[McG]

The highest-performing Radeon HD 6000-series graphics processing unit (GPU) code-named Cayman is expected to deliver 30% - 50% performance increase compared to the recently released Radeon HD 6870 graphics card. The increase is not a major one to say at least, considering the fact that the model 6870 is slower than the previous-generation Radeon HD 5870.

"We believe that the performance of the new-generation Radeon HD 6900 will be 30% to 50% higher compared to the Radeon HD 6800-series," said Eliane Liao, a spokeswoman for Power Color. Even though representatives for graphics cards suppliers are supposed to know performance levels of future products, developers of GPUs tend to finalize specifications on the last minute and therefore actual performance results differ from predicted levels. The spokeswoman for Power Color also confirmed intention to release dual-chip Radeon HD 6990 graphics solution, which, according to ATi, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, will be on the market in Q1 2011. With the power of two Cayman graphics processors, the model HD 6990 will leave behind the GeForce GTX 580, but this will happen months after the launch of the latter.

The Radeon HD 6950 and 6970 graphics cards will be available in mid-December, 2010.

Izvor: X-Bit Labs