Italian website Hardware Upgrade have managed to spend some time with an engineering sample of Cayman. Unfortunately, they have decided not to post pictures, but have instead given a description of the part. It is not mentioned whether the card is Cayman Pro or Cayman XT, but it is likely to be the latter. From the outside, the Cayman / HD 6800 card features a reference design very similar to the Radeon HD 5870, except there are no openings at the front, which had led to many people likening the HD 5870 to "Batmobile". However, since this is an engineering sample, the final reference design can change.
On the back of the PCB are 8 contact points for GDDR5 memory, confirming a 256-bit memory interface. Interestingly, the HD 6800 sample features 6-pin + 8-pin power connectors, which is the maximum PCI-e spec, and more than the 6+6-pin config of the HD 5800 series. This indicates that TDP is likely in the 225W to 250W range. However, once again, this could change for the final design. The rear panel includes five outputs - 2 x DVI, one HDMI and 2 x mini-Displayport.
Sadly, Hardware Upgrade have no further confirmation of other details such as clocks, architectural changes, etc. They do confirm that the sample is ready and release is imminent. The rumour mill suggests Caymen or HD 6800 will release in November
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