PowerColor's HD 6850 PCS+ is the first HD 6850 to reach our labs that uses a heavily modified HD 6850 PCB design. PowerColor has chosen to replace the CHiL voltage regulator with one from uPi which is considerably cheaper but does not offer the extensive software voltage control features of the CHiL controller. This means that overclockers who want to play with voltages will be out of luck with this card.
Overclocking potential on the HD 6850 PCS+ is decent, and comparable to other HD 6850 cards we have seen so far. Where the PowerColor card can excel is fan noise under load. With only 31 dbA it is substantially quieter than any other HD 6800 Series card we tested so far. Unfortunately idle fan noise has not received the low noise treatment. Here the card is as noisy as any other HD 6850. Considering idle temperatures of 46°C I see no reason why PowerColor would not choose quieter fan settings on their card.
PowerColor's out of the box overclock is rather slim which seems to be more a political limitation from AMD than PowerColor's own choosing. The CCC Overdrive limits are alright with 1000/1250, especially when considering that the card has no voltage control.
Other than that, the HD 6850 PCS+ is a solid implementation of a custom HD 6850 design that leads the reference implementation with a performance increase of around 6%. Whether this is enough for you to justify the increased cost of $10 to $15 depends mostly on whether you are willing to do some overclocking on your own or if you just want to get going with gaming. The included Call of Duty 2 Modern Warfare could help tip the balance in favour of the PCS+. Hardcore overclockers should stay away from this card though because of the missing GPU voltage control. Personally I find the price a bit too high for what is offered. If the card was priced at $179 - the reference design price - then PowerColor could certainly gain some momentum from non-overclockers who simply want a fast and robust card without going too much into tweaking.