Nvidia's Fermi architecture finally debuted late last week with the launch of GeForce 480 and 470 cards. But while most manufacturers have come out with their respective models since then, one of Nvidia's biggest partners for the best part of a decade is noticeably missing from the scene: XFX.

The California-based manufacturer has thus far failed to launch any Fermi-based products. Speculation is that Nvidia is punishing this highly successful brand by cutting them off from the initial batch of GeForce GTX 480 and 470 cards as a result of their decision last year to start selling ATI. According to Legit Reviews, on the other hand, XFX made the decision itself because the company believes the rival Radeon HD 5000 series is better suited to the enthusiast marketplace.


Whatever the case may be it doesn't mean the company won't have Fermi cards available in the future. After all, photos of XFX's GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards have already been leaked. However, for now it seems they'll be turning their attention to another high-end part: the Radeon HD 5970 Eyefinity 6 Black Edition. This limited edition card will come in a machine gun shaped box, and is said to feature two 850MHz Radeon HD 5870 "Cypress" GPUs on a single PCB, hooked up to a massive 4GB GDDR5 frame buffer running at an effective 4,800MHz.

Gamers will be able to connect these to up to six monitors, courtesy of Eyefinity and six Mini DisplayPort outputs, as well as use a custom overclocking tool to further ramp up speeds. There's no word on pricing yet but, of course, you shouldn't expect it to come in cheap. A 2GB Radeon HD 5870 with EyeFinity 6 support may also be in the works.