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AMD Radeon HD 6870, 6850 benchmarked ahead of schedule

by Parm Mann on 12 October 2010, 11:35

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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With the unveiling of AMD's Radeon HD 6000-series GPUs now just around the corner, web-based leaks are coming thick and fast.

The latest, published by Chinese website xfastest.com, could be the most significant to date as it includes benchmarks for two upcoming products; the Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850.

Both GPUs have been caught on camera in recent weeks, but whilst card specifications are merely conjecture at this point, the early benchmarks suggest that the new Radeon HD 6800-series won't be a direct successor to current 5800-series parts.

According to the supposed pre-release 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark06 numbers, the new products are outperformed by previous-generation equivalents.

GPU 3DMark Vantage 3DMark06
GeForce GTX 480 18,376 19,671
AMD Radeon HD 5870 17,924 19,433
AMD Radeon HD 6870 16,270 19,480
AMD Radeon HD 5850 15,593 18,762
AMD Radeon HD 6850 14,872 18,750
AMD Radeon HD 5830 14,014 17,298
GeForce GTX 460 13,623 18,601
AMD Radeon HD 5770 11,017 16,358
GeForce GTS 450 9,792 15,793
AMD Radeon HD 5750 9,124 14,966

It's worth noting that the numbers have to be taken with a pinch of salt; the benchmarks themselves can't be verified, and if they are indeed real, they were most likely recorded using sub-optimal drivers and pre-release hardware.

If however the numbers are accurate - and remember, that's a big if - it could suggest that AMD will indeed be mixing up its GPU nomenclature. Will the 6800-series be designed as a replacement to 5700 cards? Will the 6900-series brand be reserved solely for high-end parts? It certainly looks that way.

HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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Posted by Biscuit - Tue 12 Oct 2010 11:40
whats the point… seriously?

Get more fed up with manufacturers naming schemes by the day!
Posted by directhex - Tue 12 Oct 2010 11:42
6850 slower than 5850? I feel better about my purchases
Posted by Hicks12 - Tue 12 Oct 2010 11:57
agreed biscuit, silly naming scheme if they have indeed gone with it! If they did this when they first changed to the current naming scheme i.e 1000/2000/3000 then it would be ok, but now they have established that a 4850 is say better than a 3850 and a 5850 is better than a 4850 then changing that to a totally different one is stupid.

On the other hand… it makes it easier for the mainstream i.e people who dont follow computing to easily grasp that a 5770 is worse than a 6850 but i still see the problem anyways… most people see the first number being the most important like oo my 5450 is better than your 4890 because its higher!

Again, silly silly mistake… almost as bad as nvidia's re branding but i guess at least AMD have actually expanded on their design and changed the name not just the latter!.
Posted by Biscuit - Tue 12 Oct 2010 13:51
this will be especially bad if they dont release the flagship top-end card straight off the bat!
Posted by drunkenmaster - Tue 12 Oct 2010 13:55
Nvidia have done well to persaude people theres a problem with name changes.

The problem being, theres no change, theres a range of new cores and the NEW RANGE is named appropriately, a 6970 will be faster than a 6950, faster than a 6870, etc, etc, etc.

Intel/AMD change CPU names for new gens constantly, theres no issue there.

Its not fantastic naming by any means, it would make FAR more sense to separate the current very badly named 5670 and 5570, both 400 shader parts, that till now no one had an issue with, which for me, is far worse naming, and a bigger change from the previous series.

Likewise a 4770 from last gen was almost as fast as a 4850, it was well over 3/4 of the speed of the 4850.

While a 5770 is only half the speed of its big brother 5870 and much much less than 3/4 the speed of a 5850. No one minded the change then.

The only thing that mattered was the 4770 name when that appeared, fitted in with the 4xxx line up, from the name you knew exactly how fast it was, faster than a 4670, slower than a 4850.


The MOST important thing is, a 5870 is £300, a 6870(IF its called that, theres still not a shred of evidence thats the case) will be £200, maybe significantly less.

The point, completely ignoring names, is more performance for your money, the 6870, or if its called a 6770, or a ubermegatron, or a cleveland steamer(if they go with that naming, thats when I'll really worry). As long as the cards offer one of two things, more performance for the same money, or the same performance for less money, we get better value. Stuck on 40nm, with basically little room to manouvre, and with nothing new from Nvidia for at least 6 months and most likely till 28nm, so a year from now, better performance/price ratio is good news. Infact, thats never been bad news.

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