Introduction

The GeForce GTX 460 was born with a bang: these are the at the time best GeForce GTX 400 card and a price performance King, who was quickly many customers with a high speed for very little money and numerous variants of the manufacturer. It was no wonder that AMD wanted to find a counterpart as soon as possible.

This has now happened to the Radeon HD 6850 (computer base test). Similar to such as NVIDIA, AMD drives a tactic on the diversity, the product because no single manufacturer offers reference design – instead each with an own product is waiting on.

For this test we have chosen us five different manufacturers, which are all therefore come other cooler and some with slightly higher frequencies with a. Cards from ASUS, HIS, MSI, PowerColor and Sapphire have found their way in our test lab, and we will find out who has developed the best model them.

The candidates

Overview

Our today’s article the five test candidates differ not only in the cooling system used, a producer has increased the clock rates.

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Asus has shot at the clock screw of the Radeon HD 6850, where the differences from the reference design to be quite low.

ASUS Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU

The ASUS Radeon HD is listed for about 152 euro, but only available in 170 euro 6850 DirectCU. The availability is currently bad. Currently, ASUS not offers more variations.

&Lt; div > Photo Gallery “ASUS Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU” (13 images)

Asus has slightly increased the clock rate is the only manufacturer in the current test compared to the reference specifications.

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HIS Radeon HD 6850

The HIS Radeon HD 6850 is listed for about 150 euro, but available in any shop. Also HIS has currently no other variant of the Radeon HD 6850 in the program.

&Lt; div > “HIS Radeon HD 6850″ Photo Gallery (12 images)

MSI Radeon HD 6850

MSI holds a total of two variants of Radeon HD 6850 in the own portfolio:

• MSI Radeon HD 6850: Own design, standard clock rates, 1,024 MB (in test)
• MSI Radeon HD 6850 OC: own design, higher clock rates, 1,024 MB

The MSI Radeon HD 6850 is listed for approximately 154 EUR, and available from 162 euros. The availability is currently room for improvement.

&Lt; div > “MSI Radeon HD 6850″ Photo Gallery (13 pictures)

PowerColor Radeon HD 6850

PowerColor 6850 in the own portfolio holds a total of three versions of the Radeon HD:

• PowerColor Radeon HD 6850: own design, standard clock rates, 1,024 MB (in test)
• PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 PCS +: custom design, higher clock rates, 1,024 MB
• PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 Premium Edition: own design, slightly higher clock rates, 1,024 MB

The PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 is listed for about 150 euros and available from 154 euros. The availability is currently room for improvement.

&Lt; div > Photo Gallery “PowerColor Radeon HD 6850″ (10 images)

Sapphire Radeon HD 6850

The Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 is listed for about 159 euros and available from 167 euros. The availability is currently room for improvement. There is no other variants currently.

&Lt; div > “Sapphire Radeon HD 6850″ Photo Gallery (11 pictures)

Benchmarks

The following benchmarks were identified with the current graphics cards-test system based on an Intel Core i7 965. It is operated with a frequency of 3.87 GHz unnecessarily slow the cards. As a driver came for all measurements (including power and volume) of catalyst 10.6 (HD 6800: 10.10) and the GeForce 257.21 (GTX 460: 258.80) used.

Order to preserve the clarity of the charts, we have listed only the easily overclocked Radeon HD 6850 ASUS separately. Because all the other tested cards that match the reference guide of the chip manufacturer, we have a separate designation of these variants foregone.

Performance rating

Because only the Radeon HD comes 6850 DirectCU with higher clock speeds, we cover separately only the ASUS card also in the performance charts. All other candidates apply to the values of a normal AMD Radeon HD 6850.

Since ASUS only the frequency of the Barts GPU (and the also minimal) has increased, is the advantage to the reference design is almost negligible. Under 1920 x 1200, on average, we measure just increased speed by two percent. In anno 1404 without anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, as well as in call of duty: modern warfare 2 we find here the biggest advantage with four percent. Also the slightest difference in call of duty – but when anti-aliasing enabled. In the scenario to the ASUS card not at all of the standard model can get away.

Other measurements

On Windows, give no nakedness all five test candidates and achieve good results by the Bank. The HIS Radeon HD 6850 is the loudest, but always still pleasantly calm here with 43.5 decibels. All other Radeon-HD-6850-models are however inaudible.

Under load, the chaff separates from the wheat. The Radeon HD 6850 by Asus and Sapphire take the top easily and reach a very good result with 47 decibels. Both run can be distinguished from the remaining components, disturb but not at any time. The PowerColor as well as HIS model follow then with just under 50 decibels, which is still in order, but quite audible. The reference design is louder.

