First retail 6870 photo; now includes full Chinese leaks and Guru3D review discussion

[Skurge]

I don't care so much that he was wrong about specs but flat out lying by saying he has a 6870 overclocked by 200mhz with no voltage adjustment is ridiculous. even if we argue about stuff around here lying like that is a bit over the top.

+1

 

[blastingcap]

From Semiaccurate: http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/10/21/amds-6870-brings-lots-goodies/

"DisplayPort 1.2 brings the octopus home

That part is really cool, but it gets better. The new display controllers are completely independent from each other. The 'old way', circa the dark ages (2009), forced you to have all displays be the same rez, refresh rate, and everything else. If you had two of one monitor and one of another, you had to pick which one that looked bad, or simply didn't work.

The new controllers allow you to do whatever you want, however you want, and it just works. All screens can be run at completely different resolutions, refresh rates, orientations, and even color corrected separately. That is hugely impressive and extremely flexible, not to mention practical and useful."

I didn't hear much talk about this, but if it's true it's kinda nice to be able to mix-and-match resolutions and settings and even color corrections.

 

[RussianSensation]

Blastincap, that's a very good bit of info for those with multi-monitor support. Did you order your HD6870 yet ?

What's the overall verdict on the HD6870 at $239? It looks like you can get a EVGA GTX460 FTW 850mhz w/ lifetime warranty + a free game for $229, which is faster and produces less noise at load .

 

[blastingcap]

Blastincap, that's a very good bit of info for those with multi-monitor support. Did you order your HD6870 yet ?

What's the overall verdict on the HD6870 at $239? It looks like you can get a EVGA GTX460 FTW 850mhz w/ lifetime warranty + a free game for $229, which is faster and produces less noise at load .

No, I'm in a weird limbo between a GTX460-768 and HD6850: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2114553

The 6870 looks horrible from my POV because I like to oc. I might as well just get a 6850 and oc it to ~6870 speed.

 

[toyota]

No, I'm in a weird limbo between a GTX460-768 and HD6850: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2114553

The 6870 looks horrible from my POV because I like to oc. I might as well just get a 6850 and oc it to ~6870 speed.

above 1680 no one that likes to run the highest settings possible should consider the 768mb model. the 6850 looks like the card for you.

 

[RussianSensation]

No, I'm in a weird limbo between a GTX460-768 and HD6850: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2114553

The 6870 looks horrible from my POV because I like to oc. I might as well just get a 6850 and oc it to ~6870 speed.

1GBs of ram, and multi-monitor support + 900mhz potential of the HD6850 is the winner for you imo. Unless you are seriously on a budget, skip the 768mb model for multi-monitor support. That's just not enough RAM for such a setup.

 

[blastingcap]

above 1680 no one that likes to run the highest settings possible should consider the 768mb model. the 6850 looks like the card for you.

1GBs of ram, and multi-monitor support + 900mhz potential of the HD6850 is the winner for you imo. Unless you are seriously on a budget, skip the 768mb model for multi-monitor support. That's just not enough RAM for such a setup.

Thanks guys but I think the problem is that for gaming, I can either go down the 1680x1050 path or the 5040x1050 path. As you can imagine, those two paths require very different levels of resources.

My top-played game by far is TF2 which worked fine in 5040x1050 with a heavily oc'd 5850 with somewhat-less-than-max settings.

So for Eyefinity a 6850 would work fine for TF2, and for heavier games I would play them at 1680x1050.

For 1680x1050 a 5850 or 6850 would be overkill, and a GTX460-768 would be more than fine, especially oc'd, and cost just $5 more than a 5770 (I miss out on all those newegg deals for the 5770 due to tax+shipping). Even a 5770 oc'd would be fine, but like I said, the price difference is tiny b/w that and a GTX460-768.

This is why I'm struggling over which card to get, a 6850@$200 (lowest price on Tiger) or GTX460-768@$140AR (lowest price on Tiger). If there weren't price gouging I'd get the 6850 for sure. Yeah it's not a lot of money but it's on principle--Tiger gouged me last year and I swore I would not let them gouge me this year.

 

[toyota]

Thanks guys but I think the problem is that for gaming, I can either go down the 1680x1050 path or the 5040x1050 path. As you can imagine, those two paths require very different levels of resources.

My top-played game by far is TF2 which worked fine in 5040x1050 with a heavily oc'd 5850 with somewhat-less-than-max settings.

So for Eyefinity a 6850 would work fine for TF2, and for heavier games I would play them at 1680x1050.

For 1680x1050 a 5850 or 6850 would be overkill, and a GTX460-768 would be more than fine, especially oc'd, and cost just $5 more than a 5770 (I miss out on all those newegg deals for the 5770 due to tax+shipping). Even a 5770 oc'd would be fine, but like I said, the price difference is tiny b/w that and a GTX460-768.

This is why I'm struggling over which card to get, a 6850@$200 (lowest price on Tiger) or GTX460-768@$140AR (lowest price on Tiger). If there weren't price gouging I'd get the 6850 for sure. Yeah it's not a lot of money but it's on principle--Tiger gouged me last year and I swore I would not let them gouge me this year.

a 6850 would not be overkill at all at 1680 for some games if you like to crank the settings. why cant you get the 6850 from somewhere else?

