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For the review today we have built a strong system which we feel would fit in well with the audience purchasing these cards. We are using a Core i7 950 Quad Core CPU with 6GB of DDR3 memory. We have applied a moderate overclock to the processor because we know you guys never run anything at reference speeds!
We are also going to limit testing to 1920×1080 (1080) and 1920×1200 as less than 1% of the enthusiast user base reading this will have a 30 inch screen – this will address the widest possible audience.
Test System: Validation here.
XFX HD6850 Black Edition
Other cards:
nVidia GTX460 Talon Attack (1000/1000 & 810/975)
XFX Reference HD6850 (775/1000)
AMD Reference HD5850 (725/1000)
AMD Reference HD5770 (850/1200)
nVidia Reference GTX460 (675/900)
eVGA GTX460 768MB SC (763/950)
nVidia Reference GTX 460 768MB (675/900)
Other Hardware:
Processor: Intel Core i7 950 @ 3.6ghz
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme 6
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 1600mhz 6GB (3x2GB)
Power Supply: Thermaltake 750W Toughpower Grand
Chassis: Cooler Master CM 690 II
Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2410 (A00)
Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
HQV Benchmark
Catalyst 10.9 & 10.10 Driver (12th October WHQL) /ati_catalyst_10.9a_appprofile
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
Forceware 260.89 beta
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Games:
Resident Evil 5
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
Tom Clancy H.A.W.X.
Alien V Predator
Mafia 2
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Shit on a stick, thats insane clocks man!
Ohhhh lovely. their modded cooler is good. shame its a tiny bit louder, but we can forgive it with those insane clocks.
ill buy a few of these I think for christmas 😉
First HD6850 over 1ghz, very sexy indeed. XFX are really taking it to Sapphire lately.
Heh, this is the start of extreme solutions. I can predict some amazing overclocks before christmas.
Absolutely stunning card, hope the price isnt much higher though.
I am not that interested in the core clock increases set in the bios, the potential overhead is what I love about the black edition boards. they have been doing this for years really and im stunned they got a 6850 black edition out so early. nice scoop KG.
Its AMD lovin on kitguru 🙂
Have to hand it to XFX< they are showing their worth as a partner for AMD. nvidia must be crying into their cornflakes.
cocks.
oh, this will make a nice christmas present, I just need to persuade the missus to fork out for it. fat chance.
Damn it, I wasn’t expecting this so quick. XFX got the edge on Sapphire.
but for how long? 1.1ghz possible before christmas? I think so.
XFX + AMD = Great Combo
XFX – NVIDIA = All 4 AMD
NVIDIA You Where Stupid To Let XFX Go As A Partner
To all the dumbasses saying Nvidia dropped XFX;
Get your bloody facts right – XFX dropped Nvidia when they made the 400-series cards.