Here are some of the first pictures of an AIC partner branded NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, the Galaxy GTX 970 GC. Spotted across Chinese PC enthusiast forums and social networks, the latest set of leaks cover not just pictures of what the GTX 970 looks like, but also what's under its hood. To begin with, Galaxy's card appears to be built for the high-end market segment. A meaty twin-fan aluminium fin-stack heatsink, coupled by a spacey backplate cover a signature Galaxy blue PCB, holding NVIDIA's new GTX 970 GPU, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. The card appears to feature a high-grade VRM that draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors.

AMD is on course to releasing its latest "Southern Islands" GPU family, and a fleet of desktop graphics card SKUs based on it, which will be led by a new high-performance GPU, codenamed "Tahiti", which will make up Radeon HD 7900 series; followed by performance GPU "Pitcairn", on which HD 7800 series will be based; "Thames" and "Lombok" making up the rest of the lineup. According to a report by DonanimHaber, HD 7970 (working name) is expected to be competitive with (or outperform) GeForce GTX 580, and priced at US $499. The HD 7950 will be competitive with (again, or outperform) GeForce GTX 570, being priced at US $399.

Things get interesting with Pitcairn, which is the successor of "Barts". This performance GPU is designed for sweet-spot SKUs, such as HD 7870 and HD 7850, which will be competitive with GeForce GTX 560 Ti / GTX 560, and priced at US $299 and $199, respectively. The Radeon HD 7670 will be particularly expensive, priced at US $179, followed by HD 7650 at $119. Further, it was reported that HD 7970 and HD 7950 will have a standard memory size of 3 GB.

Want a new graphics card this shopping season? Is news of Radeon HD 7000 series arriving late this year or early next year holding you back from purchasing current-generation? Don't let it, go grab that graphics card you had your eyes on. Fairly reliable sources point out that a bulk of Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards will be based on rebranded current and previous generation GPUs. This bulk mostly spans across the entry-thru-mid range of the product lineup. Familiar GPU codenames such as Cedar, Caicos, and Turks, make a comeback with Radeon HD 7300 series, HD 7400 series, HD 7500 series, and HD 7600 series.

Moving up the ladder, the source postulates two possibilities for Radeon HD 7700 series. First, and more plausible, is that the series is based on Juniper (a hop across two previous generations!); the second is that these make use of rechristened GPUs from a slightly higher market position from the previous generation. Perhaps Barts, perhaps even highly crippled Cayman. The only real next-generation GPU is codenamed "Tahiti", but we're hearing that graphics cards based on it are said to not follow the Radeon HD 7000 series nomenclature altogether.

Chinese company Yeston released a new Radeon HD 6790 graphics card for gamers on a tight budget. It makes use of cost-effective cooler and PCB designs to make itself available at a price-point of 799 RMB (about $125). The familiar-looking cooler borrows its design from the likes of MSI Cyclone. It consists of a copper-plate base which makes contact with a heatsink with spirally-projecting fins and two 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat-pipes; these heat-pipes pass through two aluminum fin arc structures on either sides of the main heatsink. Ventilation is care of a central 80 mm fan.

The PCB uses a cost-effective 3+1 phase VRM to power the 40 nm Barts LE GPU, making use of common coil-type chokes and DPAK MOSFETs. The card is one of few HD 6790 offerings out there, that draw power form just one 6-pin PCIe power connector (most designs use two). The GPU features clock speeds of 840 MHz core and 1050 (4.20 GHz effective) memory; and is aided by 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. It packs 800 stream processors. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2.

Asian graphics card manufacturer known for its intriguing designs, Colorful, after a brief gap of four months, unveiled its latest graphics card in the works, under its Radeon-centric ColorFire brand. Called the ColorFire Xstorm HD 6850 X2 4GB, its name pretty much spells out what it's about: a dual-GPU (CrossFire on-a-stick) graphics card with two Radeon HD 6850 GPUs, and 4 GB of total memory (2 GB per GPU system). It's not just the specifications that earned Colorful/ColorFire its popularity, it's their nerdtastic choice of components. This card is no exception.

The PowerColor HD 6970 X2 isn't the only new dual-GPU graphics card on display at PowerColor, there's also the HD 6870 X2. We're not entirely sure why one would come up with such an SKU in an already crowded performance market segment, but perhaps PowerColor is trying to squeeze in between performance levels of HD 6970 and HD 6990. While not a bad idea, it comes with the usual challenges and limitations of a dual-GPU graphics card: application support for CrossFire, and usually high power draw.

