The 68xx series has been received rather well so far. Now it’s our turn to check out a 6850, which our friends at HIS have provided. So let’s check it out shall we?
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When AMD released the 5xxx series cards, not all that long ago, it brought with it some major features that have been welcomed by many end users. The largest has got to be Eyefinity; multi-display gaming has never been so good. It took NVIDIA a while to catch up, but catch up they did and now you can get similar features from NVIDIA’s line up, and arguably it’s easier to implement. NVIDIA also had the GTX 460, which provided great performance at a good price point, and even better price point since they just reduced the price. AMD have responded by beginning to refresh their line up with new cards based on refinements of the previous features, and adding in a few new ones too. Coming out guns blazing, AMD have priced these new parts to be very competitive in the marketplace. So let’s take a look at the first new card, the 6850, specifically, the . |
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Specifications
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Model Name
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HIS 6850 Fan 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI/2xDVI/DP |
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Chipset
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Radeon HD 6850 PCIe Series |
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ASIC
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Radeon HD 6850 GPU |
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Memory Size
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1GB GDDR5 |
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Stream processors
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1600 (unified) |
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Manu. Process
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40nm |
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Memory Type
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GDDR5 |
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RAMDAC
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400MHz |
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Engine CLK
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775MHz |
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Memory CLK
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4.0GBPs / 4000 MHz |
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Memory Interface
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256bit |
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Bus Interface
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PCI Express x16 |
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Max. Resolution
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3x 2560*1600 (Dual dual-link) |
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GPU Features
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Power Supply Requirement
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500 Watt or greater power |
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Ports
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2x DVI (Upper Single-link DVI-D + Bottom Dual-link DVI-I), 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort |
OK, before we delve into some of the new tech, let’s get one thing straight here; the Naming scheme. The 68xx series of cards do NOT replace the 58xx series of cards. The 68xx series are set to replace the 57xx series of cards in the market place.
So why the obviously confusing naming then? Well, the problem stems from AMD wanting to offer a cheaper 32nm Barts GPU (the codename used in the 68xx series) but being let down by their manufacturing partner TSMC. Because of this, AMD had to stick with a 40nm process and was unable to squeeze out a huge performance increase at the right price to allow for cards that would fill each market segment. Instead, AMD decided to keep the 57xx series in the market but reduce it down to a lower tier in the performance/market scale (not a bad thing, because let’s face it; the 57xx series are damn good cards). That meant that if they named the new Barts GPU’s 67xx, many folks simply wouldn’t buy the 57xx series anymore … because both are mid-range and 67xx is better than 57xx, right? Hence AMD have gone with the 57xx series for the bottom end, the 68xx series for mid-range and by the end of the year, the 69xx series will appear to take the top spots.
That said, the 6850 card is quite the high performer, which it has to be at the price point it’s being offered at (which is highly competitive) which is close to that of the GTX 460 even after the price reductions from NVIDIA not so long ago.
We are already aware of the Eyefinity feature of the 5xxx series; a feature that has been highly received in the 5xxx series and should be a little simpler now in the 6xxx series, though arguably still not as easy as NVIDIA’s solution. AMD are using Display Port 1.2 which supports Daisy Chaining up to 3 monitors from one output (4 if you use a low enough resolution). A new Multi-Streaming Transport Hub will allow for up to 4 monitors via any display standard so this could make things a lot easier to get multi-display gaming up and running with your existing equipment.
Eyespeed is a new marketing buzzword from AMD and refers to anything that can be GPU accelerated such as (but not limited to) media playback. In keeping with this, the 68xx cards can playback more than before. The HDMI port gets a level up, with the 68xx series featuring an HDMI 1.4a port. This allows for 3D, which AMD have dubbed HD3D. This 3D support extends the playback features offered, and AMD have further extended video decoding playback with new support for more MPEG formats in their new UVD3 feature, including Xvid and DivX. You can also expect better post-processing from UVD3.
One thing that has been taken away is a second Dual Link DVI port; you now only get a single Dual Link DVI with the other being a Single Link DVI port. This is important because if you have a high resolution large screen, you better make sure you plug it into the correct DVI socket.
Another thing you will notice is that the 68xx series card only have one CrossfireX header, so you can only have a pair of 68xx series cards. If you want more performance, then you’ll need to spend more on a 69xx series card. AMD believe that this is what folks would/should do anyway, and they are probably right.
