AMD Radeon HD 6000 Slides Leaked

The source of most early Radeon HD 6000 series leaks – Napoleon from Chiphell – has now leaked what seems to be official AMD AIB Briefings. It is worth noting that these slides are from as early as August 2010, and some of the information may have changed. The first thing worth noticing that only three new products are mentioned – Barts, Cayman and Antilles – with no reference of rumoured entry/mainstream chips Turks and Caicos. As we know Barts will be the first to release, in October, aimed above the GTX 460. Cayman will be above the GTX 480/470 and will release in November. Antilles, with a December 2010 release, will be an unchallenged flagship card. While Barts and Cayman have XT and PRO versions, there will be a single Antilles card, for now, much like the single Radeon HD 5970.

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The source of most early Radeon HD 6000 series leaks – Napoleon from
Chiphell – has now leaked what seems to be official AMD AIB Briefings.
It is worth noting that these slides are from as early as August 2010,
and some of the information may have changed. The first thing worth
noticing that only three new products are mentioned – Barts, Cayman and
Antilles – with no reference of rumoured entry/mainstream chips Turks
and Caicos. As we know Barts will be the first to release, in October,
aimed above the GTX 460. Cayman will be above the GTX 480/470 and will
release in November. Antilles, with a December 2010 release, will be an
unchallenged flagship card. While Barts and Cayman have XT and PRO
versions, there will be a single Antilles card, for now, much like the
single Radeon HD 5970.

It is also clear from the above that Barts will create its own segment somewhere between Juniper and Cayman. Interestingly, Juniper will continue to co-exist, something which has ignited rumours of a rebrand to HD 6700 series. Beyond 2010, into 2011, nothing is mentioned, though we have seen pictures of entry level Caicos. Interestingly, one of the slides contains Coats of Arms of Cayman
Islands, Barts Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands – but not Antilles
Islands. When the entry/mainstream NI derivatives do release, Juniper is likely to be replaced. Till then Juniper will have to repel the GTS 450 attack.

Much of the rumoured details about HD 6800 are confirmed by the leaked slides, though detailed specifications are still missing. Interestingly, Barts is pin compatible with Cypress and will work on existing Cypress boards. Barts is more power efficient than Cypress, however. Cayman XT and PRO are scheduled for release in “Late Nov” and requires beefy 10 layer PCBs (8 layer for PRO channel boards). The XT version features 6 Gbps memory chips and 6-pin + 8-pin power connectors, with an ambiguous TDP of <300W (and more than 225W, presumably). The PRO version features 5 Gbps memory chips (though final clock speed can be lower) and 2×6-pin power connectors. TDP is under 225W. Antilles remains bit of a mystery, with certain rumours suggesting it will be dual-Cayman and others that it will be dual-Barts. Indeed, with the power consumption estimates of Cayman and the position of Antilles in the “Product Transition Plan” (i.e. closer to Cayman) dual-Barts may be the slightly more logical solution. However, the leaked drivers point to a dual-Cayman product.

Both NI cards feature 5 display outputs, with 4 simultaneous displays with DP 1.1 and 6 with DisplayPort 1.2. The six DP 1.2 monitors can be daisy chained from only two outputs. DP 1.2 extends resolution support to 4K x 2K – double the resolution of the current 2560×1600 limit. As expected, AMD is finally releasing an official 3D support, through HDMI 1.4 and DP 1.2. Finally, the much rumoured UVD 3.0, and features MVC for 3D Bluray.

These slides don’t give a complete overview of the Northern Islands family – we will have to wait till October 22nd for that – but the upcoming cards are adequately detailed. It is worth remembering, again, that these slides are initial AIB briefings from August, and much of the information could change.

You can view the complete slides on Chiphell. If you are unable to access the slides, we have published them on the next page.