Eurocom, the worlds leading notebook developer is adding AMD's new high performance HD6970M GPUs to their extensive options of high end video cards. With the HD6970M Eurocom is extending their already impressive options of configurability in their line of products. The Radeon HD6970M is AMD's top of the line VGA card of their new 6xxxM series that they will oficially launch at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada starting on 6th of January 2011. The addition of the AMD 6000M series cards in single and crossfire combined with NVIDIA's GTX 400M series and FX 5000M series cards in single and SLI gives Eurocom customers a complete choice of video processor options to fit any project.

Here are the winners of PowerColor and TechPowerUp giveaway for the month of December, 2010, month 1 of 2 of the Giveaway. For the months of December and January, three lucky participating users each month of GPU-Z got to win some groovy hardware from PowerColor. This month's winners are as follows:

• John from United States wins PowerColor Radeon HD 6970
• Farhan from Malaysia wins PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 PCS+
• Mahen from Sri Lanka wins PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 PCS+

A big congratulations to the winners. PowerColor will contact them directly and arrange for the shipping of the prizes. If you have already made a submission in this round (PowerColor TechPowerUp Giveaway December 2010 - January 2011), you don't need to make a submission again. Being an ongoing contest, winners are picked from an ever-growing pool of submissions.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, announces the world's first liquid cooling solution for the HD6970 series. The PowerColor Liquid Cooling Solution (LCS) HD6970 2GB GDDR5 is once again working with renowned cooling manufacturer EKwaterblocks to bring the ultimate cooling solution to the HD6970. The offering aims to provide extraordinary thermal performance to enhance overclocking ability while allowing optimum system stability.

The PowerColor LCS HD6970 has a full water block mounted on the card, fully covering the key components which can be dissipate the heat from the copper base design. This allows the reduction of GPU temperatures under 50°C even under full load. PowerColor packages a high-flow 3/8" and 1/2" fittings (barbs) to maximize water flow with captured o-rings to prevent leakage. Gamers can customize their own liquid cooling system using these two fittings.

Water-cooling specialist Koolance announced its full-coverage water block that's common for AMD Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 graphics accelerators. The VID-AR697 from Koolance measures 6.25" x 5.75" x 0.62" (15.9cm x 14.6cm x 1.6cm), weighing 1.5 pounds (680 g). Its primary material is nickel-plated copper, with acetal top. Tailored for AMD reference-design PCB, it offers full-coverage, cooling all heat producing components including the GPU, memory chips, and VRM. It uses a 0.5 mm micro-fin array over the GPU for better heat dissipation. The block uses standard G 1/4 BSP threading. The Koolance VID-AR697 is priced at US $114.99.

MSI did a lot more than showing off its AMD Fusion "Brazos" Wind U270 notebook at today's press-meet in Taiwan. The company seems to have spilled its entire load for CES, just days ahead of it. Today's exposé included two new ultra-high end graphics cards under the company's Lightning series. The R6970 Lightning is based on AMD Radeon HD 6970, and the N580GTX Lightning, of course, on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.

Both cards look nearly identical because their most peculiar part, the cooling assembly, is mostly the same. The Twin Frozr III from MSI combines slick looks with certain enhancements with the fan blade design (to improve noise to airflow ratio). Under the shroud is what looks to be a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed using several heat-pipes, including 8 mm thick ones. While the cooler more or less respects the 2-slot width, it increases the height of the cards by a good inch.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announces its own design HD6900 series solution. Featuring all the latest technology, the PowerColor HD6900 series includes the HD6970 and HD6950. The HD6970 clocks at 880MHz core speed and 1375MHz memory speed, easily accelerating your PC with up to 2.7 teraFLOPs of computing power. The HD6950 clocks at 800MHz core speed and 1250MHz memory speed, enabling the demanding gamers to be flawlessly presented.

The PowerColor HD 6900 series has equipped with unique dual fan cooling solution; built with two ultra big 9.2cm cooling fans and 8ø heat pipes, it can easily dissipate heat produced from the GPU, easily cools down the temperature in a low-noise working environment. The latest series also takes advantage of power efficient features, consuming only 190W at load, enabling immersive HD gaming experience in the minimal power consumed.

