Chinese website, mydrivers.com, has posted the images seen below, supposedly showing primarily, AMD's new Radeon HD6970 (Cayman) card being unboxed, presumably in a stockist's warehouse, just a week before the rumoured release. The cooler design is similar to the current HD68xx series, and not unlike the previously leaked images we saw earlier this year, albeit much more finished.





Something worth pointing out from the second image is the inclusion of the 'ATI' letters on the front page of the manual. Although AMD has already made it clear they intend to rebrand the cards entirely, clearly something has slipped through the net, and is unlikely to be changed before release. This is most likely to be a brand specific problem, but an interesting observation non-the-less.

There is also a stock image of the Radeon HD6950, showing a similar cooler design again.



The RRP of both the cards is suggested:



The source isn't confirmed, but let's assume it's sound for now;

This makes the Radeon HD6970 slightly cheaper than its touted rival (for which it is believed the HD6970 was delayed to be more competitive to), the Nvidia GTX580, but is still likely to seem a relatively high price in many people's eyes. The HD6950 comes in at a more palatable price point, but the justification of this will surely come down to performance figures, once unveiled. Recent rumours of AMD increasing HD6970 production based on good yields indicates that the HD6950 may be harder to get hold of, but also very overclockable (depending on cooler design). It may also drive down the price of the more expensive card.

Does this mean the HD6970 won't be as fast as the GTX580 - in my opinion, most likely, based on the pricing, but it still could go either way and never underestimate how much more expensive electronics can be in the good old UK.

Source: Mydrivers.com

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