***5850 Vs 6870***

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,381
As you all know, the 6870 is out and everone is eager to see it compared to its replacement.

Myself and Gibbo have been testing our sample card to see what it is capable of in a 24/7 capacity.

we chose a rig to test that we feel reflected the average user setup.

i5 760 Overclocked to 4GHz
Gigabyte P55-USB3 Motharboard
4GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz DDR3
Titan Fenrir EVO CPU Cooler
500GB Seagate HDD
Corsair TX650W PSU
Windows 7 64

Unfortunately we were very limited on time with the card so in game benchmarks were simply not possible, but im sure some proper reviews will give you an idea.
We focussed on Vantage and Heaven to get our results.

Overall I think the card looks decent, it is very quet on the stock cooler and is quite compact. the card runs cool too, only hitting 55'C under load in 3DMark which is quite impressive especially at auto fan settings.

the drivers we used for the test were 10.10, they shipped with the card and worked well although they were a little clunky for my liking. hopefully AMD can sort this out quickly.

The overclocks in this test were the maximum we could achieve from each card without adjusting voltages. your results may vary so we havent posted the actual clockspeeds.
the performance is what really counts, lets see how it does:

here is the 5850 at Stock settings
5850stock.jpg


and the 6870 at Stock settings
6870stock.jpg


very much level pegging in my opinion.

here is the 5850 at overclocked settings
5850clocked.jpg


and the 6870 at overclocked settings
6870clocked.jpg


the 6870 pulls away fractionally here

lets see how it performs on a test using DX11 and a standard Res of 1080P

5850clockedhighresdefaultsettings.jpg
6870clockedhighresdefaultsettings.jpg


as you can see the 6870 did suffer from poor low end frame rates but from my experience, this would just be the prerelease drivers.
this is a card that I predict a nice improvement over time and for the price is competing well with the 5870 which is supposed to be the superior card.

it will be interesting to see the driver development improve for this card and I am looking forward to seeing the competition really heat up :)

thanks for reading,
your feedback is welcome as always

rjk
 
OcUK Staff
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,205
Location
OcUK HQ
Hi there

Rather impressed with the cards, better than expected performance, definetely smack bang between the 5850 and 5870 for sure and as such I think the £199.99 Inc. VAT price is especially good, plus factor in HIS are giving CODMW2 away with theirs too. :)

6870pyramid.jpg



We have 100+ of both Sapphire and HIS in stock! :D
 
Associate
Joined
20 Apr 2006
Posts
2,022
Location
Leeds, UK
Soooo, good release it seems.... looking forward to the 6950 as my 'proper' 5850 replacement.

Time for some crystal ball gazing....so with:

6850 @ £150
6870 @ £200

I suspect:

6950 @ £250
6970 @ £300
6990 @ £500

Annnnnnd.... I expect 1 of the following:

1) Nvidia do a price drop on 480's too £280-290ish range
2) Nvidia pull the 485 out the bag a'la 285 refresh and maintain similar kind of pricing but faster card to compete at £300 price point.

So, who fancies a bet on that little lot?... :D
 

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
OP
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,381
facepalm

please bear in mind that this happen during a discussion about the graphics and marketing surrounding graphics cards

and why manufacturers tend to use cgi characters in outrageous poses to depict the prowess of their products.

so the above sillyness was totally justified and relevant.

I had every faith that my colleagues would document this occurance and post it on the internet for all to see :rolleyes:
 
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