TechPowerUp today introduced version 0.5.0 of GPU-Z, our popular graphics subsystem diagnostic utility that provides you with detailed tech-specs of your installed graphics processors, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. Version 0.50 adds full-support for Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970. It fixes several stability and reliability issues, including fillrate roundoff errors, improved voltage monitoring support for GeForce GTX 570, some crashes and freezes.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.0

A complete list of changes follows.

AMD today released the first hotfix update to the recently released Catalyst 10.12 driver suite. A hotfix is an interim update before the next driver release. The new hotfix introduces two important things: first, it adds official support for the newly-released AMD Radeon HD 6970 and AMD Radeon HD 6950 graphics cards; and second, it adds a new Eyefinity mode that lets you use all five display outputs on the HD 6000 series graphics cards (i.e. two DVI, two mini-DP, one HDMI) for a 5 x 1 Eyefinity configuration.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 10.12a Hotfix Update

Club3D announced its latest high-end graphics cards based on AMD's new Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 graphics processors (GPUs). Both cards stick to AMD reference board design and clock speeds. The HD 6970 from Club3D carries the model number CGAX-69748, features 1536 advanced stream processors, 2 GB of 5.5 GT/s GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, with clock speeds of 880 MHz core and 5500 MHz (GDDR5 effective) memory. The HD 6950 (CGAX-69548) features 1408 advanced stream processors, 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, and clock speeds of 800 MHz core and 5000 MHz (GDDR5 effective) memory. Both cards are expected to feature standard pricing.

The pursuit of extreme performance is always the most important consideration for top power users when selecting computer components, and competing manufactures always strive to be the best in the flagship product market. Because of this, world-renowned video card and mother board manufacturer Micro-Star Intl Co. Ltd., in collaboration with graphics processing unit manufacturer AMD, is proud to announce two brand-new R6900-series video card today. The new MSI R6970-2PM2D2GD5 and R6950-2PM2D2GD5 graphics cards, based on AMD's flagship HD6900 GPU , includes an industry-leading 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 large capacity video memory buffer, satisfying the enthusiast's thirst for high-resolution graphics performance. Additionally, with specially marked packages users can receive a free Advanced Version of 3DMark11, allowing the full DirectX 11 experience to be enjoyed. You can also upload your results onto their official website and compare your results against users from around the world.

SAPPHIRE Technology, the largest manufacturer and supplier worldwide of graphics solutions based on AMD technology has just added two new models bringing higher performance and new features to the recently launched HD 6000 series. The new SAPPHIRE HD 6970 uses a new GPU architecture from AMD which features dual graphics engines in one chip with 24 SIMD engines and a total of 1536 stream processors with 96 texture units, providing massively parallel computing power for graphics and other accelerated applications. Its core clock speed of 880MHz, together with a dedicated high speed interface to 2GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1375MHz (5.5Gb/s effective) delivers the highest performance in this series. New Tesselation engines bring up to three times the performance of the previous generation, and new Enhanced Quality AA and filtering modes bring the highest image quality ever achieved.

Today, Hightech Information System (HIS) Limited have the pleasure to announce the HIS 6970 & 6950 graphics card. Loaded with our all-in-one technology - HD3D, Eyefinity 4, EyeDefinition and EyeSpeed, the new HIS Radeon HD 6970 & 6950 deliver flawless image quality and unbelievable performance, making it the ultimate solution for enthusiast gamers. HIS 6950 2GB GDDR5 accelerate advanced PC gaming by running at 800MHz core clock speed and 5,000MHz memory clock speed. HIS 6970 supplies with the same 2GB GDDR 5 but higher core clock speed at 880MHz and higher memory clock speed at 5,500MHz.

Powered by the top-of-the-line 6900 GPU, HIS 6970 & 6950 not only offer incredible HD gaming performance on all the latest games and DirectX 11 support, but also makes multi-tasking easier with features like EyeDefinition and EyeSpeed technology. What's more? The immersive HD gaming experience is brought the next level by AMD Eyefinity 4 Technology. This revolutionary multi-display technology allows you to expand your visual real estate across up to 4 displays with innovative "wrap around" capabilities to maximum your field of view with incredible sharpness and clarity.

