| GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Servando Silva | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 18 January 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Page 14 of 16
VGA Power ConsumptionLife is not as affordable as it used to be, and items such as gasoline, natural gas, and electricity all top the list of resources which have exploded in price over the past few years. Add to this the limit of non-renewable resources compared to current demands, and you can see that the prices are only going to get worse. Planet Earth is needs our help, and needs it badly. With forests becoming barren of vegetation and snow-capped poles quickly turning brown, the technology industry has a new attitude towards turning "green". I'll spare you the powerful marketing hype that gets sent from various manufacturers every day, and get right to the point: your computer hasn't been doing much to help save energy... at least up until now. Take a look at the idle clock rates that AMD programmed into the BIOS for this GPU; no special power-saving software utilities are required.
The HD 6850 works at 100/300MHz in idle mode, while VDDC lowers to 0.950 volts. At full load it increases frequencies to 820/1050 and VDDC goes up to 1.15 volts. The good part is that the HD 6800 series can be overclocked while keeping idle frequencies, saving some energy and keeping lower temperatures. This wasn't possible with HD5800 without modified BIOS. To measure isolated video card power consumption, I used the Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) power meter made by P3 International. A baseline test is taken without a video card installed inside our computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows and rest idle at the login screen before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the login screen. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a chart with the isolated video card power consumption (not system total) displayed in Watts for each specified test product:
* Results are accurate to within +/- 5W.
The GIGABYTE GV-R685OC-1GD pulled just 29 (164-135) watts at idle and 148 (283-135) watts when running full out, using the test method outlined above. Consider PSU efficiency into the equations as I'm using an 80 plus bronze power supply. AMD has fixed the idle frequency problems that plagued the HD5xxx series, especially in CrossFireX mode. In idle mode, the BIOS needs to run the clocks WAY down, without any ill effects. We've become used to the low power ways of the newest processors, and there's no turning back. I'll offer you some of final thoughts and conclusion on the next page...
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comments
##hardwarecanucks.com/forum/overclocking-tweaking-benchmarking/39957-gigabyte-6850-3-decent-ocr-seems.html
Perhaps you just got unlucky?. Either way I liked your review.
Glad you liked the review.
That or maybe it's not actually adjusting the voltage.
Anyway, if you can re-check and try to modify voltage, that would be great, because that could mean GIGABYTE is making a different version (revision) with another GPU controller.
Thanks.
Another strange thing, the factory original bios set the coolers to run at 73% and ofcourse the sound level was realy anoying.
GIGABYTE doesn't display any BIOS update for this model, but I've checked and there's a BIOS update for the non-OC model.
Yes on the Gigabyte webpage ,is a new BIOS for "basic" Gigabyte HD 6850 cards (775/1000).This arrived at 14 january 2011 .As I mentioned in my previous post the Vram clock and the cooler speed was changed (Vram from 1000 to 1005 and cooler from 25% to 40%).Unfortunatelly doesent solve the black screen problems for everybody.Some users reported the BS with this bios version to.
Well, I'm still using this little puppy and it's not giving me any problems. Could you tell us what are the conditions or signals before going to black screen? Perhaps I could try.
The problem I meet undert FarCry2 benchmark ultra high settings full hd dirX10, Crysis- paradise lost level ,GTA4 and NFSShift
(all games full HD aa8x vsync on)
The GPU temperature never exceed 68C.
Far Cry2 bench ~ 55C , Crysis 67 C, GTA IV 68C.The RAM temperature I dont know because I dont know any software which can mesure this.There is some rummors which say the memory are faulty , but I dont want comment this because until today I dont see any official evidence as the Hynix memory cause this problem.
I check my card temperRATURE with ccc OVERDRIVE, aida64 and MSI AFTERBURNER all programs show me the same temperature so resulting the heat level is ok.
The F3_C bios fom 14 january seems to resolve the BS problem to me but I am not calm at all because I know a couple of users which card
is faulty with this BIOS version to.I atach a couple of videos what I find to youtube.My system (and my buddys sitem ) behaviour is 100% the same.
None of us overclocked her card! every card working on factory clocked level 775/1000 1,5 V.
Many serbian, hungarian, romanian (but not only this country) forums is full with users who have exact the same problem.Most error was reported with have
gigabyte cards , but is other vendors card which have this BS NO Signal problem too. Asus,Saphire,MSI ,etc
I will atach a couple of youtube videos to see what I takling about
##youtube.com/watch?v=r53or6LNwBc&feature=player_embedded
##youtube.com/watch?v=cRUWC15lsQQ
##youtube.com/watch?v=ilD2649KNF8
Here is the link with the new BIOS.If somebody have the same problem he can try it maybe will help but not 100%.And once again! the cooler rotaion will become 40% (original os 25%)and the memory frequencies will rising from 1000 to 1005 Mhz.This BIOS is only for GV-R685D5-1GD cards. I dont dont know why was necessary this modification but to be honest I like att all,especially after saw a couple of the same cards ,which working perfect with original BIOS(775/1000, 1,5V ) and doesent make Black screen error.
##gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3614#bios
Mine has been OC'd to 950/1200 on stock voltages.
Ran OCCT for an hour with no errors detected.
Did a memtest for a whole night with no errors.
My problem is after playing CS:Source for more than an hour..my computer screen turns black and shows "No Signal" and at the same time my computer freezes and the sound just keeps repeating the last thing that was heard.
I can't do anything but do a hard reset..and now I notice when I boot up Windows there's an extra black screen with a messed up windows logo right before Windows actually loads up.
CS:Source FPS average around 299
Specs:
Intel i5 760
Motherboard: Sabertooth 55i
Graphics Card: Gigabyte HD6850
Memory: Ripjaws (2x4)8GB PC3-10666
Hard Drive: WD Black 1TB
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S243D
Power Supply: Corsair TX750W
Display: Acer p244w 24" 1920 x 1080
Operating System: Win7 64bit
Speeds
CPU
Stock: 2.8
Memory
Stock: 1333
Memory - Timings
Stock: 9-9-9-24 1.5V
Graphics Card - Core
Stock: 775
Overclocked: 950
Graphics Card - Memory
Stock: 1000
Overclocked: 1200
I might revert back to the old beta 6 later when I get home and do some more gaming to see if that fixes the problem...
On AMD software by checking the box to enable Graphics Over Drive:
Automatic OC options on AMD Vision Control Center are:
GPU range: from 600 to 985 (just drag the bar)
MeM range: from 1050 to 1260 (just drang the bar)
My question: can i safely drag to 958 and 1260? as they appear as option to me?
very good review by the way
Specs:
AMD Phenom II X4955 Black Edition (800-3800oc by AMD auto tune)
Motherboard: ECS A785GM-M
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD
Memory: Ripjaws (4x4)16GB PC3-10666 Markvision 1333Mhz
Hard Drive: Samsung HD-322HJ
Optical Drive: LG GH22NS50
Power Supply: Akasa 600W (AK-P600G-SLAM)
Display: LG W2353V 23" 1920 x 1080
Operating System: Win7 64bit