AMD is launching its new mainstream performance lineup, the Radeon HD 6800 series. The 6800 cards will offer much more performance at the $179 to $239 price range. We compare the new Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 6850 with AMD and NVIDIA cards and find out which delivers the best gameplay experience and value.

Over one year ago, AMD launched the first DirectX 11 GPU known as the ATI Radeon HD 5870 to the market, before Windows 7 even shipped. Over one year ago AMD debuted Eyefinity, improving upon the way gamers enjoy their games. Eyefinity was a huge advantage to the gameplay experience, and instead of just making faster GPUs, which we get in every generation, Eyefinity actually improved the gameplay experience. Now, over one year later, AMD is releasing their next generation of GPUs. AMD is ready to release its mid-level performance GPUs now, and a month from now, its high-end enthusiast “Cayman” GPUs.

There will be no less than four video cards released by Thanksgiving from AMD, ranging from the high-end to the performance user. Today, we are going to talk about the GPU codenamed “Barts.” This is AMD’s performance range of products known as the Radeon HD 6800 series. Think of Barts like this: Barts is a GPU with Radeon HD 5800-like performance, at a lower price. That is a general description, but really there are architectural improvements with Barts that should give you a bit more performance, but with less power, a smaller die, and a cheaper price.

• READ MORE (Source): Introduction – AMD Radeon HD 6870 & HD 6850 Video Card Review | [H]ard|OCP