WSGF Review of the AMD Radeon HD 6870 & HD 6850

[skipclarke]

Radeon HD 6870 & 8650 - http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/ATI_Radeon_6870_6850_-_Featured_Review

[Tamlin]

Nice review! :)

I would very much for you to test the new MLAA (found in 10.10a drivers) and see the performance hit in Eyefinity when you have time!

[thales100]

6870< 5870 ?!

[skipclarke]

6870< 5870 ?!

IMHO it's more like 6870 = 5870, but for cheaper price and less heat/power. I simply found them to run neck and neck (though any edge seemed to go to the 5870)...

[suiken_2mieu]

WEll I'm still waiting on a 2GB 6970. I don't know how much that HUB is, but I need that too I guess.

[skipclarke]

Eyefinity6 cards are in the works for the 6900 series...

[stangflyer]

Really interested to see the 6990 which is the replacement for the 5970. If they fix the crossfire scaling this will be my next card. I have my 5970 sold for a very good amount to my cousin. I am hoping for the improvements in metro and crysis. Also the 6990 better have at least 1.5 gigs of ram. Better yet 2 gigs per core. If it stays at 1 gig per core I am not interested!!

I know that the tessellation is improved but still not to the extent that I would like. I would like to see an improvement of 15-20 frames in metro and crysis at 5040x1050. If the 6990 has that improvement and more than 1 gig per core I will own one! 8)

[yogibbear]

My only thoughts on the review:
-no comparison to nvidia offerings
-bar charts have some weird colour choices... e.g. two different but almost similar blues for both a 5800 and 6800 series card in some.

Otherwise very nice and you seemed to have covered most of the important stuff. Maybe you should consider throwing in a shader heavy online FPS.

[Paradigm Shifter]

6870< 5870 ?!

Yup.

AMD decided to change their naming system (not quite sure why, but there we go) so that the 6800 series is the successor to the 5700 series. The 5800 series successor will be the 6900s.

...

I'm impressed. I'm particularly impressed by CrossFireX scaling in EyeFinity, where it's obviously needed more than in 'normal' widescreen.

...

I'll agree that some of the bars are a little hard to individualise, but it's nothing major.

...

The lack of nVidia offerings in comparison is explained in the review - quite simply, without getting hardware to test the way other review sites do, it's too costly to go out and buy them. I did because I wanted to go Surround, then saw that 2GB cards were probably going to be an improvement so dropped some more money on 'em. But the Surround review was done under my own steam, as it were.

[thales100]

[quote]6870< 5870 ?!

without getting hardware to test the way other review sites do, it's too costly to go out and buy them.

Really bad move / decision by Nvidia, WSGF should be one of their "most important" gaming sites. :doh

[Paradigm Shifter]

Yeah, but we're still small - the price of being extremely specialised - nowhere near the readership of sites like Anandtech or HardOCP.

Because of that specialisation, we can be the target of ridicule as a community; see the way people react when we talk about Surround/EyeFinity/TH2Go on game/publisher forums... that was the way people reacted originally with widescreen, too - now most games support it, they just don't think about it. The price of being on the bleeding edge of gaming technology, I suppose. :D

[skipclarke]

I've stopped trying to get hardware directly from NVIDIA. I'm starting to reach out to the individual vendors.

[Hydralisk_X]

Nice review.

I noticed that the 6870 performs better than the 5870 in crossfire at 5760x1080... that's very nice to see. I'm really curious about single card 6970 (or w/e they're going to be calling it) performance now.

However, you mentioned that the 5870/5850 used the 10.8 drivers. I think the 10.9 drivers increased xfire performance for several games. I don't think any of those games were actually tested though... just something to note.

[spammeister]

The Radeon HD 6900s - now those will be a lot of fun...

Correctamundo!

With the 6870/50 reaching a near 180% or better in each case for Xfire, I'm praying that the default 6970 has 2GB of memory (or at least are available at launch day), and that they come with miniDP->DP dongle(s).

[skipclarke]

Nice review.

However, you mentioned that the 5870/5850 used the 10.8 drivers. I think the 10.9 drivers increased xfire performance for several games. I don't think any of those games were actually tested though... just something to note.

Thanks.

And this is why I'm going to update all my 5-series with the new beta driver and the 16:9 monitors. For whatever slight difference there is, the 6870/50 still kick ass.

[ChainSOV]

AMD has replaced one of the DL-DVI ports with a Single-Link DVI port (which drives up to 1920x1200), freeing up one clock.

Does it mean a DVI+DVI+HDMI connection is possible now for monitors <=1920*1200. Without any adapters, not counting a hdmi->dvi cable

[suiken_2mieu]

AMD has replaced one of the DL-DVI ports with a Single-Link DVI port (which drives up to 1920x1200), freeing up one clock.

Does it mean a DVI+DVI+HDMI connection is possible now for monitors <=1920*1200. Without any adapters, not counting a hdmi->dvi cable

My question as well.

[Omnimus]

Great review.

[skipclarke]

AMD has replaced one of the DL-DVI ports with a Single-Link DVI port (which drives up to 1920x1200), freeing up one clock.

Does it mean a DVI+DVI+HDMI connection is possible now for monitors <=1920*1200. Without any adapters, not counting a hdmi->dvi cable

Unfortunately this won't work. The cards still only have two TMDS transmitters, and it will require at least one Mini-DP port to be used.

[suiken_2mieu]

[quote]

AMD has replaced one of the DL-DVI ports with a Single-Link DVI port (which drives up to 1920x1200), freeing up one clock.

Does it mean a DVI+DVI+HDMI connection is possible now for monitors <=1920*1200. Without any adapters, not counting a hdmi->dvi cable

Unfortunately this won't work. The cards still only have two TMDS transmitters, and it will require at least one Mini-DP port to be used.
Okay, if I use 6 monitors on the miniDP ports, can I still use two more monitors on DVI or DVI+HDMI?