AMD Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 confirmed to be launched on 22.10.2010

[h0bbes]

There's a lot of misinformation going around. Here's the way it is:

This issue so far has affected ONE SKU. I say "one" because HIS's cards have always been made by PCPartner - hence their HD 6850's similarity to Sapphire's. Both of these have had problems with the 1120 shader count.

From my understanding, there was a mix-up at the factory level whereby a batch of incorrect cores was mistakenly installed onto the non-reference PCB which PCPartner uses. This happened with early sample cards sent to reviewers and was corrected prior to mass retail production. This comes direct from my sources at Sapphire.

That being said, there was a screw up so who knows; there very well may be some cards that have slipped into the retail channel as well.

Are the BIOSes compatible with other cards? NO. To begin with, the PCPartner cards use a slightly customized BIOS with controls for their non-reference PWM layout and fan controller. Next of all, the cores themselves are laser locked at the production level. I've now tried flashing SIX different cards with the BIOS and none have worked.

There is no controversy here people....even though some are making it out to be one.

Thanks for that

[RSC]

Official AMD Response:

Apparently a small number of the AMD Radeon HD 6850 press samples shipped from AIB partners have a higher-than-expected number of stream processors enabled.

This is because some AIBs used early engineering ASICs intended for board validation on their press samples. The use of these ASICs results in the incorrect number of stream processors. If you have an HD 6850 board sample from an AIB, please test using a utility such as GPU-z to determine the number of active stream processors. If that number is greater than 960, please contact us and we will work to have your board replaced with a production-level sample.

All boards available in the market, as well as AMD-supplied media samples, have production-level GPUs with the correct 960 stream processors.


http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...2388&Itemid=47

ammm ya they did...

I hope you're aware that Das Capitolin is Benchmark Reviews Executive Editor...

[cegras]

Didn't this also happen with the 5830?

[Spectrobozo]

something more or less like this happened with the 4830
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/155

some received the card with only 560 (from the 640)sps working,

[SKYMTL]

The HD 4830 came with LESS than the expected performance due to a messed up BIOS config.

What happened here was GPUs that SHOULD have gone into internal eval boards being turned around and sent to reviewers. That is something which should not have been done...ever.

[kaktus1907]

MLAA MSAA Comparisons

Starcraft II
http://www.abload.de/img/valrumlaa-sc2uths.png

Final Fantasy XIV
http://www.abload.de/img/valrumlaasp2d.png

Dead Space
MLAA
http://d.imagehost.org/0261/DSMLAA.jpg
NoAA
http://d.imagehost.org/0703/DSNOAA.jpg

NoAA
http://www.abload.de/img/1xaabnya.jpg
MLAA
http://h-1.abload.de/img/morphpnbe.jpg

Half Life 2
http://www.abload.de/img/valrumlaa-hl2-1xsia.png
http://www.abload.de/img/valrumlaa-hl2-2mruj.png

Mass Effect
NoAA
MLAA
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3999/me2comblarge.png

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,79...fikkarte/Test/

[zerazax]

Really noticeable on the Hatchery in SC2..

[Manicdan]

Really noticeable on the Hatchery in SC2..

take a look at the top left menu and the bottom left map. it definitly modifies text, but does it go too far? wish we could see more of the minimap since its a important tool, and also might be affected by it

[blindbox]

MLAA, can't say I don't like it . Since it blurs some stuff just like SSAA, any change that adjusting LOD will fix it?

I don't think I like how this thing affects the minimap though. I like my minimaps to be very clear.

Then again, RadeonPRO ftw once it supports this.

[kuroikenshi]

MLAA me likey!! wow all this is gonna make me wait for antilles... buy, oc crank it right up, and replay crysis @ Ultra setting so I can enjoy eye candy awesomeness

[Iconyu]

take a look at the top left menu and the bottom left map. it definitly modifies text, but does it go too far? wish we could see more of the minimap since its a important tool, and also might be affected by it

Pretty much the entire screen is affected, the technique isn't very smart, it's the GPU equivalent of smearing Vaseline on the camera lens to induce soft focus. But I admit it is very effective if your choices only lay between MLAA and no AA, and the cost isn't much higher than a tub of the aforementioned Vaseline.

[Manicdan]

its funny how were treating this like the next sliced bread, i would hope such simple and effective techniques would have been used by developers for a while, and have it be smart too. for this like blurring LOD, it would try to do this, but not even need too. they say consoles already do this (too bad they never really run native res and it looks like crap anyway)

[SpuTnicK]

Been surfing the net and bumped into this:
NON-referrence design HD6850 card with 2! crossfire connectors and 2! 6-pin power connectors







source translated

What is this thing? Another fail?

[Xoulz]

6850..? U sure?

[SpuTnicK]

Nope. But Read google translated article

[hurrdurr]

Well at least it's obviously not Antilles.

[Manicdan]

the VRM makes me so hot,
no idea why

[Manicdan]

darn double post glitch

[zalbard]

Quite a clean PCB design in general. I like it.

[tajoh111]

Been surfing the net and bumped into this:
NON-referrence design HD6850 card with 2! crossfire connectors and 2! 6-pin power connectors







source translated

What is this thing? Another fail?

Unless it was officially supported in the first place, I don't think double crossfire on a none official board will go anywhere.

Officially from the reference boards, the 6870 and 6850 only support crossfire and not xfire. Triple CF scaling is kind iffy as it is. If this board has it, the driver support for it is really going to make this setup worth it.

It would have been great if AMD had reference cards in the first place that supported it. But with only a handful of non reference cards supporting more that 2 card crossfire, driver support is going to be lacking.

[Solus Corvus]

Do non-reference cards ever have AMD silkscreened on them?

[BeepBeep2]

@ Solus
No they shouldn't.

But that VRM looks better than sex. Paired with a VF3000...that card looks like it may have potential.

[Sn0wm@n]

dual crossfire fingers means quad crossfire compatible????

[bill_d]

hmm wasn't it pin compatible with Cypress isn't that just a 5850 board with a 6850 on it

[Solus Corvus]

hmm wasn't it pin compatible with Cypress isn't that just a 5850 board with a 6850 on it

Definitely not a reference 5850/70 board.