Recently, I decided to build a new PC from scratch. I am a rather big gamer, and needed something that would be able to play not only stuff already released at max levels, but future stuff at near max levels.
Usually, I will get Nvidia cards, but I decided to try something different and get a ATI (Now AMD) card. Keep in mind that I am coming from a Galaxy 9800GT card, so this is a rather big upgrade for me. First, here is a list of my specs:
-AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE Processor
-G-Skill Ripjaw 8GB of RAM
-Sapphire Radeon HD 6850
-M4A78T-E Motherboard
-Cooler Master HAF 932 Case
-Corsair CMPSU-750TX Power Supply
-Cooler Maste Hyper 212 Plus Heatsink
-Western Digital 640GB Caviar Black 64MB Cache HDD (Main)
-Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green 32MB Cache HDD (Backup)
-Sony Optiarc AD-7260S DVD/CD Burner
-Logitech Classic Keyboard 200
-HP 2159M Monitor
As you can see, this is a fairly powerful PC. As far as installation, I had no major problems. Like most cards, it will take up 2 slot covers, although one advantage is the card only requires one power connection and not two.
Drivers, however, were a different issue. Out of the box, I was able to get everything installed that I need to, but the Catalyst program has a weird tendency to not optimize your monitor to the best settings (At least mine, it has a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080, although the card can go much higher). I had to play around with the settings to get the desktop to be in full aspect ratio and for the text not to be blurry on a HDMI cable. You will also need to update the drivers, since the CD is out of date.
As far as the games I have tried:
-WoW will run on average about 30-70 FPS depending on what settings are enabled (About 30-50 on Max with V-Sync turned off, and higher with a couple of the options turned down).
-Crysis will run on max settings at around 30-40 FPS on average with DX10 settings, which is very decent.
-Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo ran extremely fast with no major lag issues.
-FFXIV is the only one that really gave it any problems, and acted sluggish with everything maxed out. However, turning down the view distance helped greatly with speed. Near maxed out, it does 30-40 FPS.
-GTAIV, A game with a record of being sluggish all around, ran perfectly with no major hiccups in cutscenes and whatnot, with only the draw distance slightly turned down.
-Half Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Counter Strike: Source ran beautifully maxed out with no major lag (No idea about FPS for these, but it was extremely high).
-Bioshock ran with no lag with DX10 stuff turned on and everything at max.
-Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion ran pretty well, some very minor lag but I also only played for a few minutes and did not optimize it well. Should run flawlessly though otherwise.
-The 3DMark Vantage free trial gave 30-50 FPS on average for most of its tests.
Overall, from a gamer's point of view I am happy. For my monitor's resolution it does everything extremely well and I can see the card lasting at least another 1-2 years without me having to Crossfire it (Which I might do at some point when these cards go down in price). While some benchmarks might say it might be middle of the road, you REALLY do not need 100FPS in a game with everything maxed out, your eyes can only see at most a 60FPS most of the time. Outside the issues with getting the desktop set up, it is a great card for any high end PC.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | (211) | (7597) | (510) | (883) | (1096) |
| Price | $139.99 | $69.99 | $105.00 | $202.89 | $44.56 |
| Sold By | ░░🆀🆄🅸🅲🅺 ᴵᵀ | Amazon.com | Zow's | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| Graphics Card Interface | PCI Express | Unknown | PCI Express | PCI-Express x16 | PCI Express |
| Graphics Coprocessor | AMD Radeon | Nvidia GeForce | NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 | Nvidia GeForce |
| Graphics Ram Size | 1 GB | 2 GB | 1 GB | 4 GB | 1 GB |
| Graphics Ram | DDR5 SDRAM | DDR3 SDRAM | GDDR5 | GDDR6 | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Hardware Interface | HDMI | PCIE x 16 | PCI Express x8 | PCI Express x8 | USB |
| Item Dimensions | 6.5 x 3.5 x 11.5 inches | 5.75 x 0.75 x 2.72 inches | 6.7 x 0.7 x 2.7 inches | 7.96 x 1.54 x 4.38 inches | 5.7 x 3.3 x 0.7 inches |
| Memory Bus Width | 256.0 bits | 64 bits | 32 bits | 128 bits | 64 bits |
| Memory Clock Speed | 4000 MHz | 1600 MHz | 954 MHz | 12000 MHz | 1000 MHz |
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Customer reviews
First off, I love this card. It plays everything new and old at the highest resolution and graphic settings at high. However, the product I received was likely defective. While a game will play smoothly for a long period of time, it could suddenly at any moment blank screen.I've no complaints about the functionality of this GPU. But, I will warn you that you may potentially receive a product that is defective. I'm surprised there aren't more reviews addressing the defect/screen problem. On Newegg there are many of these cases.I believe it's just my bad luck that I received a defective GPU. In any case, you have my recommendation that this card will fulfill your gaming needs.
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