ASUS Radeon HD 6850 Direct CU 1 GB

[W1zzard]

The new ASUS Radeon HD 6850 Direct CU aims to be the king of the sub-$200 segment. It offers plenty of performance for the latest DirectX 11 titles, overclocks very well and comes with improvements to the display output configuration. Instead of an AMD reference heatsink the card uses an ASUS Direct Touch heatpipe solution.

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[[Ion]]

This is absolutely amazing! Great price, as fast or faster than a GTX460, low power usage, quiet enough, just wow!

Could totally be the midrange card to beat!!

 

[Delta6326]

WOW i would just buy this card oc1ghz and you got your self a free 6870!

 

[jasper1605]

holy smokes is that good! I wonder if the vapor-x will have the same OC headroom

 

[Wyverex]

Awesome review and awesome card!
LOVING the perf/power graphs!

But, what's up with:

CCC Overdrive limits might be too low

Even with higher voltage you barely went over the CCC limit for GPU clock and memory limit was not reached

 

[bear jesus]

The overvolted overclocking on this card looks great, although the throttling makes me think a better stock cooler or an aftermarket cooler is called for. saying that though i have to wonder if the 6850's blower syle cooler would help keep the temps down better than the direct cu cooler.

Will TPU be getting a 6850 with the blower style cooler?

 

[W1zzard]

Even with higher voltage you barely went over the CCC limit for GPU clock and memory limit was not reached

that's because this single card clearly sucked for overclocking. check the other reviews to see how far the other cards went
sorry i thought this was the HIS 6850 review

 

[Wyverex]

that's because this single card clearly sucked for overclocking. check the other reviews to see how far the other cards went

From what I can see, this card had the best overclocking out of all tested cards.

Am I blind?

Asus HD 6850 Direct CU 1 GB (the card we're commenting here) OCed like a beast, yet still barely touched the CCC limits (and that was with additional voltage)
HIS HD 6850 didn't even get to 950 MHz (with additional voltage)

So, I really fail to see your argument (in context of HD 6850)


Edit: that is, if the CCC limits are as you say in the review - 1000 MHz core and 1250 MHz memory
So, I'd say that either there's a typo/wrong copy-paste in the review or the conclusion page lists a copy/pasted "negative"

Edit2: beat me to it with your edit

 

[W1zzard]

From what I can see, this card had the best overclocking out of all tested cards.

Am I blind?

Asus HD 6850 Direct CU 1 GB (the card we're commenting here) OCed like a beast, yet still barely touched the CCC limits (and that was with additional voltage)
HIS HD 6850 didn't even get to 950 MHz (with additional voltage)

So, I really fail to see your argument (in context of HD 6850)

sorry, i had 4 hours of sleep
i think we all agree that the overdrive limits are a POS and there shouldnt be any limits for overclocking. so the only good limits are ones that are high enough that you will never encounter them. and with better asics, better cooling, more voltage, higher fan speed you will run into the 1 ghz limit and ask yourself "how much more?". check the other reviews on the web they hit 1 ghz and i'm sure they weren't happy about it

 

[Wyverex]

sorry, i had 4 hours of sleep
i think we all agree that the overdrive limits are a POS and there shouldn't be any limits for overclocking. so the only good limits are ones that are high enough that you will never encounter them. and with better asics, better cooling, more voltage, higher fan speed you will run into the 1 ghz limit and ask yourself "how much more?". check the other reviews on the web they hit 1 ghz and i'm sure they weren't happy about it

Then get some sleep now (if you're not at work )

You did a fantastic job with your reviews, as always.
And yes, I'd very much like to see CCC limits gone too

 

[bear jesus]

Even with higher voltage you barely went over the CCC limit for GPU clock and memory limit was not reached

But is the CCC limit really anything to judge by as it changes it's limits depending on card/bios. My 4870's CCC limit was 790mhz so i had to flash the bios to get past there and my htpc's CCC max is 500mhz (ati 4350), i just don't think it is a good idea to compare the oc to the CCC limit thats all.