Like on the HD 6970 X2, PowerColor used Lucid Hydra technology, with a Hydra Engine chip that provides each of the two AMD Barts GPU with a PCI-E 2.0 x16 link. Users can choose between AMD CrossFire or Lucid Hydra multi-GPU technologies. With Hydra enabled, you will be able to get this card to work in tandem with any other card in the system. Each Barts GPU has 1120 stream processors, 32 ROPs, and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across 256-bit wide memory interfaces.

HIS rolled out a new custom-design Radeon HD 6790 graphics card, the HIS HD 6790 Fan. "Fan" editions are known to bring with them airy fan-heatsinks that rely a fair bit on the fan's airflow and the way it's channeled, rather than adding weight to the heatsink. Apart from being custom-design, the card features reference clock speeds of 840 MHz core and 1050 MHz (4200 MHz effective) memory, and is loaded with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. Based on the 40 nm Barts GPU, the HD 6790 has 800 stream processors enabled, along with its full memory bus width. Display outputs on this card include two DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 (full-size). Expect standard pricing of US $160.

PowerColor is readying a new single-slot AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics card. The advantages of single-slot aside, the new card will also support 4-way CrossFireX. So now you can pack four of these cards into pooly-designed motherboards with adjacent PCI-E x16 slots, or you can sneak one into the slot that happens to be the bottom-most one. PowerColor's HD 6850 Single-Slot Edition uses a custom PCB design which is not much longer than the reference design, it uses a typical single-slot cooler design with tightly-packed aluminum fin air channels to which heat is fed by a copper plate. Air is flown through these channels by a blower.

Apart from 4-way CrossFireX capability, the PowerColor HD 6850 Single-Slot Edition uses nearly complete display connectivity, with one DVI, a full-size HDMI 1.4a, and two DisplayPort 1.2. Power is drawn in from a single 6-pin power connector. The card uses AMD reference clock speeds of 775 MHz core and 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz effective) memory. There's 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface onboard. Based on the 40 nm Barts GPU, HD 6850 features 960 stream processors, and full DirectX 11 compliance. More details and pictures are awaited of this intriguing new card.

Eurocom Corporation, the leading mobile technology developer launches the AMD HD 6970M MXM 3.0b graphics module for embedded systems. The AMD HD 6970M graphics module is ideal for Eurocom embedded customers that require the absolute best in terms of graphical performance and processing. The module is also ideal for hardware designers developing small form factor PCs, embedded workstations and notebooks.

The industry standard MXM 3.0 specification for graphics subsystems allows for improved cooling capability, reduced power and height, enabling engineers to create smaller, more efficient embedded systems, reduce development time and costs and introduce new designs faster to market.

MSI, the world-renowned graphics card and motherboard manufacturer, officially releases the latest R6790-2PM2D1GD5 graphics card based on AMD's next-generation Barts GPU core utilizing the 40 nm manufacturing process and 1GB GDDR5 memory. The R6790-2PM2D1GD5 is equipped with MSI's exclusive Afterburner overclocking software that supports GPU over-voltage, offering up to 25% more overclocking potential!

The MSI R6790-2PM2D1GD5 is equipped with stereoscopic 3D capability and has the ability to output video to four displays from a single card via AMD's Eyefinity technology. The heatpipes directly contact the GPU head spreader, and coupled with 9cm PWM fans this exclusive thermal design provides 50% more cooling efficiency when compare to reference design. An All-Solid Capacitor design ensures a long lifespan and stability under extreme operating conditions.

Club 3D B.V. announces the introduction of the Radeon HD 6790 CoolStream Edition video card based on the Barts SE chipset, AMD' second generation DirectX 11. The new Club 3D Radeon HD 6790 1 GB GDDR5 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 6 monitors) and enjoy with EyeSpeed technology the latest 3D Blu-ray movies.

The new card comes equipped with CoolStream Cooling Technology to run your hottest titles without compromising performance. CoolStream features high performance heatpipes and a unique fan blade design to increase performance for your gaming and multimedia experience.

XFX is ready with its Radeon HD 6790, too. The XFX HD679XZDFC is a completely in-house designed HD 6790 implementation by XFX, including a custom PCB and cooler, which can also be found on its HD 6800 series models. Essentially, HD 6790's electricals on this particular board match those of the HD 6870. The PCB uses a 4+2 phase VRM for the Barts LE GPU, which packs 800 stream processors and 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory; power is drawn from two 6-pin power connectors.

