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SAPPHIRE bolsters HD 6850 with 2GB RAM

by Alistair Lowe on 24 November 2011, 09:47

Tags: Sapphire

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Announced today, AMD/ATI-based graphics card maker SAPPHIRE has just released a 2GB refresh of its SAPPHIRE HD 6850.

SAPPHIRE HD 6850 2GB GDDR5

Oddly enough, aside from the increase in RAM from 1GB to 2GB, nothing much appears to have changed regarding the specifications of this card, other than an update to support the DisplayPort 1.2 specification, enabling up to three monitor Eyefinity support with the aid of an appropriate hub.

The card retains the following specifications of its older brother, aside, of course, for the increase in memory:

Output
1 x Dual-Link DVI
1 x DisplayPort
1 x Single-Link DVI-D
1 x HDMI 1.4a
DisplayPort 1.2
GPU
775 MHz Core Clock
960 x Stream Processors
40 nm Chip
Memory
4000 MHz Effective
2048 MB Size
256 -bit GDDR5
API
Microsoft DirectX® 11
Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL® 4.1
Software
Driver CD
SAPPHIRE TriXX Utility

SAPPHIRE claims that the increase in memory will benefit "demanding applications and specific graphical demands such as large textures maps in the latest games." It will be interesting to see if the increase in memory really has a significant performance impact on a modern game such as Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3 and if the pricing of the 2GB card will remain approximately the same as the original 1GB edition or at the very least, proportional to any performance gains.



HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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So this is the RAGE edition :p
The HD 6950 can make use of 2GB memory only in a few cases. I doubt the HD 6850 can use 2GB memory even in crossfire.
it can in RAGE - not that it will make the game any good but it can use 2gb
bbo320
The HD 6950 can make use of 2GB memory only in a few cases. I doubt the HD 6850 can use 2GB memory even in crossfire.

In eyefinity or resolutions above 1920x1200 that memory would be used.

I went from 6870 crossfire to a single 6970 partly due to the memory, at 5040x1050 many games use 1.2gb to 1.5gb at smooth frame rates, some things maxed can use up 1.7gb to 1.9gb but runs out of gpu horsepower yet with the extra power of 6850 crossfire there should be enough power for games to be maxed at a high res and eat up most of that 2gb.

This card would be perfect for crossfire combined with a very high res or eyefinity setup.