 

[blastingcap]

a 6850 would not be overkill at all at 1680 for some games if you like to crank the settings. why cant you get the 6850 form somewhere else?

Show me an ASUS or XFX 6850 at $180 shipped to CA and I'll show you a customer. Amazon and Tiger are my realistic choices and they are both price gouging. I can hold out a little longer since I can sorta play l4d on my IGP, and I am not yet done with Tales of Monkey Island, but my patience is wearing thin.

 

[RussianSensation]

I had an 8800GTS 320mb which was fine for the first 6 months. As soon as games needed > 300mbs of ram, I had to always drop resolution and AA. If all you play is TF2, then sure the 768mb version is fine for $150. But then you lose 3 monitor support, leaving 1 of your monitors just sitting there. Personally, I'd spend the extra $30 towards the 6850. $30 over 1 year of gaming is not that much $$. Plus you can CF later

 

[blastingcap]

I had an 8800GTS 320mb which was fine for the first 6 months. As soon as games needed > 300mbs of ram, I had to always drop resolution and AA. If all you play is TF2, then sure the 768mb version is fine for $150. But then you lose 3 monitor support, leaving 1 of your monitors just sitting there. Personally, I'd spend the extra $30 towards the 6850. $30 over 1 year of gaming is not that much $$. Plus you can CF later

The idea is to cheap out for this generation and then get a Kepler to have the ultimate combo of every feature set (AMD's only distinguishing feature is single-GPU Eyefinity and I bet NV is about to take care of that with Kepler). So the hypothetical breakup of 3-way Eyefinity would only be temporary. 768MB is potentially bad but I can live with turning down AA, so I'll be good, since AA is such a RAM-eater. Some people MUST have AA, but I'm not one of them.

The third monitor would go to my second rig (I asked my gf already and she didn't want it since she has no desk space for it).

I know, I know, this is kind of a petty topic and I'm almost embarrassed when confronted by your logic and Toyota's logic, but gosh darn it I really hate paying price gougers, I feel like I'm rewarding them or something. It's the principle. I mean I could afford 480SLI if I had to but I prefer best bang-for-the-buck and not paying Tiger above-retail prices.

 

[toyota]

yeah I guess you have to pay tax at Newegg in CA. I would just be patient as I am sure you can find it for 180 somewhere in the next week or two.

 

[blastingcap]

yeah I guess you have to pay tax at Newegg in CA. I would just be patient as I am sure you can find it for 180 somewhere in the next week or two.

Not only that, but Anandtech is doing a 6850 roundup sometime next week, too. I'd love to get more info on which company's custom cooling solution works best, as well as oc headroom. Although you jumped the gun a bit on criticizing the 6870's oc headroom based on one review, ultimately you were proven correct. Good job! :thumbsup:

 

[3DVagabond]

I don't care so much that he was wrong about specs but flat out lying by saying he has a 6870 overclocked by 200mhz with no voltage adjustment is ridiculous. even if we argue about stuff around here lying like that is a bit over the top.

I'm not going to pitch a real b!tch about it, but it does appear that Silverforce was just spreading FUD. If I were him and telling the truth I would post some benches to prove I was legit and then get you to apologize for every time you called me a liar.

Short of that though, he has no credibility, IMO.

 

[RussianSensation]

You could always grab an EVGA GTX460 768mb for $150 if you are really itching to save $30. Then if you find its performance isn't fast enough, you have 90 days to step up to a possible GTX475 card, if it ever launches....lol

 

[blastingcap]

step up to a possible GTX475 card, if it ever launches....lol

That was really confidence-inspiring

 

[fliguy84]

I'm in much of a dilemma right now. In my country, the 6850's price is about the same as most GTX460 cards. Since most 460's are factory OC (e.g. EVGA SC, ASUS TOP, MSI Cyclone etc), their performance should be on par with the stock 6850 right?

 

[toyota]

I'm in much of a dilemma right now. In my country, the 6850's price is about the same as most GTX460 cards. Since most 460's are factory OC (e.g. EVGA SC, ASUS TOP, MSI Cyclone etc), their performance should be on par with the stock 6850 right?

yes pretty much and you can certainly oc it quite a bit more too. with your cpu though don't expect any where near the numbers you see for most games in reviews.

 

[blastingcap]

On Oct. 28 I will be liberated from IGP hell.

AMD's engineers may be good, but whoever sets their pricing sucks. I said a week or two ago in this thread that I feared for mediocre pricing, and I continued to worry about pricing as late as Oct. 18--and then again, after NV dropped prices. E.g., http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30620263&postcount=548 I've also repeatedly said that if Barts pricing disappoints me, I'd consider giving up Eyefinity temporarily and downgrading for a year.

