Ground stores almost all over have begun decking up their shelves with Radeon HD 6900 series graphics cards, disregarding launch dates set by AMD. Earlier today, an enthusiast from Germany showed off pictures of Radeon HD 6970 graphics card made by PowerColor that he bought off a store. A more recent set of pictures show a ground store in Asia decked up with XFX Radeon HD 6900 series graphics cards, ready to sell. Perhaps stores feel that the launch date is a couple of days too late to have much impact on X'mas sales, and that it's better to sell stock as it comes. XFX has Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 2 GB graphics cards up for sale, both cards stick to the AMD reference design, except a small aesthetic change, the rear panel sports an XFX-designed air exhaust vent.

With its launch not too far, AMD partners are busy sending their Radeon HD 6970 samples to reviews. It is inevitable then, that some would actually post pictures of those on the web ahead of launch. Some such pictures made it to HardwareLuxx.de, which shows PowerColor Radeon HD 6970 in fresh out of its retail box. The card, and the box itself, reveal quite a bit about the HD 6970. To begin with, Radeon HD 6970 (and HD 6950), are high-end single GPU graphics cards based on AMD's new "Cayman" high-end GPU. The HD 6970 is about as long as a Radeon HD 5870 (which it's intended to replace), and retains product design carried forward from the HD 6800 series graphics cards.

The HD 6970 from PowerColor sports 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, perhaps some of the memory chips are located on the reverse side of the PCB, which is why a back-plate is used to cool them. The top side of the card reveals the power connectors: one 8-pin, and a 6-pin PCI-E power; two CrossFire bridge fingers, and a tiny switch. It is rumored that this switch lets users select between two BIOS ROM chips present on the cards; one chip is programmable, and partners can store an overclocked profile, while the other is not programmable, and stores the AMD reference profile. It gives users a nice fallback in case they brick the card with a bad BIOS.

HIS today unveils the HIS 5450 Silence 1GB (64bit) DDR3 PCIe x1 Eyefinity graphics card, offering the best features and functionality in their class with AMD Eyefinity technology. Powered by the Radeon 5400 GPU, HIS 5450.

The HIS 5450 Series is designed to give you stunning high definition entertainment from your PC, no matter Blu-ray/HD DVD discs or other HD sources. Gamers will enjoy the ultimate immersive gaming experience with innovative "wrap around" multi-display capabilities. In addition, the HIS 5450 Silence 1GB is built as high-profile capable single-slot design with two low profile brackets included, making it possible to fit them in both full-height and half-height PCI Slots.

MSI is readying a new high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel P67 chipset, geared for overclocking, that features the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip, that gives out no less than eight PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical lane configurations may vary). The Big Bang Marshall is an XL-ATX motherboard, it makes use of a strong 18-phase CPU VRM that makes use of DrMOS, solid-state chokes, and POSCAP capacitors. The four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory. The PCI-E 2.0 x16 link from the processor is wired to the Lucid Hydra chip, which controls all installed graphics card, irrespective of make and generation, and creates a multi-GPU array with it. This means that you can pair AMD Radeon graphics cards with NVIDIA GeForce ones, and can even mix and match different GPUs of the same make.

That aside, the Big Bang Marshall features four SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports, dual gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel HD audio, and tons of overclocker-friendly features such as OC Genie, consolidated voltage measurement points, and a feature-rich BIOS. The board is slated for release after Intel's early-January launch of the 2011 Core processor family, which starts off with quad-core Core i7 and Core i5 processors.

A French online store listed AMD Radeon HD 6900 series graphics cards. Both branded by MSI, the Radeon HD 6950 part carries the model number R6950-2PM2D2G5, and packs 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, while the Radeon HD 6970 carries the model number R6970-2PM2D2GD5, and packs twice the amount - 2 GB GDDR5 memory. Besides the memory amount, the other only significant specification is the list price, €398.22 for the HD 6950, and €496.02 for the HD 6970. So far, both SKUs are known to be high-end single GPU cards. AMD's elusive HD 6900 series graphics cards will be launched next week.

