HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card w/ 1120 Shaders Overclocked

We begin to get down and dirty with the HD 6800 series. First we start with the HIS HD 6850 running a BIOS with 1120 Shaders (vs. the reference 960).

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Introduction and Package


Introduction

HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card w/ 1120 Shaders Overclocked 02


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.


So we started with the boring stuff and checked out the HD 6850 (with 1120 Shaders) and HD 6870 on their lonesome against a bunch of other cards. We began to have a bit of fun when we started pairing the cards together. There's no denying, though, that for most people Crossfire isn't an option, be it too expensive or just not really feasible.

So now it's time to get into the fun stuff and the stuff that people are going to be interested in as it will cater to a larger audience of HD 6850 users, and that is overclocking. We love it; there's nothing better than getting more performance for the extra cost of nothing.

So the question is, what kind of overclocking potential has the HD 6850 got? And when overclocked, where do we see the model sit? Since we've already looked at the HIS HD 6850 1120 when we tested Crossfire performance; here we will just get straight into the overclocking side of things and see what we have achieved.

Let's not delay!


Overclocking

Sapphire sent me over a copy of TRIXX which is their new overclocking software. Normally we would just jump straight into Afterburner from MSI, but it lacks the ability to adjust voltage at the moment. With that in mind, I thought I would try TRIXX out. While I didn't think it would be better than Afterburner, I had hoped it would offer the ability to adjust voltage and fortunately I was correct.

Before we just get into the overclocking side of things, let me quickly talk about TRIXX. For the most part there's nothing here that we haven't seen before. On a whole it's fairly basic. What I don't like about it is the lack of an apply button when it comes to adjusting your clocks. If you go to settings there's an option for the clocks to automatically apply as you adjust them. It worked fine, but I would've preferred a simple "apply" button to click.

Compared to Afterburner it lacks a few things like the monitoring features. You've also got to jump around screens to go to fan control and back to the clock speeds. It's not a bad thing, but it's not as streamlined as it could be. The thing is, we're in the early stages of TRIXX, but it looks promising. I'm not sure if it's capable of picking off Afterburner as our first "go to" option, but with voltage adjustment on the HD 6800 series at the moment it's what we'll be using in the immediate future.

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With that said, let's get onto the clocks. We got some nice clocks actually; bumping the voltage to 1.299v which resulted in 1.297v, GPU-Z told us we ended up moving from a 775MHz core to 970MHz.

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We didn't run into any trouble overclocking the memory, but we didn't have the same kind of increase with that moving from 4000MHz QDR to 4300MHz QDR. Don't get us wrong, it's a nice increase, but not quite as strong as the core clock we achieved.

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


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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.

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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.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark




Version and / or Patch Used: 2
Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com
Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//



New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

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Heaven is a great benchmark for Tessellation; it really shows us how much AMD has improved the technology in their latest cards. You can also see it knocks off the GTX 460 OC in this case; no doubt an impressive result for AMD.

Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5


Resident Evil 5

Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark
Developer Homepage: www.residentevil.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.residentevil.com/




Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on September 18. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

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Getting into real world games, we see a really nice boost in performance from the stock clocks. Across the board we see performance is a little stronger than the stock HD 6870.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.


Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx
Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/





Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is an arcade-style flight simulator video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and iPhone OS.

The fundamental gameplay mechanics are similar to those of other console-based flight series. Players take on enemies with over 50 aircraft available. Each mission is at real world locations in environments created with commercial satellite data. A cockpit, first person, and third person view are selectable. The third person view gives the player an external view of both their plane and the target.

Set above the skies of a near-future world, increasingly dependent on private military companies with elite mercenaries who have a relaxed view on the law. As these non-governmental organizations gain power, global conflict erupts with one powerful PMC attacking the United States.

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H.A.W.X. really sees a good performance increase; we manage to get away from that 60 FPS average we chase. Again, we can see on a whole the card performs a little quicker than the stock HD 6870.