AMD have also introduced a new Anti-Aliasing method called Morphological AA. It uses adaptive filtering via DirectCompute to detect edges and shades them accordingly to smooth things out. It’s similar in performance to CSAA (faster than SSAA), but unlike CSAA it applies to all edges including those created by shadows. You will need the latest 10.10c hotfix drivers and you will have to force it in the drivers for it to work. Support for 5xxx series cards is coming for this method, although if you look around, you can probably find some hacks to make it work right now.
Anisotropic filtering has also been improved, and there is now a Surface Format Optimization feature that improves performance in games that use 16bit Floating Point surfaces for HDR.
The 68xx series then, is a much refined version of the 5xxx series, and aims to fill the mid-range area in performance and price while adding new features as well.
The HIS Radeon 6850 1GB
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The box for the HIS Radeon 6850 1GB follows the format of previous HIS card of late. It’s designed to stand upright, is quite compact and has an easily recognizable style. Excalibur and prominent features are on the front while the rear details exactly what you’re getting.
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Inside, a gray box holds all the contents, with a tray above the card holding all the extras. Like all HIS packaging of late, the packaging is all completely recyclable.
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Included with the HIS Radeon 6850 1GB is a single CrossfireX Bridge connector, a DVI to VGA adapter, two PCIe 6x to 2 Molex power adapters and a small folder with the Driver disk and a case badge.
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The card itself is reminiscent of the older 5xxx series and the 60′s Batmobile styling, however things are now much squarer. Naturally, the HIS Excalibur sword and artwork adorns the top of the shroud.
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The black shroud covers a radial heat-sink and fan assembly, in a combination of aluminum and copper heat-pipes. A single red fan with the HIS logo sits center right above the GPU and inside the heat-sink. The sides of the shroud are grilled all the way along the visible side allowing plenty of air movement for the HSF underneath.
At the rear of the card we find a single PCIe power connector. The 6850 doesn’t require much power at all considering the performance.
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Flipping the card over, we can see that the usual mounting bracket has been used. There is no ram chips on this side, everything is under the shroud. You will also notice the single CrossfireX header.
Just to give you an idea of the size of the card, here is a shot of it in my case, compared against the motherboard width. As you can see, the HIS Radeon 6850 1GB sits about an inch shorter than the motherboard.
The IO plate features two DVI sockets, a regular sized HDMI and a regular sized DisplayPort. As mentioned before, only one of the DVI ports is Dual Link.
NB: Some sites have discovered that they have a non standard 6850. As noted above in GPU-z, ours is standard and correct.
Testing
Test Setup: Intel Core i5 750 @ 3.8GHz, 4GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer Ram @ 1600MHz, MSI P55-GD65, Silicon Power M10 32GB + Western Digital 640GB, Custom CPU Watercooling, Hiper Type M 730w PSU, Cooler Master Cosmos S Case. All latest drivers as of October 2010 and the OS is Windows 7 64bit.
For comparison, we are testing against a default clocked NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB card.
Software
Left 4 Dead 2 – Recording a custom demo on the Dead Center, Hotel level (inside in the inferno), we used FRAPS to record frame rates as we played back the demo on all cards at same settings.
Assassin’s Creed 2 – The second of our DirectX 9 games, we tested by climbing a tower repeatedly in the Venice, San Polo – Rialto Bridge area and taking a leap of faith to the hay below 3 times. FRAPS was used to record frame-rates and the cards were set to the highest possible for each card.
Batman Arkham Asylum – We used a combination of the in game benchmark and FRAPS to gather our numbers for this game. All cards were set to the highest possible settings for that card.
Crysis Warhead – We used the Framebuffer benchmark tool to run through the Ambush demo and recorded the results with FRAPS. Settings for each card were set to highest possible for that card.
Aliens vs. Predator Benchmark – Using a DirectX11 engine, this benchmark provides a nice repeatable test combined with FRAPS. Settings for each card were set to default benchmark settings at our chosen resolution.
Colin McRae’s DiRT2 – DiRT2 has some very good looking visuals and provides us with another DirectX 11 test. We used FRAPS with the games inbuilt benchmark to test a quick run around a London track.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat Benchmark – Our third DX11 test uses a combination of FRAPS and the Ray portion of the benchmark. Cards were set to highest possible for each card.
– A popular way of testing your graphics, and useful for stress testing while overclocking. We used the Performance benchmark to give us a synthetic score.