The MSI development disappointed, however, because with 53.5 DB, the accelerator not only ensures an unnecessarily high attention, even the standard model is also quieter. Absolutely incomprehensible, because with the supplied tool Afterburner can switch quickly and simply whisper-quiet video card itself, without having the temperatures in the fast.

The “worst” result under load provides that the PowerColor card is located 79 degrees Celsius but still in the green area. The MSI Radeon HD 6850 with 67 degrees, what but it is hardly surprising due to the high fan speeds achieved the best value. The development of the Sapphire is barely warmer with 68 degrees Celsius, remains, however, but significantly quieter.

In the power consumption all five test candidates create the trick exactly under Windows 165 Watts (the entire PC is meant) and four Watt less than the reference design from the outlet to draw. The latter on shows unusually high consumption but have always with us.

Under load, there are larger differences. So the PowerColor adaptation with 287 Watts a Watt is, the Sapphire card two Watts and the Asus and the MSI card at all four Watt under the standard model. The ASUS Radeon HD 6850 “suffers” so not the higher clock rates. It creates the HIS Radeon HD 6850 with 279 Watts to conquer is the place in the Sun. Nine Watts are still less than the reference design.

Currently most Radeon HD-6850-cards have integrated a lock in the BIOS, that allows the overclocking only up to 850 MHz for the GPU and up to 2,400 MHz for the memory. This is the case in our review of HIS-, MSI and the Sapphire card. The store, the lock is not so tragic, because more than usually eh 2.350 MHz are unstable, but when the GPU we can not develop the full potential. So the nine to eleven percent performance increases. The cards increases the power consumption by five to ten watts and the volume to one or two decibels.

The Asus and the PowerColor participants there is no lock. The ASUS Radeon HD allows for an increase in clock to 134 MHz 6850 DirectCU, resulting in 924 MHz. The memory is working properly with up to 2400 MHz. The performance increases around 12 to 16 percent and power consumption to 16 watts. The volume increased by a decibel.

We achieve the best result on the PowerColor adaptation with 950 MHz, an increase of 175 MHz compared to the default clock. The store runs up to 2.404 MHz correctly, what the performance increase to 17 to 19 percent. The power turns out to be 19 Watts higher volume equal to 5.5 decibels. All test candidates have concerns a GPU voltage of 1,149 volts.

Conclusion

In contrast to the GeForce GTX 460 competition 6850 currently higher clocked variants – the Radeon HD missing at least the ones that are noticeably faster. In our testing field, the ASUS Radeon HD is only because 6850 DirectCU with higher frequencies, the two per cent increased output are noticeable but not at any time.

In the cooling system, there are, however, numerous specimens that deliver very different results. Most convinced the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, which remains show with this not only us most kühlsten but also very quiet. On Windows, the show is inaudible and comfortable under load. The ASUS card works on the same level. The GPU is minimal getting warmer, but what does not matter. The places three and four will go to the PowerColor or the HIS product. The MSI Radeon HD 6850 occupies large behind the last place, that on Windows of the competition in nothing inferior, is under load then but unintelligible loud – louder than the reference design. Since then also no longer help the (logically) lowest temperature values.

With regard to power consumption the test candidates differ only under load and there lies the biggest difference with eight Watts, making the performance hunger should affect any decision to buy.

Summary: The ASUS Radeon HD 6850 DirectCu and the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 have us by the five variants liked most. From the Radeon HD-6850-series include the two undoubtedly among the best of its kind. But both have a catch: the ASUS card is available only starting from 170 euro, the Sapphire derivative from 167 euros. When you consider that a Radeon HD was to have 6850 for the launch for 150 euro, this is no development in the customer.

PowerColor developing got third place itself, directly followed by the HIS card. Both run have their raison d ‘ être, come, but nunmal not on the results of ASUS and the Sapphire model approached. This is the PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 154 euros the best, currently available ATI Radeon HD 6850 and overclock; can be very well the adaptation of HIS is, however, not available.

Advise against only we must 6850, which is quite simply too loud under load from the MSI Radeon HD. With the MSI Afterburner tool can be remedied quickly, without manual intervention the customer not comes out.

&Lt; div > Asus Radeon HD 6850 < div > positive properties

• Fast enough for 1920 x 1200
• Often AA/AF possible
• Good power consumption on Windows
• Eyefinity
• Consistently very quiet