Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 - something different
The status quo with any new GPU launch is for a partner to run with the reference design and then, a while later, launch a customised PCB and cooling solution that betters the AMD-supplied card in every way.Sapphire Technologies has decided to come out of the gate with an in-house-built Radeon HD 6850 1,024MB card.
The plastic shroud hides the fact that, as we look at it, there's a thin-ish heatsink over the power-delivery components on the left-hand side.
While fan-speed numbers aren't explicitly reported, the large fan chugs along at a whisper-quiet 33 per cent load when the GPU is idling, rising to an acceptable 61 per cent load under some FurMark love. Sapphire bundles in its TRIXX utility that enables control over the fan speed, GPU voltage, and core and memory clocks.
The efficacy of the cooler will enable Sapphire to release pre-overclocked HD 6850s pretty soon, but this card reports in at a reference 775MHz core and 4,000MHz GDDR5 memory.
AMD clearly thinks that three- or four-way CrossFireX should be the domain of truly high-end cards. This being the case, Radeon HD 6850 ships with a single connector - good for attaching to one other card.
Be aware of the DVI ports when plugging in a 30in monitor, because the lower DVI is limited to single-link transfers, meaning that, say, a Dell 3008FPW will present at 1,280x800px instead of 2,560x1,600. Not good when you're running high-resolution benchmarks!
Pre-benchmark summary
Sapphire's custom Radeon HD 6850 1,024MB graphics card is equipped with an upgraded cooler and smaller PCB than the reference design. We expect it to ship for around £150, beginning today, and the retail-box package will have an HDMI cable thrown in for free.
