The first 3D Mark scores of AMD's next-generation Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs have surfaced online.

According to Xfastest web site, the Radeon HD 6870 scored P16270 in 3DMark Vantage, while the slower 6850 managed to hit P14872. Those numbers are pretty close to those of the existing Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, respectively.

AMD's Radeon HD 6800 Cards are expected to ship this November and will be based on the 'Barts Pro' and 'XT' graphics processors, both part of AMD's Northern Islands family of GPUs. However, these chips will be reportedly built by TSMC - AMD's chip provider - using the existing 40nm process.This could explan the similarities of the new HD 6800 family with AMD's current generation of GPUs (5000 series), at least in terms of performance.

According to early information, the AMD Radeon HD 6870 is based on Barts XT GPU, features 960 stream processors, 1GB GDDR5 memory, 256-bit memory interface, and memory clock of 4200MHz. The Radeon HD 6850 comes with 800 stream processor, 1GB GDDR5 memory, 256-bit memory interface, and core/memory clocks of 775/4000MHz.