AMD Radeon HD 5870 X2, 4900 series enroute?
updated 12:05 pm EST, Fri February 6, 2009
AMD Radeon HD 5870 X2 Leak
A Dutch reseller listing and additional leaks suggest that AMD is not only planning a new 4900 series but that one of its Radeon 5-series cards may be a dual-chipset card. Showing as the ATI Radeon HD 5870 X2, the card appears to be a higher-clocked version of the 4870 X2 with each individual core speed climbing from 750MHz to 800MHz while the memory makes the biggest leap from 3.6GHz to 4.8GHz while keeping to GDDR5 RAM. The example also has built-in HDMI, though this has been an option for most recent AMD video cards.
The board doesn't have a ship date and is priced at about 677 Euros ($865), but a production card is expected to sell for much less; it's not known whether the entry is a placeholder or a reflection of inside knowledge.
Beyond this potential flagship, more modest introductions are also reported and would have the Radeon HD 4950, 4970 and 4995 X2 step in as replacements for the 4850, 4870 and 4870 X2. Their details are also unavailable, though the naming scheme points to a clock speed increase to maintain competition against faster NVIDIA chipsets than a genuinely new architecture. These may be due as early as the CeBIT expo in March. [via Guru 3D]
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2000
Fast Video Cards...
teamed with Snow Leopard are going to be an interesting combo... now that we know there will be a harnessing of all the power in a GPU for things other than first person shooters!