New rumor about ATI Southern Islands

[jaredpace]

x8xx series with only one CF tab?
I don't think so

That is in fact a HD6850 board with the Barts Pro core, and the board has one Crossfire goldfinger. The Cayman boards have two crossfire goldfingers for 3x and 4x crossfire configurations.

Calling the Juniper successor (Barts) boards "HD68xx" is an obvious attempt at positioning your new product line-up for better margins (a page taken out of NV's playbook). People will think, "Hey, this is a 6850, so it must be an upgrade to my 5850." (Even though that may or may not be the case.) It's a similar naming convention to what took place with G92 and 8800gtx -> 9800gtx.

Personally, i think it sucks. But what can you do. The real special sauce is the Cypress successor (Cayman XT) board (HD6970). And the SOY SAUCE, if you will, is the Dual Cayman XT board "Antilles" (HD6990) that is slotted for around the end of the year.

Don't be fooled by marketing names when it comes to the HD6870.