MSI rolled out a full-height Radeon R5 230 graphics card (model: R5230-1GD3H). Decked in red, with a single-slot passive heatsink cooling the GPU and memory, the card features 1 GB of DDR3 memory, and display outputs of dual-link DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and D-Sub. Based on the 28 nm "Caicos Pro" silicon, the Radeon R5 230 features 160 stream processors, GPU core clock speeds of 625 MHz, with 1.00 GHz memory, and a 64-bit wide DDR3 memory bus. Expect a sub-$50 pricing.

XFX launched no less than five graphics cards based on AMD's new entry-level Radeon R5 230, four based on a low-profile, single-slot PCB, and one on a full-height PCB. All five cards are fan-less (silent), and feature chunky aluminium heatsinks to cool the GPU. All cards stick to the same clock speeds of 625 MHz. Among the low profile cards are the R5-230A-ZLH2 (1 GB DDR3 memory, HDMI, DVI, D-Sub); R5-230A-CLHV (2 GB DDR3 memory, HDMI, DVI, D-Sub); R5-230A-CLHR (same card with AMD freebies); and R5-230A-CLH2. The full height card, the R5-230A-CNH2 uses the added PCB area to just hold a bigger heatsink, and spread components out better. Based on the "Caicos" silicon, the R5 230 features 160 stream processors, and supports DirectX 11.

Club 3D, the renowned Dutch manufacturer of AMD based graphics cards is proud to announce the completion of our range of graphics cards. At the end of 2013, the incredibly powerful 'Hawaii' GPU marked the debut of the brand new Radeon R9 series. After several generations AMD dropped the 'HD xxx' model names in favor of the new R- series structure.

The R series consists of the R9 high performance graphics cards targeted at the most demanding PC gamers. Next is the R7 series. Cards in the R7 series are capable all-rounders with the power to do it all. So far there was no part of the R series aimed at entry level cards. This is about to change with the launch of the Radeon R5 series.

AMD launched a new entry-level GPU for those who need a bare-essentials graphics card for their desktop, which so happens to lack integrated graphics (think Intel HEDT platform). Called the Radeon R5 230, the chip is based on the "Caicos" silicon, and features 160 stream processors, 8 TMUs, and 4 ROPs. It supports DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.3. Its core is clocked at 625 MHz. It features a 64-bit wide DDR3 memory interface, holding 1 GB of memory, clocked at 1066 MHz. Pictured below is the first AIB-branded R5 230 card for the retail channel, Gigabyte's R523D3-1GL, with a single-slot, half-height built, and a tiny fan-heatsink keeping its GPU cool. AMD could price the card around the $50 mark.

TechPowerUp released the latest version of GPU-Z, our popular graphics hardware information and monitoring utility. Version 0.5.4 packs a large number of changes, beginning with faster start-up, support for the entire line of NVIDIA GeForce 500M series GPUs, new models of Intel Sandy Bridge processor graphics, a number of AMD Radeon HD 6000M series GPUs, improved support for AMD APUs, and a number of bug fixes.

GPU-Z has overcome the slow start-up issue on AMD Radeon GPUs, it loads slightly faster on NVIDIA GPUs, too. ROP count reading on AMD Radeon HD 6790, Turks & Whistler was fixed; along with sensor count on Caicos, Whistler, Turks. OpenCL detection on some NVIDIA drivers was fixed. The ability to read UMA-shared memory on AMD APU systems was added. GPU-Z has better ability to detect and warn of spurious graphics cards with faked IDs. GPU-Z 0.5.4 is available in both its standard form and the ASUS Republic of Gamers themed variant.DOWNLOAD: GPU-Z 0.5.4 | GPU-Z 0.5.4 ASUS ROG Themed

A complete list of changes with this version follows.

Years ago, AMD's integrated graphics chipsets offered users the ability to pair integrated graphics processors with entry-level discrete graphics cards to work in tandem, and increased performance ideally by 50%, this technology was called Hybrid CrossFire. With the latest AMD A-Series APUs, AMD is packing much more powerful GPU components, and in the process, giving users the ability to pair the GPU component with a discrete graphics card. In the discrete graphics sphere, AMD CrossFireX already allows the pairing between two graphics cards that use the same ASIC, even if they're different models (for example, you can pair a Radeon HD 5770 with a HD 5750).

The GPU component inside A-Series APUs are essentially similar to lower mid-range discrete GPUs from AMD's current generation, in having 400, 320, or 240 stream processors, giving you the ability to pair them with discrete graphics cards based on Turks (HD 6500 and HD 6600 series) or Caicos (HD 6300 and HD 6400 series). Unlike with Hybrid CrossFireX, AMD gave marketing names to the resulting dual-GPU setup between an APU and a discrete GPU. For example, pairing an A8-3850's APU with a discrete Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5 will give you a configuration "called" Radeon HD 6990D2. We see what you did there, AMD. So the next time you're buying a pre-assembled PC and you see "HD 6990D2" in the specs sheet, and the entire PC is priced under $800, you have no reason to jump through the roof in joy. Refer to the table below for more amazing configuration names.

