AMD Radeon HD 6790

[onethreehill]

http://www.nordichardware.com/news/7...h-800-sps.html

AMD Radeon HD 6790 will use a graphics circuit called Barts LE and as we implied in our initial article on the new card the similarities with the more powerful Radeon HD 6800 series are quite striking.

Barts LE uses AMD's classic VLIW5 architecture and will get 10 SM units (Streaming Multiprocessor) with access to a total of 800 stream processors. This can be compared to 12 SM units and 960 stream processors in Radeon HD 6850 that is based on Barts Pro.

Radeon HD 6790 has beside fewer processing units the same bus width at 256-bit and relatively powerful clock frequencies. The GPU operates at 840 MHz while the memory shuffles data at 1050 MHz (4200 MHz effectively). All to put NVIDIA's newcomer GeForce GTX 550 Ti in its place and offer a more powerful alternative to Radeon HD 5770, at a lower price than Radeon HD 6850.

[spicypixel]

Nicely done, it's looking like a solid product but as usual - the price is key

[Lanek]

Strange power consumption rumored, but like NH i don't really see why it will be so high. less core speed of the 6870 but higher of the 6850 but with less SM...
should be around the 6850 level ...


Anyway, time will tell how performance turn, but it's clearly a good news they put something between 5770-6850..

[kaktus1907]

expecting slightly faster than a gtx 460 se.. as said the price is key..

[sutyi]

After going trough the specs I was thinking that this could be great gap filler between the HD5770 and the HD 6850 if priced around 129USD. Then reading the article further I was like 2x6-pin? GTFO.

[bamtan2]

this is the point in the product cycle where I start to get confused by the names.

[Lanek]

After going trough the specs I was thinking that this could be great gap filler between the HD5770 and the HD 6850 if priced around 129USD. Then reading the article further I was like 2x6-pin? GTFO.

it's where thing start to be interesting, even if it impossible to know if this is based on non referece cards or just an error .. 2x 6 pin can mean high overclocker.
the 6850 use 1x 6pin, this card is basically a lite 6850,
so 2 solutions: there will be high clocked non reference, or this is an error.

this is the point in the product cycle where I start to get confused by the names.

need agree .. 6970/6790

[DjKlax]

The Sapphire Radeon HD 6790... too bad they don't have a picture with the power connectors, 150W seems a bit high to me.



Source here

[Pantsu]

It's going to be a similar fail as the 5830. Draws too much power and is priced too high, so there's no point in buying one. At those reference clock speeds it won't even overclock very well. If they price it at current 5770 level it might stand a chance.

[eddieobscurant]

It's going to be a similar fail as the 5830. Draws too much power and is priced too high, so there's no point in buying one. At those reference clock speeds it won't even overclock very well. If they price it at current 5770 level it might stand a chance.

I don't think so. 5830 had 16 ROP's and not 32 as the rest of 5800 series. 6790 has 32 ROP's as the rest of 6800 series, so it's going to be more like a slightly slower 6850 rather than a slightly faster 5770.

[22JHP]

another 4730 situation.unnecessary card when 6850 available.

[Olivon]

PHK talked about that 3 days ago, seems he was well-informed again.

[Tha Last Meal]

[insurgent]

this is the point in the product cycle where I start to get confused by the names.

Same here, for a second there I thought they were releasing a new high end part. A 6770 would have been less confusing.

[RSC]

Strange power consumption rumored, but like NH i don't really see why it will be so high. less core speed of the 6870 but higher of the 6850 but with less SM...
should be around the 6850 level ...


(...)

My thoughts exactly. Let's hope it's not another 4730...

[halfwaythere]

Since they are recycling the 6870 PCBs and using defective Barts chips that might be one explanation for the 2 PCI connectors. Maybe some AIBs can get away with just one.

[eXa]

Looks very interesting, wonder if they can be unlocked like 6850.

You can unlock the 6850???

[cold2010]

lol 150 w ? two 6pin !

[PatRaceTin]

i don't like xx90 code except 6990 haha

[saaya]

It's going to be a similar fail as the 5830. Draws too much power and is priced too high, so there's no point in buying one. At those reference clock speeds it won't even overclock very well. If they price it at current 5770 level it might stand a chance.

Well its closer to a 6850 than the 5830 was to the 5850 it seems... but Idk... 560 is the slowest card is consider upgrading to... anything below that isn't worth taking my rig apart...

[clayton]

Sounds like a bad 6850. :P

[masterg]

does this have double FP precision?

[BababooeyHTJ]

Doesn't sound too good.

The last piece of the specification is a bit confusing. Radeon HD 6790 is expected to perform worse than Radeon HD 6850, but still consume more power. AMD has specified the power consumption to maximal 150 watt, which can be compared to 129 watt for Radeon HD 6850 or 151 watt for Radeon HD 6870. With relatively high GPU and memory frequencies this sounds a lot like the launch of Radeon HD 5830 where AMD managed to launch a card that despite worse performance consumed more power than the faster brother.

Considering GeForce GTX 550 Ti is rated at 116 watt we can't really find a way to justify how Radeon HD 6790 can consume 150 watt, but this is what our sources are telling us. On March 31st we will know exactly what the number will be, but AMD has not developed a new GPU for Radeon HD 6000 but instead uses the well established Barts architecture.

[spicypixel]

Probably end up in the OEM supply chain though

[cold2010]

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...lypreview.aspx