Sapphire has rolled out its Barts based cards, the HD 6850 and the HD 6870. The Sapphire HD 6870 is based on the reference design while the HD 6850 is based, like every other card on the market, on non-reference, in-house design.

Both cards are based on AMD's newest 40nm Barts GPU and features support for DirectX 11, Crossfire, Eyefinity and brings more display option when compared to the previous generation. Both cards feature HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2 and two DVI outuputs.

The HD 6870 packs 1120 Stream Processors and works at 900MHz for the GPU and 4200MHz for 1GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. It needs two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors and has a suggested retail price set at US $239.99

The non-reference HD 6850 features 960 Stream Processors, has 1GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface and works at 775MHz for the GPU and 4000MHz for memory. This one has a suggested price tag set at US $179.99.