Benchmarks - Mafia II


Mafia II

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.2kczech.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.mafia2game.com/
Buy It Here




Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State"), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game features a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There are around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

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We see some great performance under Mafia II and compared to the GTX 460 OC we've got here the HD 6850 leaves the card for dead, especially at the higher resolution where we see AMD performing very strong. While 2560 x 1600 might be a little out of the question as our average is only 50 FPS, you can see the GTX 460 OC from ECS is getting 62 FPS at 1920 x 1200, just 2 FPS over the average we want. The HD 6850 at stock gets 6 FPS over, and overclocked we're at 16 FPS over that 60 FPS.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2


Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/




Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

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We do see some strong gains again here and we see for the most part the card out performs the HD 6870. Across the board, though, not a single card is getting us the 60 FPS average we want.

Benchmarks - Aliens vs. Predator


Aliens vs. Predator

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/
Product Homepage: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/




Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1999 original PC game, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race/faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that, while separate in terms of individual plot and gameplay, form one overarching storyline.

Following the storyline of the campaign modes comes the multiplayer aspect of the game. In this Multiplayer section of the game, players face off in various different gametypes in various different ways.

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Two things here. First, a nice increase over the stock clocked HD 6850. Second, and more importantly, the HIS HD 6850 at 970 / 4300 QDR is one of only two cards to break the 60 FPS average we want.

Benchmarks - Final Fantasy XIV


Final Fantasy XIV

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Elezen (Male)
Developer Homepage: http://www.square-enix.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/




Final Fantasy XIV, also known as Final Fantasy XIV Online, is the fourteenth installment in the Final Fantasy series. The game is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and is developed and published by Square Enix. The game takes place in a land called Hydaelyn, mainly in a region named Eorzea, which will have a contemporaneously aesthetic blend of science fiction and classic fantasy elements.

The battle and job systems will be different from the one previously used in Final Fantasy XI, which utilized experience points and level-based progression. Final Fantasy XIV is being designed to utilize a skill-based progression[15] system similar to that of Final Fantasy II. Character races will resemble and allow players to create avatars similar to ones in Final Fantasy XI. Group play has been de-emphasized, and now solo and group play have been balanced. Weapon use will alter "character development".

Note: Final Fantasy XIV gives us a score and not a normal FPS rating, our understanding is that anything around 2000 points or above is considered playable.

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Fortunately overclocking doesn't impact FF XIV like Crossfire does and we see some serious performance here. The GTX 460 1GB OC was already performing a good chunk behind the HD 6850; overclocking just makes it a larger chunk.

Benchmarks - Street Fighter IV


Street Fighter IV

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.streetfighter.com/




While Street Fighter IV features models and backgrounds rendered in 3D, the gameplay remains on a traditional 2D plane, with the camera having freedom to move in 3D at certain times during fights, for dramatic effect. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II. A new system called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attack" for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.

All the characters and environments in Street Fighter IV are rendered as 3D models with polygons, similar to the Street Fighter EX sub-series Capcom produced with Arika. However, there are a couple of key differences. Art director and character designer Daigo Ikeno, who previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, opted for non-photorealistic rendering to give them a hand-drawn look, with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays during the fights.

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Good performance across the board at stock, better performance overclocked. You're getting huge numbers on all the setups here, but we're seeing again the HD 6850 at 970 / 4300 QDR constantly beats the stock HD 6870.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
Buy It Here




The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

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We continue to see the same picture with good gains, and we continue to see that the overclock makes the HD 6850 outperform a stock clocked HD 6870.

Benchmarks - Batman Arkham Asylum


Batman Arkham Asylum

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/





Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum - Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.

Using a wide range of Batman's gadgets and abilities, players will become the invisible predator and attempt to foil The Joker's demented scheme.
Batman: Arkham Asylum features an original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author and five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini, whose credits include Lost season one and Batman: The Animated Series.

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While not the same insane numbers as SF IV, Batman AA does see good numbers here, and when overclocked we see better ones. Again we also see the HD 6850 overclocked beat the stock HD 6870.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF


High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.

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HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card w/ 1120 Shaders Overclocked 32


HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card w/ 1120 Shaders Overclocked 33


HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card w/ 1120 Shaders Overclocked 34


AA performance is as you would expect, improved. Some of the super intensive games like Mafia II and AVP see the card still struggle to pull the numbers we need. That's why we've got Crossfire, though, and the HD 6900 series around the corner.

Temperature Test


Temperature Tests



The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

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The extra voltage does push overall heat up. It's no doubt running warm, but we're not worried about it. The cards can handle over 100c, but we wouldn't want that. As soon as we start to hit around the 90c mark we would begin to be a little worried.