Noctua today updated its DO line of CPU coolers for AMD Opteron based servers and workstations. The new NH-U12DO A3 and NH-U9DO A3 coolers come with two of Noctua's renowned premium quality fans, achieve further improved quiet cooling performance and support AMD's socket G34 platform.

"Our DX and DO line of coolers for Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron have made a name for themselves in the professional server and workstation market, but recently, many of our industry clients have requested support for the latest G34 based Opteron CPUs", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "The new A3 models now allow us to satisfy this demand and we're confident that many G34 builders will be relieved to hear that there's finally a quiet cooling solution for this platform."

AMD rolled out three new processors today, the six-core Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition, Athlon II X3 455, and the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition. The new flagship of AMD's processor lineup, the Phenom II X6 1100T, is based on the AM3 socket, supporting DDR3 and DDR2 memory on older AM2+ motherboards. It carries a nominal clock speed of 3.30 GHz, is based on the 45 nm "Thuban" silicon, features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 6 MB of L3 between all six cores. It features the TurboCore technology, which bumps clock speed by a few hundred MHz when it senses high load. As a Black Edition chip, it features an unlocked bus multiplier. Despite its increased clock speed, the 1100T has a TDP of 125W. This chip goes for US $265.

Next up, is the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition. Clocked at 3.40 GHz, the X2 565 is based on the Callisto silicon (which is Deneb with two cores locked), featuring 512 KB of cache per core, and 6 MB shared L3 cache. This one has a TDP of 80W, and is priced at US $115. Lastly, there's the Athlon II X3 455, a triple-core chip based on the "Rana" silicon (which is Propus with one core locked), it lacks an L3 cache, but features 512 KB L2 per core. With a TDP of 95W, this one goes for $87.

TechPowerUp today released GPU-Z version 0.4.9, our comprehensive graphics subsystem information and monitoring utility that lets you get important details about the installed graphics hardware in your computer, and lets you monitor parameters such as clock speeds, voltages, temperatures, fan speeds, and usages (on supported GPUs). The latest version of GPU-Z adds support for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 570 graphics card, support for detection of PCI-Express 3.0 bus interface, detection of some new upcoming entry-level AMD Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs, and a large number of stability and reliability updates.

With this version, PowerColor and TechPowerUp return with the PowerColor Hardware giveaway. This time we're giving away some even cooler next-generation graphics cards, including two upcoming high-end PowerColor Radeon graphics cards, two PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+, and two PowerColor HD 6850 PCS+ graphics cards. To participate, simply download the latest GPU-Z, and click on the "PowerColor Giveaway", follow the instructions.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.4.9

A list of changes follows.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today unleashes a duo of mini-ITX platforms designed for optimal energy-efficiency, home theatre PC and powered by AMD 800 series chipsets - including the world's first AMD mobile-on-desktop platform - the new ZOTAC M880G-ITX WiFi - and the socket AM3 compatible 880G-ITX WiFi.

Powered by AMD 800 series chipsets, the ZOTAC M880G-ITX WiFi and 880G-ITX WiFi platforms deliver a premium AMD experience in a mini-ITX form factor with USB 3.0, SATA 6.0 Gb/s and 802.11n WiFi technologies. High-performance integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 series graphics processor enables stunning visuals with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 technology.

Internationally renowned graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI announces today the R6870 Twin Frozr II graphics card. It is equipped with the latest 40nm AMD Radeon HD6870 GPU, IGB GDDR5 high-speed graphics memory, and the award-winning Twin Frozr II thermal solution. As a result, the operating temperature and noise of the R6870 Twin Frozr II are reduced by 19°C and 12.8dB respectively (versus the reference design). Also, the overvoltage function from the MSI-exclusive Afterburner software further enhances the OC potential of the Barts GPU, and AMD's Eyefinity Technology provides optimal multi-display 2D/3D output for gaming, productivity and entertainment. Along with the super reliable Solid CAPs which prolong product life and enhance product stability and quality, the R6870 Twin Frozr II is the best choice ever for power users looking for graphics cards with ultimate performance and low operating temperature.

