http://img5.pcpop.com/ProductImages/.../002260977.jpg
http://img5.pcpop.com/ProductImages/.../002261005.jpg
Nice picture now we can clearly see that the Radeon HD 5870 got some improvements on the 6 edition.
It's clear, it's not the same ram on the 6 edition. That should be 2Go GDDR5 onboard. On left a capacitor is bigger on the 6 edition. On right top next to a capacitor a ship doesnt exist on 6 edition. On left down the same ship is implanted only on the 6 edition. I think it's a power ship. Power ships implanted next to the digital power processor are a bit bigger on 6 edition.
And a lot more of change, but most significant is the two 3x2 pins connectors on HD5870 and one 2x4 + 2x3 on the HD5870 6 edition. The 2Go should be a bit more power hungry.
And i add an other interresting difference;
On the back the 6 edition got a fan connector, and with this fan connector i don't think you can add the black metal plate like on the HD5870 standard edition.
And on back under the black metal plate on standard edition, we can't see other memory chip, like on 6 edition.
My mind is that the 6 edition was older to the standard, and they simplified it to standard for large production.
On the other hand, they could prefer to launch the Hemlock XT part now from a commercial POV.
If Fermi and Hemlock XT are launched at the same time, and Cypress < Fermi < Hemlock (most probable IMO), some of the people who are buying an enthusiast product would go to the higher performance route (HD5900) and some people would go to the single GPU higher performance route (GTX300).
Now, if they launch Hemlock XT a few months sooner than Fermi, I think a good part of this people would buy it. Then, when Fermi is released, few people with a Hemlock XT card would go back to a single GPU (but lesser performant) GTX300. So it could be better for them to launch Hemlock XT now instead of waiting to have a competitor.
And of course, if NVIDIA ends up launching a dual Fermi solution (I guess they will or not depending on power consumption) that is more performant than Hemlock XT, it would be much better for AMD to have launched their own a few months before, and every sale they could before that card is on the market. But probably if they launch a dual Fermi card, it will be severely crippled to adjust to the 300W max load power, so it may end up being equal, worse or better performant than Hemlock XT.
The worst part about selling Hemlock XT now, is that if TSMC is having problems supplying enough Cypress chips for the current HD5800 series, then start selling cards with 2x chips per card instead of 1... Anyway, I suppose Hemlock cards are going to sell much less units than Cypress (and those much less than Juniper) so maybe that is not a problem at all.
Great pictures, mindfury! have any more? Yes there is 2GB on the Six edition, and 8pin + 6pin, no backplate, and the IC's are still 1250mhz samsung.
Thank you mindfury