Left 4 Dead 2 – DirectX 9
Settings: 1920×1080, 4xMSAA, 8xAF, Very High
Now AMD would have you believe the 6850 card compares to the GTX 460 768MB, but that’s a little conservative by our testing. The HIS Radeon 6850 1GB just edges ahead against the GTX 460 1GB, and don’t forget, we may yet see more performance once drivers mature. Our settings above ensure the game can be played with around 60FPS minimum although custom maps may drop that a little further.
Assassin’s Creed 2 – DirectX 9
Settings: 1920×1080, 4xMSAA, All options set to highest
At first glance, the HIS Radeon 6850 1GB appears to only be running a little better than the GTX 460, but even a slight difference is a big difference for this game. In actual game play, it matters very little, but when you’re in a sword fight with multiple enemies, you’re going to want those extra few minimum frames.
Batman Arkham Asylum – DirectX 9
Settings: 1920×1080, 4xMSAA, Details = Very High, All options On, No Physx
Here we can see a clear victory for the 6850. To be honest, you could raise the anti-Aliasing or the resolution a notch and still get more than playable frame-rates on the 6850. That’s not that the GTX 460 is a slouch in this game; far from it. But the 6850 is able to run at higher frame-rates at this resolution.
Crysis Warhead – DirectX 10
Settings: 1920×1080, 0xMSAA, 0xAF, Enthusiast
Typically, this is a test that NVIDIA cards dominate on but the 6850 puts in a good showing for AMD against the 460. There is no clear winner here; both cards are running at pretty much the same FPS across the test.
Aliens vs. Predator Benchmark – DirectX 11
Settings: 1920×1080, No MSAA, Default Benchmark Settings
This benchmark replays scenes of Aliens running down corridors, up walls, along the ceiling, similar to what’s used in the game. It is quite demanding but both cards handled it very well and pretty much identically. Keep in mind here that AMD compare the 6850 to the 768MB version of the GTX 460, and here we are comparing to the 1GB version.
Colin McRae’s DiRT 2 – DirectX 11
Settings 1920×1080, 4xMSAA, Ultra, DX11
This is another test where a small difference is a significant difference, at least for benchmarking. In game play, it’s much harder to choose a performance winner between the two cards here. Going by the numbers though, the 6850 is the higher performing card.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat Benchmark – DirectX 11
Settings: 1920×1080, No MSAA, Extreme Levels, Tessellation On, DX11
Again, a small difference is significant in this test, and again, the numbers put the 6850 in front slightly.
3D Mark Vantage
Using the performance settings for a standard 3D mark run, we get a performance score of P13653 for the HIS Radeon 6850 1GB. The GPU score (which we are mainly interested in here) scores a nice 12806 points.
Overclocking
As always, we used the Catalyst Control Center to overclock (at least to until it’s limits are reached) and begun by using the Auto-Tune to get a starting point. The Auto-Tune was actually pretty close to the finishing clock speeds. The HIS Radeon 6850 1GB starts at 775MHz core and 1000 Memory. The Auto-Tune took it to 840/1180 but we had no issues at 850/1200.
Overclocking – The Difference
Our 3D Mark Vantage GPU score jumped from 12806 to 14119 which is a nice increase.
Our same test demo we use to get Left 4 Dead 2 numbers but ran in a timedemo, jumped from an average of 86.42FPS to 94.16FPS. Plenty of headroom there for heavy duty third party maps or for increasing the graphic quality. It also bodes well for higher resolutions/Eyefinity.
Final Words
The 6850 is a joy to test and use in day to day PC life. A lot of what we have been saying here gets put into a bit more perspective when you look at prices. At time of writing this, Newegg have the for $179.99. The cheapest NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB is $199.99. Drop down to a GTX 460 768MB and prices are better (around $160), but the 768MB won’t perform like either of these two 1GB cards can (although in some games it could be close).
So you’re getting a lot of card for your money then. And that’s always a good thing. The comes with minimal extras package but you get what you need to get up and running.
The performance of the card is really good at this price point, and sits in the lower mid-range very well. In all our testing, the either matched or beat our comparison card, a card that AMD would like you to compare to their 6870; I think they are being a little conservative here, or perhaps that’s the point. The 6850 will perform better than or at least the same as a more expensive GTX 460 1GB.
AMD have added to and refined features from the 5xxx series, and it makes the a great all round card. Honestly, it’s a little bit of overkill for HTPC duty, but if you like to game on the big screen and are willing to spend that much on such a card, you certainly won’t be disappointed. As a gamers card, the 6850 has a lot going for it, and improved visual quality too thanks to new filtering as well.
Since the is one of the cheapest 6850′s right now, and performs so well, it’s an easy card to recommend.
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