With the introduction of AMD's Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs, we were made to expect a massive architectural change in the way AMD arranges its unified shaders. That, however, didn't happen with the Radeon HD 6800 series based on the 40 nm "Barts" GPU, which continued to maintain the VLIW5 configuration (comprising of SIMD units with 4 simple and 1 complex stream processing units). A recent presentation leaked to the internet reveals that the much talked about architectural change was saved for Cayman, the company's upcoming high-end GPU, on which will be based Radeon HD 6900 series graphics cards.

In VLIW4 architecture, equipotent stream processing units are arranged in groups of four along with general purpose registers. Although the four have equal capabilities, two out of four of these (occupying 3 and 4 issue slots) are assigned with some special functions. AMD looks to be conservative with the benefits of the new SIMD architecture. It claims that VLIW4 gives similar computational power as VLIW5, with 10% reduction in die area. It also simplifies scheduling.

At last, specifications of AMD's elusive Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6990 graphics accelerators made it to the internet, with slides exposing details such as stream processor count. The Radeon HD 6970 is based on a new 40 nm GPU by AMD, codenamed "Cayman". The dual-GPU accelerator being designed using two Cayman GPUs is codenamed "Antilles", and carries the product name Radeon HD 6990.

Cayman packs 1920 stream processors, spread across 30 SIMD engines, indicating the 4D stream processor architecture, generating single-precision computational power of 3 TFLOPs. It packs 96 TMUs, 128 Z/Stencil ROPs, and 32 color ROPs. Its memory bandwidth of 160 GB/s indicates that it uses a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The memory amount, however, seems to have been doubled to 2 GB on the Radeon HD 6970. Antilles uses two of these Cayman GPUs, combined computational power of 6 TFLOPs, a total of 3840 stream processors, total memory bandwidth of 307.2 GB/s, a total of 4 GB of memory, load and idle board power ratings at 300W and 30W, respectively.

MSI has unveiled its all-new 15.6-inch F Series FX610MX laptop, featuring AMD's new generation Phenom II triple-core processor and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470 discrete graphics card (512MB DDR3 VRAM). It comes with MSI's exclusive GPU Boost and ECO technologies which switch display and power management modes to meet your current needs, allowing you to strike the ideal balance between powerful multimedia performance and battery life.

MSI Marketing Director Sam Chern explains that the FX610MX employs a cinema-class 16:9 ratio power-saving LED display, ideal for viewing films, as well as MSI's Cinema Pro multimedia technology to enhance display color and clarity. What's more, the exterior of the FX610MX is sheathed in MSI's own raised totem seal coating to give it an extra touch of class and protect it against scratching, wear, and smudging. It also comes with a seamless, multipoint touchpad. You won't want to go anywhere without it.

Club 3D B.V. is pleased to announce the introduction of the next generation video card based on the Bart XT chipset, AMD' second generation DirectX 11. The new Club 3D Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 Overclocked Edition video card features now the AMD HD3D technology which allows you to play your favorite games in full stereo 3D with a single video card (up to 3 monitors), and enjoy with the new EyeSpeed technology to watch the latest Blu-ray movies in 3D.

Do things faster with AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology on the most demanding applications and take advantage of the Dolby True HD support for a theatre-quality experience. Now is available to you with 940 Mhz GPU Clock, 4400 Mhz GDDR5 and 1120 Stream Processors.

AMD's next-generation PC processor architecture that seeks to challenge the best Intel has, codenamed "Bulldozer", is set to make its desktop PC debut in 2Q next year, with a desktop processor die codenamed "Zambezi". AMD is seeking to target all market segments, including an enthusiast-grade 8-core segment, a performance 6-core segment, and a mainstream 4-core segment. The roadmap reveals that Zambezi will make its entry with the enthusiast-grade 8-core models first, starting with 125W and 95W models, trailed by 6-core and 4-core ones.

Another couple of architectural details revealed is that Zambezi's integrated memory controller (IMC) supports DDR3-1866 MHz as its standard memory type, just like Deneb supports DDR3-1333 MHz as its standard. DDR3-1866 MHz, or PC3-14900 as it's technically known, will churn out 29.8 GB/s in dual-channel mode, that's higher than triple-channel DDR3-1066 MHz (25.6 GB/s), which is Intel Core i7 LGA1366 processors' official memory standard. The 8-core and 6-core Zambezi models feature 8 MB of L3 cache, while the 4-core ones feature 4 MB. Another tidbit you probably already knew is that existing socket AM3 processors are forwards-compatible with AM3+ (Zambezi's socket), but Zambezi processors won't work on older AM3/AM2(+) socket motherboards.

