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UPDATED: AMD Radeon HD 6790 Specifications Revealed
Not long after AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 6790 was first revealed, Nordichardware is reporting the final specifications for the HD 6790. It is indeed a Barts derivative, codenamed Barts LE and it is to the HD 6850 much like the HD 5830 was to the HD 5850. The HD 6790 disables a further 2 SIMDs from the Barts die, now left with 800 SP and 40 TMU. The GPU is clocked at 840 MHz, so thus far, it looks much like a HD 5770. However, the HD 6790 thankfully retains all 256-bit memory bus with surprisingly the same memory bandwidth as the HD 6870 - more than twice than the HD 5770. All 32 ROPs are retained too - once again, twice that of the HD 5770. The HD 6790 also features the enhanced Barts architecture with improved tessellation, and this along with far superior pixel fillrate and memory bandwidth are the areas where the HD 6790 will gain a significant advantage over the HD 5770 (and also the GTX 550 Ti).
It's not all rosy however, as the HD 6790 suffers from one of the same crippling flaws of the HD 5830 - high power consumption for the performance. As the HD 6790 is built around salvage dies, it requires a higher voltage than the regular Barts products to keep its clock speeds high sufficiently. The result is a 150W power consumption and requirement for 2x6-pin. For buyers in this segment, that can be a big decisive factor, and the GTX 550 Ti and even the faster HD 6850 offers a clear advantage in that regard - requiring only a single 6-pin PCIe connector. Perhaps moreso than the HD 5830, this can be a fatal flaw of the HD 6790.
However, the HD 6790 also succeeds in avoiding HD 5830's biggest flaw - pricing. At $130, the HD 6790 will provide very impressive bang-for-the-buck.
The HD 6790 is set to release on March 31st. We can only hope AMD has worked on the power requirements as apart from that, the HD 6790 looks like great value for money.
Source: Nordichardware
UPDATE: The Radeon HD 6790 will release next Tuesday, on April 5th, not March 31st.
