XFX HD6850 Dual Fan CFx review – ultimate gaming for £300 ?

As with all XFX products, the box art is beautiful. A futuristic impressionist rendering of the dual fan cooler design.

The box opens up to reveal the contents, which at this price point is limited to mainly literature. They include a support leaflet making you aware of the excellent XFX after care support system.

These cards run at reference clocks, however the cooling solution is an XFX customised solution with heatpipes. They have also cleverly adopted a dual fan cooling system, spinning them slower to reduce noise, but to enforce high levels of airflow across the PCB length.

The XFX HD 6850 is a dual slot design with circular vented holes on the side for increased air flow. Each card only requires a single 6 pin power connector from the supply.

Two hefty heatpipes span almost the full length of the card, and unsurprisingly it is Crossfire capable. Unlike the higher cost HD6950 and HD6970 however, you can only run these in a two way CrossfireX configuration.

Each card has support for support for Displayport (1.2), HDMI 1.4a, and 2x DL-DVI and SL-DVI connectors.

Removing the cooler is a straightforward process. XFX have opted for a dual heatpipe design which is filed flat to a perfect finish. The two heatpipes enter into the aluminum base and pass out heat to a set of fins on either side of the core area. This is a great design which has proven to work well on a video card.

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