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When I first looked at the HD 5770 FleX I was impressed that Sapphire had taken the time to acknowledge one of the biggest issues with Eyefinity and fix it. The issue we speak of is the need to have a DisplayPort monitor to make use of the technology. For some it's not an issue, especially if you're only on one monitor and you're going to buy three new ones for your setup. If you're not, though, and you already have a couple of monitors, the need for a DP enabled one is a pain.
We're at that calm before the storm where video card releases become few and far between. We're at the point where companies release slightly rehashed versions of cards we already know and love. We're at the point where companies are sending out press releases about technology they've already had on the market for ages. That's where the video card market is at and it's clear with the last few video cards we've looked at, including the one we're looking at today in the Sapphire HD 6870 Dirt 3 Edition OC. The good news is, though, that the calm before the storm means two things.
The Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 is a video card targeted at the mid-range market with a price point below $200. As such, it stands to reason that the 6870 should perform as an excellent upgrade for anyone looking to beef up a rig that has begun to show its age. With this in mind, the test system used for the 6870 will be something a typical user could expect to have built four to five years ago.
Over the past few days there have been some issues with the HD 6850 and the 1120 Shader dilemma. The good news is that there’s no such problem with the HD 6870 and today we’ll be checking out the overclocking potential of the new top mid-range GPU from AMD, the HD 6870.
It's been a bit of an AMD love fest lately when it's come to VGA with a lot of HD 6000 series making their way through the doors. It's not all that uncommon, though, as we tend to see a few months after launch companies start to release their different variations of the models that we begin to know and love.
At the moment we're going through these little phases with video cards; we get a couple in and then it dies down for a few weeks. Then a few more come in and it dies down a little bit again. The latest card to slide into the lab here comes from Sapphire and is an expansion of the Vapor-X series.
Graphic cards
With the 7000 series Radeon graphics cards on the table, can the HD 6850 Vapor-X challenge the market this late in the year? There's only one way to find out!
The standard AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics card by SAPPHIRE comes clocked at 775MHz on the core and 1000MHz on the memory. For those that want to take it up to another level the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 TOXIC Edition has the same internal architecture as the standard model, but the clock speeds are increased to 820MHz for the core and 1100MHz for the memory giving gamers a noticeable boost in performance. Read on to see how it performs and how much more we can overclock it!
We've already seen HIS bring us the HD 6870 Turbo which was quite fast, so it comes as no surprise that Sapphire has come out with a TOXIC version of the HD 6850. Considering AMD left it up to the AIB to handle the HD 6850, it really doesn't come as a surprise since they've probably been working on the model for a while.
Sapphire rarely does anything half-heartedly though and the focus of today's review is their take on an enhanced 6850. This is more than just a new cooler and factory overclock though as they have completely changed the product to enhance its performance and overclocking potential. Read on to find out how it performs in real world gameplay with the latest games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops, F1 2010 (DX11 patch) and Medal of Honor. Of course our usual content is also covered including 5760x1080 testing (with videos and screenshots), Blu-Ray 3D playback, AMD HD3D gameplay, GPU computing and a section on just how far we could push the Toxic.
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