AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series - Video Seriesmiddle class from the famous company AMD. These video cards have replaced the series with the index 5. Below are described all the technical characteristics, the results of testing in special programs and games.
The history of the video card
It should be clarified that the 6800 series was the first, which was produced under the emblem of AMD, and not ATI after the merger of two computer component manufacturers.
В 2010 году появилась необходимость в очередной once updated line of video cards offered by the company. During the presentation, AMD revealed all the details about the technical data and capabilities of the new series. The AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series includes two video card models: HD 6850 and HD 6870. The last two digits conventionally define the class of the video card. Accordingly, the 6850 was the youngest, and the 6870 was the older and more powerful.
Данные видеокарты были созданы для замены flagship HD 5870, but, oddly enough, they are no longer in the lead, and took the position of the middle class. The flagship of the company was a series with an index of 9 - HD 6900.
AMD Radeon HD 6800: Specifications
When developing all previous video cardsATI specialists followed the same principle as their Nvidia colleagues. This means that efforts have been invested in all new developments and line of video cards to achieve maximum performance and power of iron. After merging with AMD, the company's policy and approach to creating video cards took a slightly different vector.
AMD set out to create video cards withbalanced power, performance and price. This series should compete with the 460 GTX and 470 GTX. For this, the creators decided to develop a new graphics processor. There are still disputes over whether Barts is a breakthrough or a step backwards. On the one hand, the creators have simplified the architecture and reduced the size. On the other hand, power consumption and performance have become much higher compared with the previous generation of graphics cards from AMD.
According to the company itself, they did not commitno upheaval or breakthrough. The Barts graphics chip is a repetition of the previous generation, only with a new approach to the old technologies. One of the reasons for this decision was the problems with production and factory at the time of release of AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series, so the creators decided to upgrade the old generation.
But the goals to fill the segment of hi-end video cards based on the upgraded architecture of the previous generation were not achieved. The new series falls short of the performance of HD 5870, but does not overtake it.
The entire series is based on the Barts processor, hassupport for shaders 5th version, the amount of video memory is fixed - 1024 MB. Each video card has two DVI connectors, two miniDP and one for HDMI. Both devices have support for CrossFire technology and image output to 8 monitors simultaneously. The 6850 younger video card operates at a frequency of 775 MHz, the oldest 6870, at 900 MHz. The cost of video cards is 180 and 240 dollars respectively. It also supports DirectX11, which at the time of release of the AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series was important.
Video card testing
Both 6800 series video cards were tested under the same conditions and on the same bench configuration. All tests were conducted in 3D Mark and computer games, released at the time of release of a series of video cards.
AMD Radeon HD6850
This line model is the weakest inAMD Radeon Hd 6800 series. Characteristics are greatly reduced compared to the older graphics card. And absolutely everything is trimmed, including the capabilities of the cooling system. But the creators did not take into account one thing: despite the weaker power, the video card heats up in the same way. This is a clear disadvantage.
According to the results in 3D Mark this video cardinferior to the eldest in the series by only 2-3 thousand points. Take the most productive and demanding games of those years - Crysis and Far Cry 2. The difference in FPS is from 10 to 15 frames per second. If we compare this difference with the price difference, then purchasing an HD 6850 looks like an attractive solution.
AMD Radeon HD6870
The older model of the series falls shortperformance up to the flagship company HD5870. Especially noteworthy is that the AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series graphics card, which costs much less than the cost of its competitors from Nvidia, allows you to use the full capabilities of DirectX11. Especially well HD 6870 copes with this task.
The upgrade of the Barts GPU allowed for competitiveness with Nvidia’s flagship company AMD and GTX 460 with 1 GB of memory.
Summing up
Новое поколение AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series, отзывы which turned out to be ambiguous, definitely worth the attention and their money. Both video cards have occupied a niche between low-end models and the flagship HD 5870, but at the same time, the line can compete with competitors in its segment from Nvidia. Samples from AMD look much better. The performance boost of Nvidia's video cards is minimal, but the cost is 30-40 dollars higher.
The obvious disadvantages include a noisy system.cooling with a cooler. In an effort to save and simplify architecture, the creators have forgotten to take care of proper cooling. A noisy cooler, which barely copes with the load, discourages every desire to use the capabilities of the video card to its fullest. But this is not necessary, because for experiments and overclocking there are video cards from Nvidia.