AMD is teasing us with its latest Catalyst driver suite. Catalyst 10.11 WHQL from AMD has come after no less than five hotfix updates to the previous version Catalyst 10.10. The new version of Catalyst is reported by many to have been added to Windows Update late yesterday (11/16), but wasn't backed by any release notes document then. The driver is now uploaded on AMD's Game website. AMD Catalyst software suite includes drivers for all current ATI/AMD Radeon GPUs, AMD integrated graphics, and other ATI multimedia products. This version of AMD Catalyst brings a small number of game-specific performance enhancements, as well as fixes a few bugs. To begin with, performance is expected to go up by 3% for Battleforge, on Radeon HD 5800 series GPUs, both single and CrossFire, with AA disabled. Up to 5% performance increase can be expected for STALKER: Call of Pripyat benchmark.


DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 10.11 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

Highlights of changes follows.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform manufacturer, and a subsidiary of MiTAC International Corp., today announced four server platforms that are fully compatible with AMD FireStream GPU compute accelerators.

The AMD FireStream GPU compute accelerators are general purpose graphics processing units that deliver exceptional floating point processing capabilities, and are used widely in HPC, cloud and enterprise-scale applications, helping reduce cycle times with up to 2.64 TFLOPs of single precision performance.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announces its PCS+ series expansion to the HD6870 product lineup. As part of the award-winning PCS series, the latest PCS+ HD6870 is enhanced with factory overclocked settings and PowerColor's outstanding custom cooling solution. The PCS+ HD6870 is sure to deliver immersive gaming performance to hard core gamers.

The PCS+ HD6870 clocks in at 940MHz core speed, while memory clocks in at 1100MHz; with the most advanced GDDR5 onboard memory, it easily enhances data transmission rates up to 4.4Gbps and boosts up the gaming performance, ready to tackle all the most demanding game titles.

Hot on the heels of the global launch of the new HD 6000 series of graphics cards based on the latest generation of graphics technology from AMD, SAPPHIRE Technology announces its first enhanced product - the HD 6850 TOXIC Edition. The SAPPHIRE HD 6850 TOXIC Edition has the same internal architecture as the standard model, with 960 stream processors and 48 texture processing units, but clock speeds are increased to 820MHz for the core and 1100Mhz (4.4 Gb/sec effective) for the memory giving users a considerable boost in performance. In addition, the efficient SAPPHIRE original cooler ensures that there is a good margin for performance tuning (overclocking) by enthusiast users. A new overclocking tool - TriXX - is available to SAPPHIRE users as a download from the SAPPHIRE Select Club - free for SAPPHIRE enthusiasts to join online.

Unlike the standard model, the SAPPHIRE HD 6850 TOXIC Edition has the more versatile output configuration of two DVI, one HDMI and two mini DisplayPort connectors. Using two of the DVI/HDMI outputs as well as the two DisplayPorts enables this card to support up to four monitors in Eyefinity (SLS) mode. With the release of the DisplayPort v1.2 drivers, it will be also be possible to daisy chain additional DisplayPort v1.2 monitors from each DisplayPort output.

AMD released the fifth hotfix update for Catalyst 10.10 WHQL. Catalyst 10.10e, like Catalyst 10.10c Hotfix, packs a number of game-specific performance improvements, and extends MLAA (morphological anti-aliasing) support introduced by Catalyst 10.10d Hotfix, to all Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs. The new Catalyst AI controls in control center are extended to Radeon HD 5000 GPUs, these were previously available only to users of Radeon HD 6800 series. Support for new stereoscopic 3D capable hardware was also added.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 10.10e Hotfix Update

A detailed list of changes follows.

Back at its launch, AMD didn't allow its board partners to release custom-design Radeon HD 6870 graphics cards right away, though such a restriction wasn't in place for the HD 6850. They were, however, allowed to come up with factory-overclocked models, that stick to the AMD reference design. That restriction could soon be lifted, with one of the first pictures of a completely non-reference design HD 6870 graphics card, the PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+, smiling for cameras.

