We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASRock, Kingston, Mittoni, Noctua and Corsair.

Update: This article is essentially now an overclocked HD 6870 one since the card used carries with it 1120 Shaders. It's also worth making note that our official HD 6870 overclocked higher than this card. That article will be published soon. The only difference between this HD 6850 and the HD 6870 is the stock clock speeds; all other specifications are the same. What you're ultimately looking at is a HD 6870 that's overclocked 70MHz on the core and 100MHz QDR on the memory.

The main thing we want to know about the overclocked HIS HD 6850 1GB is; does the overclock take performance to a similar level as the more expensive HD 6870? of course, we want to know even if it does or doesn't, where the overclocked card ultimately ends up on our TPR graph, which I suppose is the geeky computer version of the Top Gear Power Lap time board

I suppose I'm a bit like the Stig. Although if I wrote a book, no one would probably read it and I wouldn't be fired for revealing my identity. Anyway, we're getting off track. Let's see how the HIS HD 6850 1GB at 970MHz / 4300MHz QDR goes against a bunch of other cards that you're no doubt becoming accustomed to seeing.

Let's get started!

3DMark Vantage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/
Buy It Here

3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

Straight out the gate we see stronger performance than the HD 6870 here. Compared to the ECS Black GTX 460 1GB OC, we also see the HIS win out. The only card beating the HD 6850 here is the HD 5870. The start is looking good, so let's see if that translates into some real world games in just a moment.