I have a strong preference for NVidia cards, but I was turned off when my eVGA GTX 460 started failing (and I suspect that it took out my power supply as collateral damage). I also didn't like that the GTX 460, while a great performer for graphics, was pathetically slow while booting the system (specifically, when scrolling the the POST (Power On Self Test) diagnostic messages).
So I decided to switch to an ATI HD 6850. I am pleased that the 6850 has much more reasonable performance scrolling the POST messages. I also like that the TDP (thermal design power) of the 6850 is much lower than my failed GTX 460 (127W vs 160W), which translates to lower operating temperatures and/or slower and quieter GPU fan operation. Indeed, the 6850 ran the FurMark burn-in at a steady 76 degrees (with a brief spike to 79) vs. the 460 which ran at 87 degrees (and peaked at 90). Furthermore, the 6850 fan during FurMark was just barely audible in my Antec P180 case vs the very loud 460 which ramped to full rpm.
The ATI 6850 also has the fantastic capability of running up to 3 displays (their "Eyefinity" feature) with just a single card whereas the NVidia 460 only supports the more typical 2 displays. I'm not actually using that feature, but I appreciate having that as a possible future expansion. Caveat, haven't tested this capability).
Performance is comparable to the 460, but note that I no longer do much PC gaming. However, 6850 does perform similiarly to the 460 on my more stressful tasks: photo and video editing.
Overall, I am pleased with this particular sample of the 6850 from Sapphire.
Customers also search
Page 1 of 1Page 1 of 1
Compare with similar items
 | MSI Gaming GeForce GT 710 2GB GDRR3 64-bit HDCP Support DirectX 12 OpenGL 4.5 Single Fan Low Profile Graphics Card (GT 710 2GD3 LP) | ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Phoenix Fan Edition DVI-D HDMI DP 1.4 Gaming Graphics Card (PH-GTX1050TI-4G) | VisionTek Radeon 7750 2GB GDDR5 6 4k Monitor Graphics Card, 6 Mini DisplayPort Outputs, AMD Eyefinity 2.0, PCI Express 3.0 Video Card, 7.1 Surround Sound - 900614 | VisionTek Radeon 7750 SFF 1GB DDR3 3M (2x HDMI, miniDP) Graphics Card - 900574 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | (212) | (7786) | (3321) | (397) | (354) |
| Price | From $129.99 | $66.88 | $189.31 | $229.99 | $150.99 |
| Shipping | — | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details | FREE Shipping. Details |
| Sold By | Available from these sellers | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | VisionTek Products | Amazon.com |
| Graphics Card Interface | PCI Express | Unknown | PCI Express | PCI Express | PCI Express |
| Graphics Coprocessor | AMD Radeon | Nvidia GeForce | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 | AMD Radeon | AMD Radeon |
| Graphics Ram Size | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Graphics Ram | DDR5 SDRAM | DDR3 SDRAM | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Memory Bus Width | 256.0 bits | 64 bits | 128 bits | 128 bits | 128 bits |
| Memory Speed | 4000 MHz | 1600 MHz | 7008 MHz | 1125.0 MHz | — |