We've seen quite a few pictures of the AMD Radeon HD 6970 from its exterior, including some finer details observable. For the first time, we're getting to take a peek inside, thanks to a Chinese website that looks to be auctioning off an HD 6970 ahead of launch for a quick buck, if we're not terribly mistaken. The PCB shot reveals many details about the GPU and its board design:

• To begin with, the GPU indeed has a 256-bit wide memory interface, counting the memory chips on the obverse side, and looking at the size of the GPU package.
• The size of the die, and taken that Cayman is a 40 nm GPU, indicate that Cayman is not much bigger than Cypress, it should be about 400~500 million transistors higher compared to Cypress.
• Given the roughly 2500 million transistor count, the stream core count of 1536 seems more realistic. AMD is said to be using an architecturally superior VLIW4 stream processor design that increases performance per mm² die area.
• The board uses a high-grade 6+2+1+1 phase digital PWM voltage regulation design, draws power from 8+6 pin power connectors.
• The reverse side of the PCB has no memory chips, so AMD might be using 2 Gbit memory chips to get 2 GB of total memory

Images Courtesy: Taobao.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

Originally slated for a November 22 launch, AMD's next-generation enthusiast-grade GPU, the Radeon HD 6970 may face some launch delays, according to industry sources. Apparently the company is yet to finalize a launch driver and BIOS for the HD 6970, and that could push back launch by a little. Meanwhile, a Zol.com.cn contributor let out some juicy pictures of the HD 6970 reference design accelerator.

AMD is undertaking its product development cycle at a breakneck pace, NVIDIA trailed it in the DirectX 11 and performance leadership race by months. This November, AMD will release the "Cayman" GPU, its newest high end GPU, the expectations are that it will outperform the NVIDIA GF100, that is a serious cause for concern, for the green team. It's back to its old tactics of talking about GPUs that haven't even taken shape, to try and water down AMD's launch. Enter, the GF110, NVIDIA's new high-end GPU under design, on which is based the GeForce GTX 580.

The new GPU is speculated to have 512 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 2 GB of memory, with a TDP of close to that of the GeForce GTX 480. In the immediate future, there are prospects of a more realistic-sounding GF100b, which is basically GF100 with all its 512 CUDA cores enabled, while retaining its 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface, 64 TMUs, and slightly higher TDP than that of the GTX 480.

Here is the first picture of a working prototype of the AMD Radeon HD 6000 series "Cayman" graphics card. This particular card is reportedly the "XT" variant, or what will go on to be the HD 6x70, which is the top single-GPU SKU based on AMD's next-generation "Cayman" performance GPU. The picture reveals a card that appears to be roughly the size of a Radeon HD 5870, with a slightly more complex-looking cooler. The PCB is red in color, and the display output is slightly different compared to the Radeon HD 5800 series: there are two DVI, one HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPort connectors. The specifications of the GPU remain largely unknown, except it's being reported that the GPU is built on the TSMC 40 nm process. The refreshed Radeon HD 6000 series GPU lineup, coupled with next-generation Bulldozer architecture CPUs and Fusion APUs are sure to make AMD's lineup for 2011 quite an interesting one.Update (9/9): A new picture of the reverse side of the PCB reveals 8 memory chips (256-bit wide memory bus), 6+2 phase VRM, and 6-pin + 8-pin power inputs.

Even as NVIDIA is taking its own sweet time to complete building its lineup of DirectX 11 compliant GPUs to target all market segments, AMD, which got a 6 months' headstart into releasing its lineup, which ended up targeting all market segments in a span of 5 months, is readying the Radeon HD 6000 series for launch well within this year. Just as the Radeon HD 5000 series GPU family was codenamed Evergreen with its members codenamed after evergreen trees (such as Cypress, Juniper, Redwood, Cedar), the Radeon HD 6000 is codenamed "Southern Islands", with its members codenamed after islands in the Caribbean (not islands in the Mediterranean).

"Bart" (after Saint Barthélemy island) is the codename for the performance/upper-mid segment GPU, a successor to the "Juniper" Radeon HD 5700 series. "Cayman" (after Cayman Islands) is the enthusiast GPU, successor to Cypress, and will go into making SKUs that succeed the Radeon HD 5800 series. Finally, the king of the hill is codenamed "Antilles" (after Antilles Islands), it is the dual-GPU SKU that makes use of two Cayman GPUs, successor to the Radeon HD 5970 "Hemlock". AMD partners will be in a position to sell graphics cards based on these by November 2010. The Radeon HD 6970 "Antilles" should be out by December 2010. The lower-half of the family will likely release next year.