Following the recent launch of AMD's HD 6800 series cards, MSI has rolled out its own versions. MSI will stick to reference clocked cards for now but we are pretty sure that factory overclocked versions are just around the corner.

The R6870-2PM2D1GD5, as MSI calls it, is a reference clocked and reference cooled HD 6870 card that features 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.

The R6850-PM2D1GD5, or simply MSI HD 6850 feature 960 Stream Processors and works at 775MHz for the GPU and 4000MHz for the same 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Unlike the HD 6870, this one features a custom cooler that has a 90mm center placed fan and a two copper heatpipe heatsink.

Both cards should be available in retail/e-tail, while the factory overclocked cards should be ready pretty soon, in next few weeks.