Roundup: Four Radeon HD 6850 1 GB Cards Compared

[spentshells]

[citation][nom]scrumworks[/nom]Why are you using catalyst 10.6 (drivers from june) instead of latest, quite long already available 10.11 or 10.10-beta with HD6800 support?[/citation]

No Joke. Even my 5770 saw a pretty descent jump in the games I play moving to 10.10

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]spentshells[/nom]No Joke. Even my 5770 saw a pretty descent jump in the games I play moving to 10.10[/citation]Check the GPU-Z screen shots lately?
http://media.bestofmicro.com/C/7/270007/original/asus_gpu-z.png
http://media.bestofmicro.com/C/G/270016/original/msi_gpu-z.png
http://media.bestofmicro.com/C/L/270021/original/powercolor_gpu-z.png
http://media.bestofmicro.com/C/N/270023/original/sapphire_gpu-z.png

 

[yesitsmario]

I'm very satisfied with my DirectCU 6850, it's very quiet.

 

[pandemonium_ctp]

As much as everyone else doesn't see the point to this article, I do and I'm thankful the time has been given to show the data. I've always wondered the exact differences between the same model card from different vendors and this shows it. While they may be subtle and inherently obvious given the clock speeds, it does show how efficiently appropriated the hardware is by each design. Knowing how the differences of fan shroud and design of assembly is something I always wonder and almost never get answered. Well done.

Also, finally someone on Tom's willing to put efficiency of power consumption versus performance. Although, I don't quite understand the need to give it a base percentage comparison value. In the future, please just show performance divided by power consumed. It would be more revealing than having + or - % and can also be compared to any card in general regardless of make or model or comparison chart. It's also misleading saying that the Sapphire is best even though its performance isn't as good as the Asus for efficiency. That's subjective when you're looking at a table for efficiency. >.

 

[dEAne]

very nice article, thanks tom.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]pandemonium_ctp[/nom]It's also misleading saying that the Sapphire is best even though its performance isn't as good as the Asus for efficiency. That's subjective when you're looking at a table for efficiency. >.[/citation]It says it's the best of the fast cards...of which there are only two if you look...it also says that Asus is the most efficient overall, but there is some room for interpretation.

 

[karma831]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Er dude...http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2776.htmlThe previous article, which answered all your questions a month ago, was linked numerous times in this article.[/citation]
Oh...I was more interested in seeing the difference between the manufacturers of the same card (mostly the cooling).

Also somebody might have sent you guys an epic cherry picked one that would OC really high =).

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]karma831[/nom]Oh...I was more interested in seeing the difference between the manufacturers of the same card (mostly the cooling). Also somebody might have sent you guys an epic cherry picked one that would OC really high =).[/citation]Tom's Hardware has gotten a few of those, including one that had a severely modified voltage regulator where you could actually see the work that had been done by hand!

 

[Vic84]

Well, were did you forget XFX 6850 Black Edition? I think that card beats even PowerColor and Sapphire's card.

 

[korsen]

Ugh, again with the back and forth bullshit from ati and nvidia. Why doesn't one of these companies grow a pair and do something exciting like intel did with their 80 core chip? or even the other companies with their 64-core chips? GO BIG OR GO HOME. STOP REINVENTING THE WHEEL YOU CRACKERJACK ENGINEERS!

 

[Lutfij]

good read and a sight of things to come

 

[Guest]

I just want to thank the reviewer for using Crysis as a test game. I know its old and most people don't play it anymore. But crank up the AA and you'll see even the latest are down on their knees.

 

[dan_L]

Reviews like this are never complete without taking into consideration the tech support each manufacturer actually provides. I don't know about the other manufacturers, but I can personally attest that Asus offers top notch tech support based in Indiana -- yes that is Indiana, not India. You'd be amazed how quickly a tech question can be resolved when dealing with somebody who speaks the language natively and shares the same culture -- and isn't reading off a script, but actually can answer the question based on genuine technical knowledge.

I've been building computers with Asus mainboards and video cards for over 15 years and when there is a rare defect, Asus honors its lengthy warranties and replaces a part very quickly. They've been so good that I've started using the Asus RT-N16 router and when it couldn't connect to the Internet, Asus tech support helped me quickly solve the problem (which turned out to be with our ISP, not the router).

So if you can't decide between which video card to buy, keep in mind that Asus offers quality tech support right based in Indiana that will save you a lot of time and energy if you should ever need it.

 

[WarraWarra]

Expected more form the non default Power color 1120 stream processors and it's higher clocks.

 

[WarraWarra]

[citation][nom]f-14[/nom]anybody else look at the ads on the side of this article and see a gtx480 advertised at $80.86? i clicked on it to buy and it comes up with some msi am2 board[/citation]

Yup had a few bugs like that before, it is normal.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]WarraWarra[/nom]Expected more form the non default Power color 1120 stream processors and it's higher clocks.[/citation]Uh, 1120 shaders you mean? That would be 6870, which is default. Really, I have yet to see a manufacturer modify the GPU.

 

[Pallimud]

Nice review, I'd like to see some of the other distributors for the 6850 though. I know that's tough, but at least more major ones like XFX and Gigabyte.

 

[badaxe2]

3 years and 4 hardware generations on and Crysis still pwning new cards above 19:12 res lol! I'm trying to decide if I should stick with a 5870 or wait for the 6870. Hell I'll probably get that later.

 

[roast_pork]

Now if they could only get their drivers and the Catalyst suite working correctly for 3 or more GPU's.

 

[TheRockMonsi]

How did they test for power draw? They simply don't mention how here.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]TheRockMonsi[/nom]How did they test for power draw? They simply don't mention how here.[/citation]

Benchmark configuration table:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6850-eah6850-ax6850,2794-8.html

 

[TheRockMonsi]

Thanks for pointing that out. I was a total noob and somehow missed that.

 

[Guest]

Overclock potential was not tested and explored - we `d like to see which of the cards managed to get highest clock/score !!!

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]gele[/nom]Overclock potential was not tested and explored - we `d like to see which of the cards managed to get highest clock/score !!![/citation]Do you work for one of the companies that keeps submitting altered cards?