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AMD's Radeon HD 6000-series GPUs are expected to be shown to the press in the next week or so, but that won't stop the rumour mongers from posting fresh leaks on the updated cards.
The latest - predictably from China - claims to be of an AMD PDF fully detailing the HD 6870 and 6850 cards that are expected to be the first to reach the market. As has been mooted, the document seems to confirm that the HD 6870 will be based on the Barts XT core that is suspected to be a beefed-up version of the chip found in the HD 5770.
What's catching everyone's attention is that the reference card seems to have five outputs - two DVI, one HDMI and two Mini DisplayPort. Presumably this could allow someone to run five simultaneous displays right out of the box, though remember that previous cards haven't allowed displays to be connected to both DVI connectors and the HDMI port at the same time.
Otherwise, the card seems to be similar in size to the Radeon HD 5850, though the angle makes accurate estimates difficult. Also note that the ATI sticker on the fan hub has been replaced by one baring the new AMD Radeon logo.
Though the shots of the PDF are in simplified Chinese, all of the previously rumoured features seem to be present, including AMD HD3D. It also lists 'EyeSpeed', though it isn't clear exactly what this is.
While the level of detail makes these slides seem fairly legitimate, something about the fan sticker just doesn't sit well with us. The perspective seems to be off a little, possibly calling the legitimacy of the picture into question.
Either way, the rumours and whispers will soon be put to rest when AMD sets the record straight on its upcoming cards in the very near future.
ATI users can automatically update their drivers via Steam starting with Catalyst 10.9.
Tuesday AMD senior marketing manager Peter Ross said that the company struck a deal with Valve Software to distribute the latest Catalyst drivers for the ATI Radeon graphics card on Steam. Although no specific details were provided, Steam users will (obviously) be alerted when the latest available drivers for their hardware becomes available on the platform, and will be able to install the package with just one click.
"Earlier this year at GDC we announced AMD Gaming Evolved, a program that demonstrates AMD’s ongoing commitment to PC gamers, PC game development and the overall PC game industry," Ross said in his official blog. "AMD and Valve teaming up to make sure that Steam gamers always have the most recent drivers for their graphics cards is just another way that we are showing our commitment to the promise we developed in our Gamers’ Manifesto."
According to Valve's most recent Steam Hardware Survey, 87-percent of DirectX 11 gamers consist of ATI Radeon or ATI Mobility Radeon hardware. For Nvidia fans, the same survey reveals that 59.11-percent of Steam gamers use Nvidia-based graphics while 32.98-percent use ATI-based GPUs. Only 5.6-percent of the systems surveyed actually support DirectX 11.
Given the popularity of Valve's content distribution network, it's surprising that AMD--or Nvidia for that matter--hasn't already entered into this type of distribution agreement. As Steam now serves as the premier content distribution platform for the PC, it seems only natural that both AMD and Nvidia should take advantage of its prominence.
Nevertheless, Ross said that driver distribution will officially begin on Steam with ATI Catalyst 10.9.
"For over a year now, our installer team has been working on a complete redesign of the driver install experience and, with Release 260, we are excited to roll out the first phase of that redesign. Users will have the choice of a one-click express installation or a custom installation with new advanced capability. Specifically, the custom install options allow users to choose which driver components to install, including PhysX, 3D Vision and more. Also, for the advanced users that prefer to uninstall their older driver first, or rely on 3rd party driver cleaner software to completely remove older drivers, NVIDIA Install offers the choice of a clean install. During the clean install process, your older driver is completely removed from your system before seamlessly installing the new driver. Users will also notice that NVIDIA Install is faster, especially in the case of systems with multiple GPUs."
We’ve all seen our share of performance demos showing how one processor is faster than another, or why GPU X makes a game run faster or look prettier than GPU . Nvidia take a very different approach to showing why we need GPUs, and why they do graphics better than a CPU.
They’ve also had a little help from Mythbusters.
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