*edit*
so many edits, im struggling to keep up with them but i have been beaten to my point..... i think

 

[W1zzard]

Then get some sleep now (if you're not at work )

i just woke up but will take an early nap

 

[HalfAHertz]

I kind of feel as if AMD should have been a bit more aggressive with the 6850 and make the default core clock to 800MHz. That way you'd have a more balanced showing compared to the gtx460 768mb

 

[R_1]

Overclock out of the box very small

155Mhz overclock out of the box is a decent margin. It is 22% over AMD reference clock for HD6850.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

WiZ, you've done a great job getting all of these reviews out so quickly,
BUT can I refer you to the news post: http://techpowerup.com/132963/NVIDIA-Releases-GeForce-260.89-WHQL-Driver-Suite.html

Given the vast performance improvement with the 260 drivers, it would have been a good idea to update your GTX performance comparatives, because today, the GTX460 and the 6850 are probably neck-and-neck in performance rather than the review which is shwoing GTX460 5-10% slower but on old drivers.

 

[punani]

Great card and review!

Very tempted to abandon my GTX 260 for this

Only bad thing about this card is the name. Pity the guys thinkin' they are upgrading overall performance from a 5850...

 

[bear jesus]

WiZ, you've done a great job getting all of these reviews out so quickly,
BUT can I refer you to the news post: http://techpowerup.com/132963/NVIDIA-Releases-GeForce-260.89-WHQL-Driver-Suite.html

Given the vast performance improvement with the 260 drivers, it would have been a good idea to update your GTX performance comparatives, because today, the GTX460 and the 6850 are probably neck-and-neck in performance rather than the review which is shwoing GTX460 5-10% slower but on old drivers.

*thinks back to the end of march and the 480 review comments thread*

 

[Completely Bonkers]

*thinks back to the end of march and the 480 review comments thread*

No idea what those comments were. So long ago, not sure I was even born yet. But I'm guessing: the shoe was on the other foot and Wiz was using old ATI drivers?

Yes, significant driver changes are a PITA for reviewers. But if another site does use current drivers for all cards, then arguably, they will have a better review and their results are a better basis for making a purchase decision. What! Heresy! Another site... we don't want that

 

[bear jesus]

No idea what those comments were. So long ago, not sure I was even born yet. But I'm guessing: the shoe was on the other foot and Wiz was using old ATI drivers?

Yeah that's about right, it lead to the epic early april fools about w1zzard leaving TPU.

Yes, significant driver changes are a PITA for reviewers. But if another site does use current drivers for all cards, then arguably, they will have a better review and their results are a better basis for making a purchase decision. What! Heresy! Another site... we don't want that

This is true but i think the major problem is when they new drivers come out a few days before the review NDA ends and i would assume by that point a lot of the benchmarking has already been done.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

LOL, 6 months later and it is probably time for the drama-w1z to resign again! LOL! My-o-my, 6 months have passed quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGnfKnfY6EM

 

[bear jesus]

My-o-my, 6 months have passed quickly.

Not for me i was waiting for the 480 back then hoping it could be the perfect card to stop me buying a 5870 but by the time i found out fermi could not suit my needs i though i may as well wait for the ATI refresh.... 6 months later and i'm still waiting for the 6970 to come out I just hope the 6970 can do what i want as no matter what the day the NDA ends on it i'm buying a graphics card or even 2 from whoever can give me what i need at that time.

 

[OneCool]

155Mhz overclock out of the box is a decent margin. It is 22% over AMD reference clock for HD6850.

I believe W1z is referring to the "factory" overclock.

In this case they stuck with AMDs reference clocks.

 

[Blacklash]

Solid card for the price. I'd love to see more tests with that thing @ 945 on the core.

 

[wolf]

Solid card for the price. I'd love to see more tests with that thing @ 945 on the core.

same, it would be nice to see maybe 3 titles tested at OC'd settings, COD4 is/was a great indicator of GPU horsepower, but it is getting outdated given the horsepower availiable.

I'd like to see COD4, BC2 and Unigine Heaven at OC'd settings.

 

[Hayder_Master]

good work w1z