The Professional Cooling System Plus (PCS+) from PowerColor makes use of a high-grade cooler that facilitates better overclocking, and runs quieter compared to the reference design cooler. It consists of a racy-looking shroud under which there's a large GPU heatsink, which is cooled by a 90 mm fan. The PCB also looks to be non-reference design. The card is also overclocked out of the box, 940/4400 MHz (core/memory, GDDR5 effective), vs. reference speeds of 900/4200 MHz. The Radeon HD 6870 is based on the 40 nm "Barts" silicon, it packs 1120 stream processors, and connects to 1 GB of memory over a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ is expected to release towards the end of this month.

Originally poised for a November 22 launch, and plagued by reported delays, the Radeon HD 6900 series from AMD is indeed staring down at a three-week delay. According to a new release by AMD circulated to press sites, AMD is pinning the new launch date to be "in the week of" December 13, 2010. AMD tried to explain that the Radeon HD 5800 series is still in strong demand, and the Radeon HD 5970 is still maintaining performance leadership, perhaps blaming congestion in inventories for the delay, and not anything to do with manufacturing.

The first part of the explanation is unconvincing. If AMD did not want to disturb Radeon HD 5800 series sales, there wouldn't be Radeon HD 6800 series, which was launched with the idea of giving HD 5800-like performance at more affordable prices. The second part, however, is hard to dispute. AMD signed off its release saying that enthusiasts will find the products worth the wait. December 13, however, could disturb some gifting (or self-gifting) plans for Xmas. Given the swamped courier and logistics services at that time, it will be tough to get a Radeon HD 6900 series product in time for the celebrations.

After the Radeon HD 6800 series, the rest of AMD's Northern Islands family of GPUs seem to be taking their own sweet time making it to the market. With the HD 6900 series almost certain to be off its November 22 launch date, lower-end GPUs slated for early 2011 are still far away. Meanwhile Sapphire reportedly took the opportunity to rebrand the existing "Redwood" based Radeon HD 5550 to "Radeon HD 6390", in a bid to make some monies in Russia.

The Radeon HD 6300, at least the HD 6350, HD 6370 are reserved for an upcoming GPU codenamed "Caicos", its AMD reference board even made it through a casual photo-session. The HD 5550 and HD 6390 were found to have the same device IDs. An older version of GPU Caps Viewer detects it as HD 5550, while the latest version sees it as HD 6390. The HD 5550 is based on the 40 nm "Redwood" GPU, it has 320 out of 400 stream processors enabled, and a 128-bit wide memory interface to typically connect to GDDR3 memory. Some premium models also feature GDDR5 memory.

Originally slated for 22 November, AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 6900 series featuring the company's new enthusiast-grade "Cayman" GPU core reportedly ran into delays. A more recent report by VR-Zone suggests that these delays are not because of any yield-issue related to the GPU, but shortage of a new high-grade driver-MOSFET (DrMOS) chip used on the reference board, sourced from Texas Instruments. The said component looks to feature a more compact package compared to the ones commonly made by Renesas and the likes, which is why AMD seems to have chosen it. The TI-made component is in short supply, and is a very recent introduction by its makers. AMD has a knack of using exotic and high-grade components on PCBs of its high-end graphics cards. A driver-MOSFET is a component that combines the driver IC, and MOSFETs into a single package.

At its annual Financial Analyst Day, AMD (NYSE: AMD) demonstrated how its unique combination of CPU and GPU computing technologies on a single die will enable breakthrough capabilities in an innovative processor design with planned OEM system availability in early 2011. AMD executives detailed how this new class of processor, AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), is poised to create a sustained position of advantage by powering demanding PC workloads in sleek form factors with long battery life, pacing future AMD growth. AMD Fusion APUs are built from DirectX 11-capable GPU technology and either low-power or high-performance multi-core x86 CPU technology. These APUs are designed to vastly improve today's Internet, video processing and playback, and gaming (client and online) experiences. For the first time, AMD also demonstrated its new high-performance x86 multi-core CPU architecture codenamed "Bulldozer" and provided additional information around the "Bulldozer" launch schedule.