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AMD Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 review

by Tarinder Sandhu on 22 October 2010, 03:00 4.5

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), Sapphire, HiS Graphics

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa2nn

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How we test


















GPU comparisons
Graphics cards Current pricing GPU clock (MHz) Stream processors Shader clock (MHz) Memory clock (MHz) Memory bus (bits) Graphics driver
Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB £295 850 1,600 850 4,800 256  Catalyst 10.10P
HIS Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB £215 725 1,440  725 4,000 256  Catalyst 10.10P
HIS Radeon HD 6870 1,024MB £189+ 900 1,120 900 4,200 256 Catalyst 10.10P
Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1,024MB £150+ 775 960 775 4,000 256 Catalyst 10.10P
Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 1,024MB £165 800 1,120 800 4,000 256 Catalyst 10.10P
HIS Radeon HD 5770 1,024MB £110 850 800 850 4,800 128 Catalyst 10.10P
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MB N/A 750 800 750 3,600 256 Catalyst 10.10P
ASUS GeForce GTX 480 1,536MB £360 700 480 1,401 3,698 384 ForceWare 260.89
ASUS GeForce GTX 470 1,280MB £200* 607 448 1,215 3,348 320 ForceWare 260.89
ASUS GeForce GTX 465 1,024MB £170 607 352 1,215 3,206 256 ForceWare 260.89
KFA GeForce GTX 460 LTD OC 1,024MB 
 £190 810 336  1,620 4,000 256  ForceWare 260.89
KFA GeForce GTX 460 1,024MB
 £160* 675 336  1,350 3,600 256  ForceWare 260.89
POV GeForce GTX 460 768MB OC  £170 824 336  1,648 4,020 192  ForceWare 260.89
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB £125 675 336  1,350 3,600 192  ForceWare 260.89

Test bench
CPU Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition (3.33GHz, 12MB L3 cache, hexa-core, LGA1366 - Turbo Boost enabled)
Motherboard ASUS P6X58D Premium
Motherboard BIOS 1002
Memory 6GB Corsair DDR3
Memory timings and speed 9-9-9-24-1T @ DDR3-1,600
PSU Corsair HX1000W
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px
Disk drive(s) Corsair Force F80 SSD
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit

Benchmarks
Aliens vs. Predator DX11, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 2xAA, 16xAF, very high quality.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 DX9, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark.
Just Cause 2 DX10, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, Dark Tower benchmark
Mafia II DX9, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, AA on, 16x AF, built-in benchmark
Unigine Heaven v2.1 DX11, 1,920x1,080, various tessellation modes
3DMark Vantage b1.02 DX10, Run at the 'high' preset and overall, GPU and Feature Test 4 scores noted
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Call of Duty: MW2. And, for a worst-case scenario, we throw in numbers from the FurMark stress test.
Power consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Call of Duty: MW2. And, for a worst-case scenario, we throw in numbers from the FurMark stress test.

* reflects new pricing as of 21/10/10.

14 GPUs are included in the performance section. All have been tested on new drivers this week, representing a truly Herculean benchmarking effort totalling over 40 hours. We've included a number of mid-range GeForce cards whose pricing falls between the two new Radeons'. In particular, both default and super-overclocked GeForce GTX 460 768MB and 1,024MB cards are taken in consideration.

What's more, we've also thrown in a Radeon HD 4870 512MB card, to see how the newer GPUs shape up in comparison. You won't find results for the DX11 benchmarks because, well, it can't run them.

Please bear in mind that the games suite is in a state of flux. There just hasn't been enough time to qualify and use all the titles we'd like to. The suite will be expanded next week to include at least one more game.

Driver shenanigans

NVIDIA's cards are tested on the latest 260.89 WHQL driver, while ATI's are run on the Catalyst 10.10 press driver. We compared the performance of Catalyst 10.9 WHQL against 10.10 press on a Radeon HD 5850 and found that the new driver was up to 10 per cent faster in Just Cause 2 and AvP. The primary reason for this is how the new control panel exposes optimisations. Pre-10.10 drivers switched off all texture-filtering optimisation with the control-panel setting in default mode. These optimisations are now effective with the 10.10 set's default 'quality' setting.

10.10 control panel

AMD isn't really pulling a fast one here; it's possible to have an apples-to-apples comparison by pushing the slider up to high quality. However, it's worth repeating that the Catalyst 10.10 and 10.9 will give you different results in their respective default modes.

We've tested with Catalyst 10.10 in the default 'quality' mode, by the way.

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