More specifically, I said that $199 was barely acceptable for 6850 pricing, and that was BEFORE NV dropped prices on GTX 460s by $20. As you can imagine, I think that $179 is barely acceptable pricing after NV's price drop. ($199 - 20 = $179) $179 undercuts GTX 460-1GBs in price/perf by only, what, $10 or so (overclock vs. overclock)? After you consider that GTX460s overclocks slightly better.

If I could, I would wait to see if AMD grows a spine and counterattacks with a $10 or $20 price cut of their own ($20 is not bloodly likely anytime soon, considering how much red ink the CPU division bleeds in their struggle against Intel), but I suffered ~7 weeks of IGP already; how much longer am I supposed to wait for the price-gouging on Tiger/Amazon to subside? And so much for large supply--Newegg sold out of 6850s pretty darn quickly.

So yes, I was going to wait till next week. Really. But I cracked after I saw this deal (lifetime warranty be damned; I plan to sell the card next year in favor of a Kepler or HD7xxx, anyway): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003V8ATWC

I bit. I had Amazon gift card credit, and on top of that, I got 3-5 days free shipping (Amazon promo), AND a free download of HAWX2 (which I suppose I could try to resell or give away or something, as I have no interest in the game). My gift card credit picked up the entire tab. Amazon estimates arrival date to be Oct. 28.

This will be my first EVGA purchase. This will also be my first NVIDIA purchase since bumpgate. (My previous NVIDIA card was a XFX 6800XT that met an untimely death ~6 weeks ago, hence why I've been stuck on IGP without any backup card at all, after I sold my HD5850 ~7 weeks ago.)

Basically I sacrificed EyeFinity for a year in favor of a cheaper card that can still run 1680x1050 in games (and 2 out of 3 monitors outside of games). I hope to get single-GPU Eyefinity or Surround next year when available.

Giving up Eyefinity sucks, but if I'm honest with myself, my Logitech G35 did just as much for me in Team Fortress 2 as Eyefinity did. Surround 7.1 headsets FTW.

Thanks for putting up with my incessant posts about the HD6850 launch. I was in agony using an IGP, what can I say?

Maybe I should upgrade my mouse next; it's 6 years old and has taken a beating over the years....

P.S. I saw just now that the card I ordered is currently the no. 1 bestselling video card on Amazon. Gee, I wonder why?

Also, RS, you indirectly helped to argue AGAINST 6850... I think you are right about VRAM in the long run, which is why I'd rather get a Kepler/HD7xxx with (hopefully) more than 1GB VRAM, because at some point I will want to play a non-Source game at Eyefinity resolution and will thus need more VRAM.

 

[edplayer]

Show me an ASUS or XFX 6850 at $180 shipped to CA and I'll show you a customer. Amazon and Tiger are my realistic choices and they are both price gouging. I can hold out a little longer since I can sorta play l4d on my IGP, and I am not yet done with Tales of Monkey Island, but my patience is wearing thin.

do the same thing I'm doing

deal alert at slickdeals for GTX 460 1GB and 6850. Whichever one can get to me for under $150 I'll buy. I might have to wait a month or a little more but that's OK (I might pay slightly more for the 6850, esp if I can get it quicker)


but I would like to see a round-up of several different cards first.

 

[blastingcap]

do the same thing I'm doing

deal alert at slickdeals for GTX 460 1GB and 6850. Whichever one can get to me for under $150 I'll buy. I might have to wait a month or a little more but that's OK (I might pay slightly more for the 6850, esp if I can get it quicker)


but I would like to see a round-up of several different cards first.

A little late, my friend.

P.S. Most of those deals involve newegg, anyway, and that's a no-go for me because of CA tax + shipping.

 

[3DVagabond]

Snip

I'm confused. You're replacing an HD 5850 with a GTX-460 768? You're giving up more than just Eyefinity, I think. I hope it works out for you. Definitely better than the IGP.

 

[blastingcap]

I'm confused. You're replacing an HD 5850 with a GTX-460 768? You're giving up more than just Eyefinity, I think. I hope it works out for you. Definitely better than the IGP.

Yeah I know it's weird but in a way it's an upgrade for my central vision and downgrade for my peripheral vision. Look at it this way: a highly oc'd HD5850 (I was running mine at ~940MHz) handling 5040x1050 will give a lower average framerate than a highly oc'd GTX460-768 handling 1680x1050. I lose the immersion and peripheral vision (the better to spot spies attempting to backstab me), but ever since I got the G35 Surround headset, I noticed that my audio did a good job of detecting enemies to the sides/behind me, anyway. So I will be fine without Eyefinity. I still like it and want it, and it's good for outside-of-game productivity, but I'll live--and pocket the free HAWX and $55 in savings, which can go towards Kepler or HD7xxx next year.

 

[fliguy84]

yes pretty much and you can certainly oc it quite a bit more too. with your cpu though don't expect any where near the numbers you see for most games in reviews.

Thanks for the reply, that's the answer I'm looking for.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I personally think Silverforce11 should be banned. clearly he flat out lied saying "I've got Barts XT to OC by 200mhz on the core with no vcore mod". even times when he was not lying he was just guessing and passing off everything as fact.

He did nail the Crossfire improvements, though, for whatever it's worth.