Posted 11/01/09 at 04:24:58 PM by Justin Kerr

Last month we posted a link to some early spy shots of the Radeon HD 5850 X2 & 5870 X2, but aside from the pictures, the post was a bit short on details. The card which still hasn’t been officially unveiled by AMD is still somewhat of a mystery, but the gang over at Alienbabeltech.com got a hold of some new photos and information that answers some, but not all of the questions we have about the new design.

Based on the reference card shown in the pictures, it appears as though this monster will require two power connections, one 8-pin and one 6-pin which are located just above the fan. Even if the power requirements of this beast don't shock you, the overall length of the card just may. Measuring in at a whopping 13.5 inches long, most enthusiasts without a full tower case will have a hard time fitting this into their machines. AMD responded quickly by stating that the photos were of an engineering sample, leading us to wonder if the card won’t shrink an inch or two prior to release.

The other big change since our last update is the new naming conventions. It now appears as though AMD will be dropping the “X2” designation and the cards will be known as the Radeon HD 5950 (Dual 5850’s), and the Radeon HD 5970 (Dual 5870’s). Questions remain, but hey, its better then nothing right?

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Posted 01/05/09 at 09:24:07 AM by Paul Lilly

If AMD continues to falter in 2009, it won't be from a lack of processors. Less than two weeks ago, DigiTimes reported that the Santa Clara chip maker would churn out no less than half a dozen 45nm Athlon CPUs by June of 2009 in addition to the upcoming Phenom II release, all of which are aimed at the consumer desktop sector. But that's just the beginning; AMD also plans to flesh out its business CPU lineup with several 45nm silicon as well, DigiTimes says.

Six new business classes processors divided evenly between dual-, triple-, and quad-core parts are slated for Q3 2009. These include:

• Athlon X2 B21 (2.7GHz, 2MB cache)
• Athlon X2 B23 (2.9GHz, 2MB cache)
• Phenom II X3 B71 (2.6GHz, 7.5MB cache)
• Phenom II X3 B73 (2.8GHz, 7.5MB cache)
• Phenom II X4 B91 (2.6GHz, 8MB cache)
• Phenom II X4 B93 (2.8GHz, 8MB cache)

Several new Phenom II, Athlon X2, and Athlon processors will also receive last order notices in Q4 2009.

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Posted 05/01/08 at 04:20:57 PM by Michael Brown

Compared to AMD’s gracefully engineered Radeon 3870 X2, Nvidia’s GeForce 9800 GX2 (represented here by Gigabyte’s implementation) is something of a kludge. But when we consider the performance that Nvidia’s design delivers, it’s hard to complain about elegance.

Click Read More for more. 

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