AMD has launched their latest graphics cards designed to cater to the mainstream market, the AMD Radeon HD 6850 and HD 6870. Based on the 40nm Barts core, these cards are intended to deliver performance comparable to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 and even 480 cards. Despite their higher model numbers, the new AMD cards are actually still below the HD 5870 in pecking order... at least at stock speeds!

Check out how well they live up as the new mainstream pair in our special launch review.

AMD Radeon HD 6850 & HD 6870 Launch Review

Great price/performance rivaling the gtx 460 and driving down prices at the same time. Performance of 58xx series cards with ~25% less die space and ~25% less transistors.

Great crossfire scaling too $480 for two 6870's that will well outperform a gtx 480, $450, and use about the same amount of power or slightly less.

Two things that I really dislike about the cards though.
1. A single crossfire bridge. Obviously people need a reason to still buy the 58xx series over these great price/performance monsters but if they really are the 57xx successor they should still have two bridges. The 5770 rebadge to 6770 will likely see most models with two crossfire bridges. Poor choice IMO on their part.
2. Overclocking. With clocks already so high overclocking really suffers. Hopefully the 69xx will fare better in that department. The 68xx isnt bad at overclocking but just average.

Only thing I need to know before I snatch me up two 6870's is how long they are?

I have a Storm Scout, so the 5870 doesn't fit in my case because it's too long, I'd have to mod it. If the 6870 is smaller than the 5870 and will fit in my case without modding, I'll buy two right now haha.

quote Ohmycaptain

Only thing I need to know before I snatch me up two 6870's is how long they are?

I have a Storm Scout, so the 5870 doesn't fit in my case because it's too long, I'd have to mod it. If the 6870 is smaller than the 5870 and will fit in my case without modding, I'll buy two right now haha.

I added an image on the second page that shows the size comparison between the two 6800 models and the reference HD 5830.

Thanks