(AMD) ATI's Southern Islands GPUs were slated to release in Q4 of this year, but because of some manufacturing issues, it was rumored they would not be getting a die shrink from the current 40nm process the 5k series was built on. These images, obtained from a Taiwanese forum, might give some details of what's upcoming.
The performance difference over the 5870 seems mild, with an increase in 3dMark still falling a little short of what the 5970 is getting, albeit outperforming every other gpu. There's no gaurantee on whether this is a 6850 or 6870, or even if it's 100% legit, but in a few more weeks, more details should emerge. The Memory Bandwidth is listed at 204.8 GB/s, and for reference, a GTX480 is 177.5.
Although it would be wonderful if something more meaningful than 3dMark was provided, immature drivers might not provide an accurate representation of performance at this point either.
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