Moving on to the cooler, it uses a large aluminum fin array to which heat is fed by three copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU. It is ventilated by two 80 mm fans. Display outputs resemble those of the HD 6870, more than those of the HD 6850; there are two each of DVI and mini-DisplayPort 1.2, and one full-size HDMI 1.4a. The card can pair with another (probably any Barts-based card) for 2-way CrossFire. Expect it to be out on Thursday.

PowerColor seems to be in a hurry to release its Radeon HD 6790 graphics card (model: AX6790 1GBD5-DH), so much so that it's already listed on popular retailer Newegg.com for US $149.99. Powercolor's card sticks to stock frequencies of 840 MHz core, 4.20 GHz memory, and features 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. The HD 6790 is said to have 800 out of 1120 of stream processors on the 40 nm Barts GPU enabled.

PowerColor's card uses a more cost-effective cooler design than the one found on some of its Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards. Display outputs include one each of DVI, full-size HDMI 1.4a, and mini DisplayPort 1.2. The card draws power from just one 6-pin PCI-E power connector. The HD 6790 will be officially released later this week on Thursday.Pictures Courtesy: Newegg.com

A little later next week, AMD will unveil its new upper-mainstream SKU, the Radeon HD 6790. After pictures Sapphire's card, it's MSI's turn. The MSI R6790 looks to be making use of the same non-reference PCB MSI used on other Radeon HD 6800 series graphics card, with a similar single-fan VGA heatsink. MSI's cooler uses a long aluminum fin array to which heat is fed by three direct-touch copper heat pipes. The Radeon HD 6790 is based on the 40 nm Barts GPU, with 800 stream processor enabled, and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. Display outputs include two each of DVI and mini-DisplayPort 1.2, and one full-size HDMI 1.4a.

Sapphire is ready with its Radeon HD 6790 graphics card, all the more reason to believe that if not all, some AIB partners were ready for a 3/31/2011 launch before it got delayed to next week. Sapphire's HD 6790 is a non-reference design card that in many aspects resembles the company's base model HD 6870. It By the looks of it, it uses the same PCB, same exact cooler, but a different rear panel. Sapphire's card packs 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. Based on the 40 nm Barts-LE GPU, it features 800 stream processors, and clock speeds of 840 MHz core, 4.20 GHz memory. It draws power from two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors. The rear panel resembles HD 6850, with two DVI, and one each of full-size HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2.

On April 5, AMD will release its newest Radeon HD 6000 series GPU, which it has been largely secretive about. The new Radeon HD 6790 is designed to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 550 Ti. The HD 6790 is based on AMD's 40 nm "Barts" GPU (on which are based HD 6850 and HD 6870). The Barts silicon is configured to have 800 stream processors (SPs)...hang on, unlike the 800 SPs on Juniper (HD 5700 series, HD 6770), the 800 SPs (arranged in 10 streaming multiprocessor units) on Barts will be spread across two blocks of 400 SPs each, each block having its own dispatch processor. Also unlike Juniper, Barts LE (HD 6790) will have 32 ROPs, 40 TMUs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The core will be clocked at a generous 840 MHz, and 1050 MHz (4.20 GHz effective) memory, churning out 134.5 GB/s memory bandwidth. The GPU is expected to have TDP of under 150W, and will draw power from two 6-pin power connectors.

After the launch of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti, AMD made it easier for partners to release overclocked and custom-design Radeon HD 6870 graphics cards. Partners seem to be responding to this. HIS released two new custom-design Radeon HD 6870 graphics card models, based on the Barts IceQ X board design the company implemented on its HD 6850 IceQ X series. Like with the HD 6850, there's the base model that sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 900/1050 MHz (core/memory), and a Turbo-X model that uses overclocked speeds of 975/1150 MHz. The "X" in Turbo-X denotes that it's faster than the Turbo model based on AMD's reference design board, by HIS. The cooler makes use of a slightly large aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, which is centrally ventilated by a 92 mm fan. The cooler is covered by a frosty-looking shroud. Like with every other HD 6870, the card features 1120 stream processors, and connects to 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. HIS did not give out pricing details.

TechPowerUp introduced version 0.5.1 of GPU-Z, our lightweight graphics sub-system information and monitoring utility. GPU-Z provides you with technical details of your installed graphics processors, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. This month's release adds support for new GPUs, improves stability, and corrects some minor bugs. To begin with, detection for the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics processor is added, alongside GeForce GTX 480M, and GeForce GTX 485M. Detection was improved for GeForce GTX 460M, GT 445M, and GT 435M. Early support for AMD's Fusion Llano, Ontario, and Zacate-embedded APUs were also added.

