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6870 vs 5850

3

3vil

n00b
Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
63
I am looking into getting a new card to replace my dead 9800GX2. I figured I would got with ATI/AMD because they appear to have a better performance/price ratio.

I'm torn between getting a 6870 or a 5850 though. Mainly these two:

XFX 6850 and XFX 5850

Any suggestions?

The rest of my system:
Corsair 620HX
Evga 680i SLI board
Intel E6750
6gb DDR2 ram
Windows 7 x64

(Yeah, i know that my processor will lead to a bottleneck, but I am not at the point where i can build an entire new rig.)
 
Last edited:
Both links are the same. But that's a real nice price on a 5850 however.
 
Sorry about the link mixup, its been fixed.

@flip-mode: That looks halfway decent, but i'm still leaning towards the xfx one.
 
The 6850 is a good card if you aren't a heavy overclocker. With overclocking the 5850 absolutely destroys the 6850 - it isn't even a contest.
 
I'd go with the 6870 if you're not gonna overclock.

EDIT: Looks like the 6870 went back up to $240. The 5850 is a much better buy at $210 if you ask me.
 
Mr. K6 said:
The 6850 is a good card if you aren't a heavy overclocker. With overclocking the 5850 absolutely destroys the 6850 - it isn't even a contest.
Click to expand...
I know they're both good overclockers, but I don't know if the 5850 destroys the 6850 at max OC.
I would actually assume it's the other way around. I'm too lazy to look for benchmarks though. Finding ones that compare the 5850 OC to a 6850 OC might require multiple reviews.
 
Based on reviews I have read the 6850 and 5850 seem to preform pretty close with the nod on games with heavy tessellation going to the 6850 and some other games performing better on the 5850. I have the same XFX 5850 in my HTPC, it is non reference so it does not OC like the original reference 5850's that would hit 1Ghz + because it lacks the ability to change the voltage. However mine still OC'd pretty well to 890/2390 which is a decent boost over the stock 725/2000.
 
jrrandell said:
Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa, Lois....

This is not my batman glass.
Click to expand...

:D

Would you be willing to overclock?

Yes: I recommend the 5850. Even hitting around 850/1200 on a 5850 which is a very safe expectation is around 20% more, which will murder the 6850. If you play lots of DX11 games though, the 6850 will be equal to or beat a 5850.

No: I recommend the 6870. If you want something that performs like the 6870 with less DX11 performance, I recommend the 5850. I do not recommend the 6850

If You Ever CrossFire: Only consider the 6800 series.

Are you even willing to consider nVIDIA? Galaxy has a GTX 460 1GB for a great price right now.

EDIT: All the cards your looking at are XFX. AFAIK XFX covers overclocking in its warranty.
 
UtopiA said:
I know they're both good overclockers, but I don't know if the 5850 destroys the 6850 at max OC.
I would actually assume it's the other way around. I'm too lazy to look for benchmarks though. Finding ones that compare the 5850 OC to a 6850 OC might require multiple reviews.
Click to expand...
Here's a quick comparison in 3DMark11. In my opinion, this test should favor the 6850 (1 year newer hardware), so I'm going to assume this as a "best case scenario" for the 6850. Here's a quick Google hit I found with a 6850 overclocked in 3DMark11 - http://www.overclock.net/ati/884158-hd6850-3dmark-11-performance-oc-non.html . The card gets P4084 at 950/1025 clocks. Comparatively, my 5850 gets P4568 at identical clocks. This is a 12% performance advantage, clock for clock, in a benchmark that should favor the 6850.

Now let's look at the advantages the 5850 has over the 6850. For example, the 5850's memory clocks much higher. If I rerun the benchmark with the 5850 at 950/1250 (the 5850 comes with 5Gbps RAM), I get P4691. Now the 5850 has a 15% advantage at the same 950MHz core clock. Note that not all 5850's will have 5Gbps (probably the non-reference ones don't), but it's something to consider. Another thing to check out is core voltage/max overclock. That poster with the 6850 is running his core at 1.256V to get 950MHz. By comparison, my 5850 only needs ~1.175V on air. In my experience, both 5850's and 6850's top out at ~1000MHz+ on air, maybe a slight 25MHz or so advantage to the 5850, so maybe this point is moot.

In games, the 5850 will lengthen its lead further. (20%, maybe more).
jhatfie said:
Based on reviews I have read the 6850 and 5850 seem to preform pretty close with the nod on games with heavy tessellation going to the 6850 and some other games performing better on the 5850. I have the same XFX 5850 in my HTPC, it is non reference so it does not OC like the original reference 5850's that would hit 1Ghz + because it lacks the ability to change the voltage. However mine still OC'd pretty well to 890/2390 which is a decent boost over the stock 725/2000.
Click to expand...
There's more life in it yet. You can easily mod the BIOS to give 1.125V to the core (a quick boost that has substantial gain). Depending on how your BIOS works (I haven't worked with an XFX 5850), you can unlock the voltage to 5870 levels or even further.

EDIT:

XacTactX said:
:D

Would you be willing to overclock?

Yes: I recommend the 5850. Even hitting around 850/1200 on a 5850 which is a very safe expectation is around 20% more, which will murder the 6850. If you play lots of DX11 games though, the 6850 will be equal to or beat a 5850.

No: I recommend the 6870. If you want something that performs like the 6870 with less DX11 performance, I recommend the 5850. I do not recommend the 6850

If You Ever CrossFire: Only consider the 6800 series.

Are you even willing to consider nVIDIA? Galaxy has a GTX 460 1GB for a great price right now.

EDIT: All the cards your looking at are XFX. AFAIK XFX covers overclocking in its warranty.
Click to expand...
The 6870 isn't worth the premium. It clocks almost the same as a 6850 at about 30% higher cost, and ends up being <5% faster at the same clocks.
 
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