Introducing AMD’s new HD 6870 and HD 6850 vs. GTX 460
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz); Turbo is off.
- Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- AMD reference Radeon HD 6870, supplied by AMD (at stock 900/1050 and overclocked to 950/1075 MHz )
- AMD reference Radeon HD 6850, supplied by AMD (at stock 775/1000 MHz and overclocked to 900/1100 MHz)
- ATi Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, reference clocks, 850/1200 MHz) by Diamond
- Galaxy GTX 460, 1 GB overclocked design and clocks, supplied by Galaxy (at stock 675/1800MHz clocks only)
- Galaxy GTX 460, 758 MB, overclocked version, supplied by Galaxy (at stock 675/1800 MHz and overclocked 700/1848 MHz)
- EVGA GTX 460, 1 GB highly overclocked design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia/EVGA (at stock 675/1800 MHz and overclocked 850/2000 MHz)
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- Two identical 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
- Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
- Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 10-10; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to “Standard”; all surface format optimizations ‘off’ for HD 68×0 in CCC.
- NVIDIA GeForce 260.89 WHQL drivers for GTX 480; High Quality
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- DirectX June 2010
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games and “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3 ; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX 11 render paths.
The Benchmarks
- Vantage
- Call of Juarez
- Crysis
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- X3:Terran Conflict
- Dirt 2
- Lost Planet
- Lost Planet 2
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Resident Evil 5
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- H.A.W.X.
- Battleforge
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
- F.E.A.R.
- Call of Duty 4
- Alien vs. Predator
- Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
- Metro 2033
- Mafia II
- Heaven 2.1
One important note about settings must be made here. AMD has listened to enthusiasts and they have finally given us a way to shut off performance optimizations in Catalyst Control Center beginning with Catalyst 10-10 for HD 68×0. AMD insists that their optimizations never impact image quality (IQ). However, we have decided to test with them ‘off’ and hold AMD’s new cards to the very highest IQ standards even if it means a very slight performance impact even when compared to HD 5870 which does not have this option in the same Catalyst 10-10 driver (below). We found in testing that the framerate impact is minimal but we shall explore this in a future article.
You will also generally note that we tested our strongest cards in PC games at the highest resolution and the weaker cards at 1920×1200 and 1680×1050. We overclocked our cards consistently at resolutions where it might be most helpful to compare performance scaling.
Finally up!
Nice review Apoppin and I think the review with most games tested! Looking forward to BFG’s image quality follow-up.
Would have wanted a bit more about noise (especially compared to the 5870 PCS+ you reviewed), but can’t have it all.
On a sidenote: It says Galaxy GTX 480 SOC on conclusion page. Probably a template leftover. You probably want to remove that.
Thank-you! Believe it or not, there are still two charts to go up and a little bit about noise and power usage.
We got GTX 460-768M on Thursday; the morning the review was due to go up, so there was a lot of new testing. To top it off we had issues with our CMS for about 15 hours when no articles could be written nor posted to it.
I am just glad to be able to review these cool new cards that are going to make graphics cards a bit more affordable to us. There will be many follow up articles.
Can I ask why you use GTX 460 (OC) in the start, but lateron drop the (OC) part in the benches? I assume its still the same superclocked EVGA card your useing. But it does lead to misleading info for people that just happend upon your review and only looked at a few benchs and might have missed the (oc) part because it wasnt in the name.
Howcome in some tests where the readons seem to do well, you only have the 6850 benchs shown but not the 6870 that would then be even better compaired to the nvidia cards?
How come you dont use any stock 460 1gb, and stock 460 7xx mb versions? only the overclocked ones?
Also why dont you give more volts to the readons to overclock them more? I assume the 460’s that are super overclocked dont use the standart amount of volts the stock 460s do.
Overall your review smell abit of favorisme to nvidia.
When I come here, its normally to read about image quality and such… wish there was some of that here with the new features to show if they work and how well.
The GTX 460 is always “OC” when it is overclocked; if it is not labeled, it is the stock-clocked card.
My sole criteria for testing HD 6850 is generally at 1920×1200 and below. It does not do well at many games at 2560×1600 and I did not include the GTX 460-768 at that high of a resolution neither.
