Introduction

Whenever a product launch is imminent, talk of a possible price war is almost always to follow. The choice of the word “war” is peculiar in the implication that the event will be drawn out and not just a skirmish.  Perhaps it is the only time in history where “war” is spoken of in rapt remembrance rather than wrapped in melancholy. It is a time when everybody wins; when the video card market poses little challenge to the facile eclecticism of electronic consumers. It is not hard to think why this war is met with enthusiasm. Of course, a product launch in itself is not enough to guarantee that there will be a price war in the first place. The market is fickle and product reception will rely greatly on the product’s performance benchmarks.

This is why AMD has worked diligently on their new video cards, based on the Cayman core design. Simply releasing the fastest GPU in the market just in time for the holiday season is a noble goal, but short-sighted.  Placing the product within the right price point at the right time is just as essential.  AMD’s partners have also been hard at work creating their own variants in the HD6900 card designs.  In a sea of the latest DirectX11 GPUs, a product has to stand out from the rest and shine like a diamond when benchmarked.

The Diamond HD6970 XOC springs from AMD’s latest “Cayman” core design.  As far as single GPU cards are concerned, the Diamond HD 6970 XOC represents the most advanced video card technology from AMD’s laboratories. Armed with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the Diamond HD6970 has enough bandwidth to play the latest DirectX11 titles, whether in 1080p or in Eyefinity mode.  Positioned to compete in price, as well as performance, the Diamond HD6970 XOC is a high-end board that is guaranteed to deliver.