When the entry-level Radeon HD 6450 launches this 19th April, it will not be alone. AMD will back it with product launches of both the Radeon HD 6570 and Radeon HD 6670, according to fresh reports. With it, AMD will have completed its Radeon HD 6000 series product launches, in almost all price-points, top to bottom. Incidentally, the three were also launched together as OEM-only products back in February.

Based on the 40 nm Caicos silicon, HD 6450 packs 160 stream processors, and a 64-bit wide GDDR5/GDDR3 memory interface, designed for low-profile, single-slot graphics cards. The HD 6570 and HD 6670, on the other hand, are both based on the 40 nm Turks GPU, both feature 480 stream processors and 128-bit wide GDDR5 interface. The two are differentiated with the HD 6570 having lower clock speeds.

AMD apparently unveiled its new entry-level GPU, the Radeon HD 6450 today, with some leading sites publishing mini performance reviews (check out Today's Reviews on the front page). The new GPU is intended to be an integrated graphics substitute, which gives desktops all the essential features that today's desktop environments demand, such as DirectX 11 support, Aero acceleration, various kinds of HD video hardware acceleration features, apart from the obvious benefit of discrete GPUs: not taxing the system memory as frame buffer.

The HD 6450 is based on the 40 nm Caicos GPU, it packs twice the amount of shader compute power as the previous generation, packing 160 VLIW5 stream processors, 8 TMUs, 4 ROPs, and a transistor count of 370 million. The 160 stream processors, with a core speed of 625~750 MHz (differs between AIBs), churn out compute power of up to 240 GFLOPs. It packs a 64-bit wide memory interface, that supports GDDR5 (clocks: 3.20 GHz to 3.60 GHz) and GDDR3 (1066 MHz to 1600 MHz). It has an idle board power of 9W, and max board power of 27W. Most implementations are low-profile single-slot, some even passive. The reference board features display outputs that include DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and D-Sub. Expect a $50~$60 price point. The official announcement however, is slated for April 19, or at least that's what we were told.Image Courtesy: TechReport

AMD released the entire entry-mid portion of the Radeon HD 6000 series overnight, for OEMs only. The cards won't be available to consumers (retail) as yet, but does give away specifications of two new GPUs that AMD is carving these SKUs out of, Turks and Caicos. Built on the 40 nm process, Turks packs 480 VLIW5 stream processors, is DirectX 11 compliant, and sports a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory controller that supports GDDR3 on lower SKUs. Radeon HD 6670 and HD 6570 are based on Turks. Both have all 480 stream processors enabled, differ in memory type/amount and clock speeds. The HD 6670 carries clock speeds of 800 MHz core, 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory, and is available with memory amounts of 512 MB or 1 GB. The 128-bit wide memory interface churns out bandwidth of 64 GB/s.

The HD 6570 is also based on Turks, but features clock speeds of 650 MHz core, and two different memory clock speed specifications based on the memory type opted for by the manufacturers. If a manufacturer chooses GDDR3, it's clocked at 900 MHz (1.80 GHz GDDR3 effective), with a memory bandwidth of 28.8 GB/s. If it's GDDR5, it's clocked at 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz effective), 64 GB/s bandwidth. Up to 2 GB of memory can be opted for GDDR3 designs, while up to 1 GB can be opted for GDDR5-based ones. While the HD 6670 reference board uses a full-height design with a single-slot fan-heatsink, HD 6570 is designed for low-profile cards, best suited for HTPCs or SFF PCs.

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.

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.

Earlier today, we were treated to the first picture of the Radeon HD 6870, a new and upcoming performance graphics card from AMD. It was also learned that the HD 6870 is based on a new GPU codenamed "Barts", which is intended to be a successor to the previous-generation "Juniper" GPU, which was at the center of the Radeon HD 5700 desktop and Mobility HD 5800 series. That left some uncertainty as to what GPU was going to drive the sub-$199 HD 6700 series. AMD may have found an answer, rebranding.

AMD seems to have been on the crossroads of which naming scheme to adopt. The first scheme based on conventional logic tells users that Barts-based SKUs should sit in the HD 6700 series, and Cayman-based single-GPU SKUs in the HD 6800; while the second scheme promotes Barts to the HD 6800 series, and Cayman to the HD 6900 series, pushing the low-volume, high-end Antilles (dual-Cayman) graphics card to the HD 6990 SKU. Evidently, AMD chose the newer, second scheme. The only rationale that makes sense is that the x800 series seems to be very popular, and if Barts, with its radically redesigned SIMD components can perform on par or better than the HD 5800 series SKUs, that's enough to justify its upwards push.