AMD’s Radeon HD 6870 & 6850: Renewing Competition in the Mid-Range Market
by Ryan Smith on October 21, 2010 10:08 PM ESTThe latest game in the Battlefield series - Bad Company 2 – remains as one of the cornerstone DX11 games in our benchmark suite. As BC2 doesn’t have a built-in benchmark or recording mode, here we take a FRAPS run of the jeep chase in the first act, which as an on-rails portion of the game provides very consistent results and a spectacle of explosions, trees, and more.
Our experience with Bad Company 2 more or less matches our experiences with other shader-heavy games at 1920x1200. The GTX 470, 6870, and EVGA GTX 460 all vie for the top of their pack within a frame of each other, while the 6850 enjoys a clear lead over the GTX 460 1GB. However what’s interesting is that the Radeon 5800 series takes a very obvious lead here, a lead that’s larger than in most other games. If you ever wanted to know just how shader-bound Bad Company 2 is, there’s the answer you’re looking for.
As for the Crossfire situation, once again the 6800 series closes the gap. Even the GTX 470 in SLI can’t quite keep up with the 6850CF, which is much a story of how well the game runs on AMD cards as it is a story of what’s clearly going on with the 6800 series and Crossfire.
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Assimilator87 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
Yeah, this article was sorely lacking in details, especially considering Ryan specifically mentioned that these cards are more about features than performance. You missed four display Eyefinity, UVD 3, HD3D, and an in depth look at DisplayPort 1.2 would be nice as well.Ryan Smith - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
In case it isn't obvious from the slipshod organization of the article, we didn't quite get it done on time. We had less than a week to put this article together when normally for an article of this size it takes 2 weeks. Check back in the morning, all of that will be here by the time you wake up (assuming I don't pass out at the keyboard first).StevoLincolnite - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
No offense Ryan, but the sole reason why I visit Anandtech is because it usually does provide allot of accurate information on the product that is being reviewed.This article... I couldn't help but want more as I walked away. - It almost feels simplified.
I can understand the whole deadline issues and what-not, but in this case wouldn't it have been better to delay it a day or two?
Taft12 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
<i>I can understand the whole deadline issues and what-not, but in this case wouldn't it have been better to delay it a day or two?</i>Absolutely not - if you don't get a review out on NDA-lift day, you are dead dead dead, even for the cream of the crop that is Anandtech.
I am certain you busted your ass getting this article as good as it is Ryan and I for one appreciate it. Bravo!
DoktorSleepless - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
Will you eventually be exploring overclocking?jglisso3 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6...Ryan Smith - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
Yes. I have additional 6850 samples arriving next week for a roundup, which will give us enough cards to do a proper test of overclocking.hamiltenor - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
All the info I like, and more. With such a timely review, I don't know how you guys stand being the best.Byte - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
Very interesting, i was thinking of upgrading my GTX260 to a GTX460, but all I play is starcraft 2 and this handily beats the 460. If this bad boy goes down to $150ish, looks like i'm going team red.hechacker1 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
I know Anandtech probably wanted to get this article out ASAP, and hence why I don't see thorough testing; but I would like to see UVD3 and other aspects of this new GPU tested. Video quality for an HTPC is important, and with this card drawing such a little at idle it could be a nice HTPC card at the low end.It's kind of curious why the newer generation cards lose to a 4870 doing transcoding. I'm guessing the compute performance has barely changed? Or MediaEspresso is a worthless test?