HIS HD6870 CrossFireX Review

AMD have been in charge of the DX11 battlefield since their HD5000 series cards were released last year. It took nVidia many more months to come to market with competitive solutions and while their GTX480 and GTX470 received a half hearted welcome, the GTX460 has literally taken the mid market by storm. Many partners have released custom solutions with enhanced coolers and clock speeds. The new AMD HD6870 has been released to tackle the GTX460's domination with similar pricing levels.

Firstly we need to address the naming conventions, because many enthusiasts have gotten a little confused.  The HD6870 isn’t a direct replacement for the HD5870 – AMD’s goal was to deliver similar levels of performance from the HD6870 but at a much lower price. The serious high end HD6900 cards are due for release in November.

The HD5870 first hit the market at £350, while the HD6870 will cost less than £199 … an incredible pricepoint achievement if the new AMD hardware can go head to head with the giant killing GTX460 – the source of this pricing war.

The ‘Barts’ codenamed products are aimed at the sub $250 market, while the forthcoming ‘Cayman’ and ‘Antilles’ are higher end and significantly more expensive.

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