I do not see any favoritism to Nvidia. I am very impressed with the HD 6870 and HD 6850. AMD have brought much more value to the $200 price range and they have forced Nvidia to instantly respond by dropping prices – even on their GTX 470, benefiting all of us.
Look very carefully at the testing bench. ALL of the GTX 460s – 768MB and 1GB versions – are benched at their stock clocks
– the overclocked GTXes are included as an “extra” – just as the overclocked Radeons are. 100% fair!
arrghh just me getting confused… with the 460, and the 460-OC, and that in some setups all the cards arnt there and such.
You should try to volt mod a 6850
I saw a dude give it 1.5 volts and reach 1200mhz GPU cure and about 1200 mem too. (granted he soldered a resistor onto the pcb to get it)
arnt there programs you can use to do it via software?
like msi afterburner? to see if you cant overclock it more once you give it a few volt extra.
Thanks.
You need to realize that the reviewers only had ONE WEEK from receiving the card to publication. And even the GeForce drivers were brand new which means that we couldn’t even prepare for the review; same thing with benching HD 5870; I had to wait for Catalyst 10-10.
And then there is so much to explore and to talk about one has to limit the initial review to a rather narrow scope which is why it is important to read many reviews if you are considering one of these new cards.
Frankly, I believe that this is one of the most exciting launches in a long time (and especially considering what is coming – Cayman and Nvidia’s response). If my article lacked that enthusiasm it is solely due to exhaustion. I am certain that I spent over 100 hours over 7 days evaluating these cards and writing about them; which I totally enjoyed.
And we are not finished. I have a major review due this week that will cover CPU scaling and HD 5870 CrossFire – including Core i7 vs Phenom II 955 X4 (from 2.6 to 3.6 GHz and Dual- vs Quad-core). After that, I will work on HD 68×0 CrossFire and trying to get a real overclock with some voltage increase.
There seems to be a typo on the overclocking page wherein in the table it says 6850 OC is 900/1100 but below you described it as 5850. There is also a discrepancy with the 6870 OC numbers on the table and on the description below.
Other than that a very nice review!! Thats a whole load of games you got there. Anyway looking forward to your image quality review
Thank-you. I think that I got all of the typos. And I added a few CrossFire-X (HD 6870 + HD 6850) benchmark results to the still unfinished power section.
Simply astonishing review! Looking forward to CPU Scaling! ABT’s articles always seem more honest than some of the more “corporate” review sites.
Typo on page 27: “Our HD 5850 overclocked like a champion” should probably be the 6850.
Wonderful article. In case you guys are open to requests, I’d love to see StarCraft 2 added to the review roster.
Thank-you Matrixfan and hansmuff !
I think that I got most of the typos now. I did not realize that I wrote over 11,500 words on this launch (!)
It takes me awhile to add a game as a benchmark and I usually have to play the game first or else it is hard to relate the benchmark to gameplay. I was (sadly) never into StarCraft and it may be awhile for I play SC2.
Thank-you for your suggestions. We aim to please.
I always appreciate a good ABT review. Your opinions on the practical uses of gaming hardware (bottlenecks, etc) are more accurate than most other review sites.
However, I am also disappointed that you don’t review Starcraft 2. Not only is it immensely popular, but it’s also an excellent option for variety. Is there any way a reader might assist you in producing SC2 benchmarks?
Thanks, Jeremy Johnson!
Someday, I may add StarCraft 2 to my reviews. At this moment, I am adding a few other games to my benches.
If you would like to assist us in producing SC2 benches, we might be able to organize a project together on our forum where our readers help supply the benchmarks.
Hi,
well you used some interesting presentation slides from ATI in your review. I would be really happy when you could tell me where you found these.
The slides came from AMD.
Well OK AMD. But where can i find them? Probably on there developer site. Mayby I`m blind or something, but I don`t found the slides. Could you post a link?
I don’t think AMD has yet made them public on their own site. HardOCP posted quite a few of the slides in their HD 68×0 launch review.
Awesome, just awesome. I gotta read it again!
What’s up with the silly avatars, LOL?!
Never mind.. it’s just that I didn’t like my own avatar assigned to me by fate! lol..
I think it is random. If more readers complain, I will ask our web master to fix it. I am not so thrilled about my avatar. 😛
Please recheck the review! Lots and lots of typo error! And i mean a serious kind of typo error!
You’re no help.
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