XFX is ready with the first AIB-branded
Radeon
HD 6000 series graphics card to be caught on camera. Its Radeon HD 6870
graphics card
bears a racy-looking AMD reference-design blower-type cooling solution, with its own company sticker. The company has opted for the AMD-branded Radeon logo. It draws power from two 6-pin power connectors, has no backplate on the PCB's reverse side, and sports a custom-design rear-panel on which the XFX logo is etched on the exhaust. Display connectors include two DVI, an HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPort. Radeon HD 6870 is intended to be a successor to the Radeon HD 5700 series, a performance segment product targeting a price sweet-spot. Radeon HD 5800 series successors are Radeon HD 6900 series.
XFX Radeon HD 6870 Smiles for the Camera | techPowerUp
To those who are still confused by the naming scheme, I will sum up what I read so far on most articles these past few days:
*The HD6850 and HD6870 are the Bart Pro and Bart XT
*They are expected to replace the HD57xx's performance segment and probably price segment as well, but these are stepped up cards.
The HD6850 should go head to head vs nvidia's GTX 460 1GB.
The HD6870 sits in between the HD5850 and HD5870 in terms of performance.
*Based on some articles, the Juniper XT and LE will be rebadged to HD67xx, to compete with nvidia's GTS 450, and possible the GTX 460 768mb.
Anyway Oct. 18 is the expected launch date, so let's wait for reviews nalang.