With the latest driver, NVIDIA had blocked our power-throttling disable parameter. We found our way around it, and using a new method, fixed the "/GTX500OCP" parameter using which you can override NVIDIA's power throttling feature. Support for new voltage controllers used by the latest batches of Radeon HD 6800/HD 6900 series graphics cards were also added. A number of stability improvements were made, and bugs fixed. The updates notifier is less pesky, it checks for timely updates in the background when GPU-Z is launched (according to update check frequency defined by user), and appears to users only if it finds that new updates are available.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.5.1

A complete list of changes follows.

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.

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.

Club 3D B.V. is pleased to announce the introduction of the next generation video card based on the Barts XT/PRO chipset, from AMD's second generation DirectX 11 architecture. The new Club 3D Radeon HD 6850 1GB and HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 video cards feature 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.

The fine folks at IT168 revealed the first pictures of the Radeon HD 6870 PCB with its cooler completely off, and in its production livery (black). Also let out is the first [clear] picture of the GPU itself. The PCB was first pictured in its nascent qualification sample form, with a development GPU cooler on. The final version of the PCB sticks to its qualification sample for the most part, it has VRM components positioned forwards, trailed by the GPU and its memory. The card makes use of a 4+1+1 phase VRM. All eight memory chips are on the obverse side, each with its own 32-bit wide path, since there's a 256-bit memory interface.

The GPU package is of the same dimensions as the Cypress package, albeit a smaller die. We're getting to hear that Barts is pin-compatible with Cypress (meaning that a Barts GPU can be placed onto a Cypress PCB, given the appropriate BIOS, and it will work), however, no AIB is likely to reuse Cypress PCBs other than for Eyefinity6 designs, because while Barts can make do with a 6-layer PCB, close to every existing Cypress PCB is an 8-layer one, and that Cypress PCBs lack the second mini-DP connector. The die is placed diagonally on the package (à la Cypress and R600), it is rectangular, while the Cypress die is more or less square. ChipHell.com contributor musicinlove did a nice size measurement and comparison. Finally, the AMD "arrow" logo is etched onto the die, it's curtains down for ATI.

AMD is close to unveiling its next-generation "Northern Islands" GPU family, which will be branded under the AMD Radeon HD 6000 series. These include two new performance-thru-extreme GPUs, namely Barts and Cayman. There's also a dual-Cayman implementation codenamed Antilles. While specifications are anyone's guess besides the little details we know about Barts and Cayman, the feature-set of the Northern Island family was communicated to AIB parts in a presentation which was leaked by the Chinese press.

To begin with, the key feature additions in Northern Islands includes a much more evolved display logic that can drive five displays simultaneously over physical outputs that include two dual-link DVI-I, one HDMI 1.4 (full-size), and two mini DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. The logic also provides you to install up to six monitors over the two DisplayPort connectors by daisy-chaining them, making use of the MultiStream feature of DP 1.2, which supports two times the data-rate of DP 1.1, and can provide very high-resolution display, or HD display with stereoscopic 3D (120 Hz). HDMI 1.4 lets you make use of Blu-ray 3D. A new video processing engine, UVD 3.0, provides GPU acceleration for MPEG-2, DivX, MVC (multi video coding), for Blu-ray 3D.

Here it is, the AMD Radeon HD 6870, all dressed up to go to work. There has been quite some speculation surrounding the naming scheme AMD is going to adopt with the HD 6000 series, but fresh information suggestively lays some of that to rest. Firstly, Radeon HD 6800 series is built around the "Barts" GPU, not "Cayman". Barts is a new performance GPU, though isn't the highest-end single GPU from AMD (which is reserved for Cayman). Barts "XT" is Radeon HD 6870, and Barts "Pro" is HD 6850. Pictured below is the HD 6870. At a purely subjective glance, the HD 6870 reference design card seems to be as long as the HD 5850 reference.

The new Radeon logo has been Photoshopped on to the fan, so the products in market will definitely do away with the older ATI logo. The rear panel resembles that of the Radeon HD 5800 series, except that the exhaust grille seems slightly wider, there are two DVI-I connectors, one standard HDMI, and two mini DisplayPort connectors for a change. The connector output sharing scheme isn't known right now, it could be 3 or 4 head Eyefinity, or all-out 5 head Eyefinity, a yet to be detailed "Eyespeed" feature is mentioned. We will definitely know more about this card in the weeks to come.