The 3rd game in the STALKER series continues to build on GSC Game World’s X-Ray Engine by adding DX11 support, tessellation, and more. This also makes it another one of the highly demanding games in our benchmark suite.

STALKER is a game that seems to have gone back and forth some with driver optimizations. In the latest round if anything the NVIDIA cards seem to have a slight edge against the 6870. Here the 6870 is competitive with the EVGA GTX 460, however it’s nearly 10% behind the GTX 470. Meanwhile the 6850 is far more normal, more or less tying with the GTX 460 1GB and enjoying the usual lead over the 768MB version. Meanwhile compared to the 5800 series the 6800 series does rather poorly here, as Stalker is another game that’s shader-bound; the 6870 only takes a slight lead over the 5850, and is several frames per second behind the 5870.

As for our Crossfire cards, they have once again performed another miracle. Being shader bound doesn’t stop the 6870CF from beating the 5870CF while the 6850CF ties the 5850CF.

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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?

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