Sound Test


Sound Tests



Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

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When overclocked the fan is working a little harder as noise levels were more audible than when the card was running at reference speeds.

Power Consumption Tests






Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

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Power draw increases, which hardly comes as a surprise, but it's still looking very attractive. There's quite a large jump from this card to the CF setup and SLI ones, along with the power hungry GTX 480.

Total Performance Rating (TPR)


Total Performance Rating

The TPR graph is a combination of all our benchmarks in which NVIDIA and ATI are on an even playing field.

The TPR number is a combination of:

3DMark Vantage, Heaven Benchmark V2, Resident Evil 5, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., Mafia 2 (PhysX Off), Lost Planet 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Final Fantasy XIV, Street Fighter IV, Far Cry 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum (PhysX Off) and our four High Quality tests which include Mafia 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Street Fighter IV and Far Cry 2.

All of the benchmark results achieved are then combined into a single number. As this graph will grow over time and cards won't be re-tested, next to each model you'll find the driver version that was used when the card was benchmarked.

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The TPR paints a really good picture here. What we ultimately see in this graph is what we see in all our other graphs; the HD 6850 at 970MHz / 4300MHz QDR is just a little faster than the HD 6870 at stock speeds.

Before anyone carries on about the GTX 460 being overclocked with the help of voltage as well, you can see on a whole it's slightly faster than the HD 6850 at the aforementioned speeds. But that number is no doubt helped with the fact PhysX is on in 3DMark Vantage, though, and it could well be a battle to the death.

Total Value Rating (TVR)


Total Value Rating

The TVR graph is the TPR score divided by the price of the video card. The price of the video card is based on the list price of the model on Newegg.com. In the event the card isn't listed, it will be based on the U.S. $ MSRP given to us by the manufacturer.

In the event we can't source a price from either, the product will not receive a TVR rating. As with our TPR graph, the amount of video cards on the list will grow over time and the price of the model won't change from what it was when first reviewed. For this reason the U.S. $ price that the card is based off will be included next to the name of the model.

In the event you want to find the TVR rating yourself based on the current price, all you have to do is simply divide the TPR number by the list price.

TVR numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number; 100.3 will be 100; 100.8 will be 101 and 100.5 will be rounded down to 100.

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You can see thanks to all that extra performance and the same lovely price tag, the HIS HD 6850 at 970MHz / 4000MHz QDR jumps straight to the top. While we've mentioned that we don't adjust the pricing of the cards in the TVR once they're added, adjusting the price of the ECS Black GTX 460 1GB OC to $200 sees the overclocked cards TVR jump to 227, a nice increase, but not quite the 251 we're seeing from the HIS HD 6850 1GB.

Final Thoughts




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.

If you like the price of the HD 6850 but prefer the performance of the HD 6870, we've got good news for you. With a little bit of time you'll be able to get that HD 6870 performance at HD 6850 pricing. For the person wanting a bargain, this is a fantastic result.

Thanks to people like MSI, overclocking has really began to expand and the overclocking ability seen on the cards these days means that you don't have to be some hardcore computer user who deals with LN2 to achieve some fantastic performance increases. Overclocking is simple and fun, and companies like MSI, Sapphire and Galaxy are letting us do things like adjust voltage levels while putting a limit on it so it doesn't kill our card.

Three companies have shown us something fantastic here today; HIS, AMD and Sapphire; one with a card, one with a core and the other with some software. It's safe to say that the HD 6850 has the overclocking ability like NVIDIA and its GTX 460. That's bad for NVIDIA, but fantastic for you.

The out of the box performance probably isn't as exciting as the potential performance, much the same as it was with the NVIDIA GTX 460. It wasn't what the NVIDIA GTX 460 did out of the box, but what it did when we fired up Afterburner.

It will be interesting to see if companies like MSI and GIGABYTE give the HAWK and Super Overclock treatment to this model. Time will tell; for now, though, we've got a ripper video card that has some great OC potential.

As for the 1GHz core, we managed to get it. We also managed to get some 3DMark action in with it. Unlike other sites, though, which just overclock the card and run it through the one benchmark to let you know what a card can do, we instead run it through our whole benchmark line up and while at 1GHz the HIS HD 6850 wasn't stable in everything, what we showed you today was and gives a real representation of overclocking performance.

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