you can get a 1GB GTX460 for $220-230 ATM...... probably less when these cards are released.

 

[Yukikaze]

especially as you can get a 1GB GTX460 for $220-230 ATM...... probably less when these cards are released.

And a GTX470 can be bought for 269$, too.

 

[meirb111]

only 800 shaders the 5850 had 1440 shaders

whats up with that?

 

[Nemo~]

So this is replace for what card?
5850?
I lost track when they started rebranding cards

I'm aiming for 5850 replace, maybe something a bit better if the price is right.

 

[skugpezz]

I am in love

 

[Mr McC]

So this is replace for what card?
5850?
I lost track when they started rebranding cards

I'm aiming for 5850 replace, maybe something a bit better if the price is right.

Nobody knows yet, despite all the speculation, but given the design of the cooler cowl, it may double up as a gardening trowel.

 

[Fourstaff]

Anybody thinks that 6xxx will be a side-grade rather than an upgrade? Since AMD is redesigning their chip, I think they are trying to avoid the failure of Nvidia's Fermi by staying conservative.

 

[Tatty_Two]

whats up with that?

Different architecture and setup, these are supposed to be more efficient...... think of it as having 2 fiat cars, each has a 1300cc engine, combined they will not give as much Horsepower as a 6 Litre V12 Ferrari

 

[Tatty_Two]

Anybody thinks that 6xxx will be a side-grade rather than an upgrade? Since AMD is redesigning their chip, I think they are trying to avoid the failure of Nvidia's Fermi by staying conservative.

Actually, to be fair, NVidia is selling a large amount of Fermi ATM, things have picked up with them considerably since the 460.

 

[Imsochobo]

Actually, to be fair, NVidia is selling a large amount of Fermi ATM, things have picked up with them considerably since the 460.

if you ask me nvidia only have two cards to compete in descrete graphics.

460 and 470
the rest is pretty much rubish...

And they haven't picked up that much, loosing steady the last 12 months. atleast here.

 

[Benetanegia]

whats up with that?

Many things. The first thing is that AMD has changed the naming scheme, this card is not a replacement for the 5850, but the replacement for the 5750. Performance is going to be lower than HD5850.

The second thing is that AMD cards never really had 1600 or 1440 SPs. What they had was 320 or 288 shader processors, each of them being vector 5 or 5D (5x320=1600, 5x288=1440). Now they are 4D, in this case is 200x4= 800 and these ones are more complex/can do more than the old ones. Through experimentation it was constantly demostrated that the average use was usually less than 4, in between 3 and 4 so in practice the HD5850 could have been seen as a 864-1152 SP card. They have just taken away a shader that was never really in use anyways.

 

[20mmrain]

Sigh one big disappointment....only one Xfire connection on this engineering sample. Which means they might not have 3 way or 4 way support for Xfire. Which would be a huge mistake IMO. One of the great things about ATI is that you can buy their lower end cards and expect most of the same options on them as if you were buying AMD's/ATI's top of the line.

Hopefully they will let the partners redesign that and allow 3 and 4 way Xfire. Or at the very least allow Barts XT to have it.

 

[meirb111]

Many things. The first thing is that AMD has changed the naming scheme, this card is not a replacement for the 5850, but the replacement for the 5750. Performance is going to be lower than HD5850.

The second thing is that AMD cards never really had 1600 or 1440 SPs. What they had was 320 or 288 shader processors, each of them being vector 5 or 5D (5x320=1600, 5x288=1440). Now they are 4D, in this case is 200x4= 800 and these ones are more complex/can do more than the old ones. Through experimentation it was constantly demostrated that the average use was usually less than 4, in between 3 and 4 so in practice the HD5850 could have been seen as a 864-1152 SP card. They have just taken away a shader that was never really in use anyways.

thanks for the info from what i see this is like 3xxx series not much for an upgrade
from the 2xxx

 

[bear jesus]

this card is not a replacement for the 5850, but the replacement for the 5750. Performance is going to be lower than HD5850.

If they rebrand the 5770/50 to 6770/50 is it really replacing anything though? i'm really hoping this is much more powerful than expected, it would make me happy if the 6870 beat the 5870 even if its only by a tiny bit due to redesigned shader architecture as then it would seam like it has a good position in the new range.

But of corse i dont have a clue what i'm talking about untill the range is out and tested as so far i have no clue what any model will perform like including the 6770/50 as they could be improved on for all i know (faster core clock/memory?).

Sigh one big disappointment....only one Xfire connection on this engineering sample. Which means they might not have 3 way or 4 way support for Xfire. Which would be a huge mistake IMO. One of the great things about ATI is that you can buy their lower end cards and expect most of the same options on them as if you were buying AMD's/ATI's top of the line.

Hopefully they will let the partners redesign that and allow 3 and 4 way Xfire. Or at the very least allow Barts XT to have it.

I would hope its just a board limitation not chip/hardware limit to keep the reference models as cheap as possible and that board partners will be able to add a second.

 

[btarunr]

only 800 shaders the 5850 had 1440 shaders
whats up with that?

HD 5850 had 1440 shaders, and HD 6950 could have 1792 shaders. That's what's up. HD 6950 is the successor to 5850.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Many things. The first thing is that AMD has changed the naming scheme, this card is not a replacement for the 5850, but the replacement for the 5750. Performance is going to be lower than HD5850.

The second thing is that AMD cards never really had 1600 or 1440 SPs. What they had was 320 or 288 shader processors, each of them being vector 5 or 5D (5x320=1600, 5x288=1440). Now they are 4D, in this case is 200x4= 800 and these ones are more complex/can do more than the old ones. Through experimentation it was constantly demostrated that the average use was usually less than 4, in between 3 and 4 so in practice the HD5850 could have been seen as a 864-1152 SP card. They have just taken away a shader that was never really in use anyways.

So whats the replacement for the 5850 then? 6950?

 

[[Ion]]

This looks terrible and deceiving to the customers :shadedshu

With this name, it should be faster than a HD5850, probably on HD5870 levels. But it looks more like ~HD5770 level performance