After the release of the AMD Radeon HD 6790 graphics card earlier this month that brought the Barts GPU architecture down to the sub-$150 graphics market, we expected to see something in a similar vein from the updated HD 6770 and HD 6750 cards.  But it was not to be: the Radeon HD 6770 and HD 6750 will continue in nearly an identical fashion to that of the Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 as we know them today.

When released back in October of 2009, the Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 were based on the Juniper 40nm GPU, ran at clock speeds of 850 MHz and 700 MHz respectively and included 1GB of GDDR5 memory running at either 1200 MHz or 1150 MHz.  Today, as the Radeon HD 6770 and HD 6750 see light, we are greeted with basically identical specs:

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The sole addition to the GPU is in the bump in video decode support that adds full hardware acceleration for Blu-ray 3D content and HDMI 1.4a displays.  While good news for the HTPC user in all of us (and by all of us I mean those few with 3D TVs and the desire to use them), the lack of any kind of improvement in the landscape is a bit of a disappointment.  

As a result, this is the "revised" stack from AMD for May and the immediate beyond.  You are now seeing a lineup that includes no less than three very different GPU designs from the HD 6750 up to the HD 6800 and then to high-end options in the HD 6900-series.  While in reality it doesn’t matter to most users what underlying architecture is powering their graphics cards, I feel it presents a unified front from the GPU vendor that is likely a result of process technology node changes and internal political dealings.

As for pricing, the new Radeon HD 6770 and HD 6750 will come in at the exact same prices as the currently (or previously depending on when you read this) available HD 5770/5750 cards.  So expect to see the HD 6770 selling for $130-120 and the HD 6750 for $110-100.

What does this mean for the market as whole?  Not much really – the same competition from NVIDIA exists and the same performance guidelines and review suggestions stand.  What you might want to keep an eye out for though is some wicked deals on HD 5770 cards as they are pushed off the shelves.