Radeon HD 6950M 

When it comes to building and configuring Core M, Intel likes to refer to their efforts as the “Fanless Challenge,” reflecting the fact that their biggest goal with Core M is to comfortably get the processor in to 10” tablets under 10mm in thickness that are passively cooled.

The end result no doubt limited what performance optimizations Intel could integrate into Broadwell’s design, but it also functionally reduces power requirements for any given performance level, furthering Intel’s goals in getting Core performance in a mobile device.

In recent years this has especially been the case for laptop/mobile graphics thanks to the larger volume and higher levels of integration as found on those parts, though this does have the unfortunate side effect of meaning GPU announcements get caught up in the deluge of announcements coming out of CES.

Moving on to our second confirmed product, we have a new low end SKU called the R5 M230.

AMD’s Kaveri APUs would feature the latest core architecture along with enhanced GCN graphics on a single die package.

This means that higher frequency DDR3 memory just might come in handy with Kaveri APUs to unleash the full potential of the graphics core.

Apple has determined that some AMD Radeon HD 6970M video cards used in 27-inch iMac computers with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 or 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors may fail, causing the computer’s display to appear distorted, white or blue with vertical lines, or to turn black.

In a somewhat baffling piece of news this weekend, word comes that Apple has initiated an internal replacement program for the video cards on some of their mid-2011 27” iMacs.