Swedish website Sweclockers claim to have to scoop on Radeon HD 6850's release date and specifications. A series of previous rumours staded that Barts may be branded as Radeon HD 6800 instead of HD 6700 - a rumour that was received with much skepticism. Sweclockers are now reigniting the same rumour by reporting Barts Pro may end up branded as Radeon HD 6850. The media embargo reportedly ends on 18th October, though a wide availability date is not given.
The specifications, at first sight, appear similar to a Radeon HD 5830, with 1120 SP and 4 GHz 256-bit GDDR5. The clock speed is listed as 72x MHz. On paper, one might wonder why on earth AMD would brand a product seemingly inferior to a HD 5830 as HD 6850? Assuming these rumours have any truth, a radical VLIW-4 / 4D redesign in AMD's shader structure could see even a 1120 SP product outperform the 1600 SP Cypress. Of course, these 1120 SP will occupy a larger area and consume more power.
Meanwhile, a large part of the rumour mill continues to believe Barts will be branded as HD 6700, Cayman as HD 6800 and Antilles as HD 6900, and these just make most sense. The "Barts Pro is 1120SP" specification also disagree with the leaked slide stating Barts Pro as 800 SP. Clearly, there's a lot of uncertainty and misinformation here, with contradictory rumours and something's got to give.
Whichever branding Barts does eventually receive, and whatever its final specifications and performance may be, there's one thing all speculation agrees with - it will release sometime between October 18th and October 25th, with an AMD event scheduled for October 12th. Considering these dates are not much more than a month away, we will surely find out the final and confirmed branding in the coming days/weeks.
