AMD Radeon HD 6850 Overclocking Roundup: Asus, XFX, & MSI
by Ryan Smith on November 8, 2010 12:40 AM ESTPushing the Overclocking Limits: MSI Afterburner
For the Radeon HD 6850, AMD is giving the series a fairly low Overdrive limit of only 850MHz for the core. In practice we’ve found that this is attainable without voltage modification on all of our cards, so for more extreme overclocking we have to work a bit harder. Most tools simply tie in to Overdirve, and as a result will stick with the same 850MHz limit. Asus’s SmartDoctor can go up to 1000Mhz out of the box, while for the MSI R6850 and other cards MSI’s Afterburner can surpass this, but it won’t do so out of the box.
In order to push a 6850 beyond the Overdrive limits, Afterburner must be told to ignore them. This is accomplished by opening up the MSIAfterburner.cfg file in the program’s directory, and changing the entry EnableUnofficialOverclocking from 0 to 1. With this change in place Afterburner can go over 1000MHz, which is beyond what any of our cards can achieve without exotic cooling methods.
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tech6 - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
Please don't feed the troll.haplo602 - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
on the test setup page:Video Cards: AMD Radeon HD 6870
AMD Radeon HD 6850
AMD Radeon HD 5870
AMD Radeon HD 5850
AMD Radeon HD 5770
AMD Radeon HD 4870
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
XFX Radeon HD 6850
MSI R6850 OC
Asus EAH6850
However the card is nowhere in the graphs. Yet 5770 is there .... I was actualy interested in that comparison. thanks for the good work.
Ryan Smith - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
I actually don't have the GTS 450 on the new test suite. We'll be updating Bench this next week, at which point it'll show up.Marburg U - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
http://img838.imageshack.us/i/gpu46068706850ocstud...DoktorSleepless - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
I would actually love to see the GTX 460 FTW in these charts because 850 mhz is a typical OC you can get from any regular GTX 460. The 460 and the 6850 are direct competitors so having both their overclock results side by side would be nice.kmmatney - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
I have a HD4890, which is a power hog, yet I can run it at near silence, fully overclocked, with an Accelero S1 Rev 2 and a whisper fan. Too bad they don't offer a card with this sort of cooler pre-installed - then it would be possible to overclock these cards and still keep a quiet system. I wonder if this cooler will fit on these new cards? The cooler worked great onteh HD4890, but I did have to buy an extra heatsink for the VRMs (and had to hacksaw that to make it fit).Pantsu - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
Can't the XFX cooler be adjusted with a tool like Afterburner? I mean that would solve the noise issue afaik. But if it's stuck that way there's no reason to buy it.casteve - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
+1. Why not use Afterburner to remove some of the variables and see how the tested coolers stack up db vs temp?Oxford Guy - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
Yes.El_Capitan - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
Newegg's Lowest prices (11/8/2010):HD 5870 1GB.................$299.99 (plus $2.99 shipping)
GTX 470 1.28GB............$249.99 (free shipping)
HD 6870 1GB.................$239.99 (plus $7.56 shipping)
HD 5850 1GB.................$239.99 (free shipping)
GTX 460 1GB..................$189.99 (plus $3.99 shipping)
HD 6850 1GB.................$179.99 (plus $7.56 shipping)
GTX 460 768MB.............$159.99 (free shipping)
GTS 450 1GB .................$109.99 (free shipping)
Just comparing the above, there's really two competitive ranges:
The $239.99 to $249.99 price range which includes the GTX 470 1.28GB, the HD 6870 1GB, and the HD 5850 1GB.
The $179.99 - $189.99 price range which includes the GTX 460 1GB, and the HD 6850 1GB.
How, if we're going by OVERCLOCKED comparisons for a SINGLE card, especially at the highest two resolutions (1920 x 1200 and 2560 x 1600):
1. The GTX 470 1.28GB overclocked definitely edges out both the overclocked HD 6870 1GB and HD 5850 in performance, while the HD 6870 1GB would be my pick over the HD 5850 1GB, both being the same price.
2. The GTX 460 1GB and the HD 6850 1GB are both great cards. However, seeing the Max Overclock for the HD 6850 with a Max Overclocked Voltage at 1.22v being 960MHz, and a Max Overclock witnessed for the GTX 460 1GB with a Max Overclocked Voltage at 1.087v being 1015MHz (most are in the 880MHz - 950MHz range), the GTX 460 1GB has a greater potential of overclocking ability than the HD 6850. Given that a GTX 460 1GB overclocked slightly betters that of a GTX 470 1.28GB at stock, the winner is obviously the GTX 460 1GB.
Please include the GTX 460 1GB overclocks when comparing overclocks with the HD 6850. Most of us are mature and smart enough to make our own decisions based upon test results, rather than guesswork. Those that are biased one way or another are going to believe what they want no matter what. All that we really losing out on, is our confidence that the site that's doing the review is behaving the same way. If we don't see it here, we're just going to go see it somewhere else.