Radeon 5850 or 6850 ?

[MegaStrike]

Hey,
Ok so I'm upgrading my PC to a gaming PC and this is what I'm going to get :
AMD Phenom II X4 955BE(won't OC it unless I get an extra cooler)
4GB DDR3
Ati Radeon 6850 1GB
So I've seen a couple benchmarks around here(battlefield3 included) and I can see that the 5850 beats the 6850 in all resolutions/settings,isn't the 6850 supposed to be newer and better ? Its even more expensive...
Thanks in forward

 

[xtreme5]

because the 6850 is re-branded of 5850.

 

[swifty_morgan]

no, it's not a re-brand. the architecture is different. i'd get the 68.
]
http://www.guru3d.com/article/vga-charts-spring-2011/

 

[Zero_]

because the 6850 is re-branded of 5850.

you serious? It's not.

AMD changed the naming scheme after the HD5xxx series. Previously, the HDx8xx (Eg 4850, 4870, 5850, 5870 etc) was the high end series. After the HD6xxx series, the numbering changed, and AMD added another series, the HDx9xx series, and the x8xx series was the new high end mainstream segment, one which hadn't existed before.

Therefore, even if you are comparing a HD5850 and HD6850 and the seem to belong to the same graphics class, they dont. The HD6850 is a mainstram card and the HD5850 is an enthusiast card from the previous generation.

 

[de5_Roy]

in short: 5850 is more powerful (like current 6870) but 6850 is more power-efficient. if you want raw power, get the 5850. i'd prefer the 6850 as it is the most powerful gfx card requiring only one pcie power connector and has good performance.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=291

 

[esrever]

the 6950 is the basically the 5850's successor and the 6970 the 5870's

the 6850 is the successor to somewhere in between the 5770 and 5830.

Its the naming scheme changing for amd. the X9XX used to be reserved to dual gpus like the 5970 but now the replaced it with only having 1 dual gpu and putting it at X990 and focusing on more mid range cards for a more rounded line up while moving the top of the line up to x9xx.

 

[MegaStrike]

Well I guess I will go for the 5850...Power doesn't really matter for me,its not me who pay the bills anyway LOL.

I got 1 more question..don't wanna start a new thread.Do I really need to have an extra cooler to OC the 955BE cpu ? If so,I would just get a better cpu...maybe an I5.

 

[esrever]

yes you'd want to cooler to OC.

you should probably go with an i5 if you have the money either way.