GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD6850 1GB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card GV-R685OC-1GD
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- Chipset: Radeon HD6850 Engine Clock: 820 MHz Video Memory: 1GB DDR5 Memory Clock: 4200 MHz
- Memory Interface: 256-bit Bus: PCI-Express 2.1 x16 RAMDAC: 400 MHz Stream Processor: 960
- Max. Resolution: 2560 x 1600 Connectors: Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort Thermal: Fansink(Dual PWM Fan)
- Support Microsoft Windows 7/Vista Support ATI CrossFireX Technology Support ATI Eyefinity Technology
- Support ATI Avivo HD Technology Support HDCP – High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection Support Microsoft DirectX 11,
- Shader Model 5.0 and OpenGL 4.1RoHS Compliant
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.1 Graphics Card
Gigabyte Video Cards
GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD6850 1GB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card GV-R685OC-1GD
List Price: $ 194.09
Price:
Strong card in a crowded field,
Video cards are coming out at a surprising rate. Its almost impossible to “future proof” a card in today’s market, even 6 months from now there will more than likely be something better. But the latest push in gaming is back into PCs. And, especially given the fact that Xbox and PS3 are both now pushing 5 years, you can really get eye popping graphics from one of the newer video cards and a well tuned monitor (or multiple monitors, tee hee). If you’ve been away from PC gaming for a time, the Gigabyte 6850 should definitely be considered if you’re on a budget.
I can say that the Gigabyte 6850 is very good video card that can be gotten for just over $150 presently, if you shop around. The advantages of the Gigabyte card are this: 3 year warranty (its no lifetime or double lifetime like XFX, but very good) and its unique fan assembly. The stock AMD cards are very good, but Gigabyte went and dropped two large fans and copper heat pipes. Not only does this allow the card to run a little faster without modding, the card also runs quieter.
Before I bought this I foolishly bought a “6750” video card (which is really a 5750 card with AMD branding). It had the stock fan and was noticably louder than the current card I have. Like most new double slot cards, it is also a long card.On my microATX motherboard in a mid-tower case, there’s just enough to connect the power cable to the card with the cable sticking into an empty bay slightly.
as the numbers indicate, the 6850 is a respectable “enthusiast” card. Not top of the line, but a solid performer above “basic”. I’ve had little issue with low framerates on games such as Brink, Crysis and Portal 2 with high-ish settings (some of Brink’s and Crysis’s flashier options can start to interfere with gameplay). Portal 2 can be run at max settings.
Further relevant computer info: Intel i5-750, 6GB RAM, Windows 7 64 bit home premium.
I’d recommend doing some basic “burn in”/benchmark testing with the card you get by running Furmark. If you set up furmark and just let it run for a while you’ll catch anything that might be wrong with plenty of time to arrange a return or troubleshoot if its actually the card messing up on your or some other issue.
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|The best graphics card overall in its class!,
My computer has a built-in graphics card and had purchased a XFX HD6750 graphics card from Best Buy hoping to use dual displays for stock trading and occasional computer gaming. I had learned three things from this experience. 1) Most computer motherboards will disable the built-in graphics upon inserting a graphics card into the PCI-e slot, so you better be sure to get a graphics card with multiple monitor support such as the Gigabyte HD6850. 2) The number one complaint about the XFX series graphics cards from my experience and what I read here on Amazon are the noisy cooling fans. Needless to say I returned the XFX HD6750 to Best Buy and it also didn’t help that I could have bought a better card for the same price. I purchased the Gigabyte HD6850 from Amazon. 3) Don’t go to Best Buy if you want a good selection of the latest and greatest graphics cards at a decent price. Amazon is your best bet and the Gigabyte HD6850 is the best you will find in its class.
(HD6850 Review begins here)
Now for my review of the Gigabyte HD6850 card while adding new content and glossing over what has already been said. This card is designed really well with a lot of ingenuity and quality built in, coming from an engineer’s viewpoint. Without going into too much detail, you are definitely getting quality and great engineering for your money with this card that’s made by a motherboard manufacturer compared to other cards because of the use of 2 ounce copper board layer, unique Windforce cooling technology, and the best electronic components available such as the use of all solid capacitors, tier 1 memory, and the fastest switching MOSFETs available that all contributes to this cards performance. One problem that I foresee happening with this card is that the metal fins incorporated in the Windforce cooling can collect dust and debris in between which can cause blockage leading to the overheating of the GPU, so I recommend cleaning the fins out occasionally for efficient cooling.
One major note to those considering this card is that it is 9 inches long and 3 7/8 inches wide (not including the part of the board with the PCI-e teeth for insertion) so you need to make sure your case has the room to fit it. Take a measurement from the rear of the computer where the board brackets are secured out towards the front of the computer and make sure no part of the case or motherboard will interfere with installation. The card also uses two mounting bracket slots. I did not know the exact length when I bought the card and it was blocked by my motherboard’s SATA connections upon insertion into the PCI-e slot. It took me a few attempts before I found a solution. Lucky for me I had SATA data cables that are right angled at one end so I switched the cable around making use of the right angle, but I gave up a SATA slot by doing so. I highly doubt I will need the SATA slot and it was well worth being able to use the graphics card.
Some other things to note that are probably already mentioned… the card was designed to be overclocked and comes that way from the factory. This means you can get more performance out of this card and yet it runs cool. The dual fans are quiet and after a day of running dual monitors the GPU temperature stays at 52 degrees C with the fan speed at about 48% using all factory default settings. I have not tried connecting three monitors yet. The card takes only one PCI-e power connection from the case power supply, not two as with the newest cards, but an adapter is included in the box with the graphics card that connects to two 4-pin drive power connectors from the case power supply if you don’t have a PCI-e power connection. The box also comes with an analog DVI to VGA adapter. No crossfire cable is included. Crossfire is a feature of this card that allows you to add additional crossfire enabled graphic cards working in conjunction to boost your graphics processing capability for more extreme graphic performance. The card comes with a 3 year warranty not like the lifetime warranty of some others. If you are a serious gamer, you might buy another card after 2 years anyway.
When it came to connecting two monitors, I found that the HDMI output did not scale correctly on my monitors that are set to auto scale and would have probably needed to manually adjust the scaling. I recommend connecting the monitors to the DVI-I and DVI-D ports on the card for a hassle free installation unless you need picture and sound going to your monitor, then you may need to manually adjust the picture scale whether it is a monitor or TV. Read my update below if connecting a third monitor.
I will leave it to someone else to provide any graphics performance index measurements. You can find them on the internet, just Google the words ‘gigabyte hd6850 performance.’ However, I can say that I can now run graphics at the highest settings smoothly for graphic intense games and see amazing…
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|Awesome card!,
This card is great! The build quality is superb, and it gets a 7.7 in windows 7 Experience Index. However, I don’t use windows, I use this card with OS X. I highly recommend this card!
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