GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD

Written by Servando Silva

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Table of Contents: Page Index
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD
AMD Radeon HD 6850 GPU Features
Closer Look: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850
GIGABYTE HD 6850 Detailed Features
Video Card Testing Methodology
DX10: 3DMark Vantage
DX10: Crysis Warhead
DX11: Aliens vs. Predator
DX10: Just Cause 2
DX11: Lost Planet 2
DX11: Metro 2033
DX11: Unigine Heaven 2.1
Overclocking
VGA Power Consumption
AMD Radeon HD 6850 Final Thoughts
GIGABYTE HD 6850 Conclusion

Page 5 of 16

Video Card Testing Methodology

The Microsoft DirectX-11 graphics API is native to the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System, and will be the primary O/S for our test platform. DX11 is also available as a Microsoft Update for the Windows Vista O/S, so our test results apply to both versions of the Operating System. The majority of benchmark tests used in this article are comparative to DX11 performance, however some high-demand DX10 tests have also been included.

According to the Steam Hardware Survey published for the month ending September 2010, the most popular gaming resolution is 1280x1024 (17-19" standard LCD monitors). However, because this 1.31MP resolution is considered 'low' by most standards, our benchmark performance tests concentrate on higher-demand resolutions: 1.76MP 1680x1050 (22-24" widescreen LCD) and 2.30MP 1920x1200 (24-28" widescreen LCD monitors). These resolutions are more likely to be used by high-end graphics solutions, such as those tested in this article.

In each benchmark test there is one 'cache run' that is conducted, followed by five recorded test runs. Results are collected at each setting with the highest and lowest results discarded. The remaining three results are averaged, and displayed in the performance charts on the following pages.

A combination of synthetic and video game benchmark tests have been used in this article to illustrate relative performance among graphics solutions. Our benchmark frame rate results are not intended to represent real-world graphics performance, as this experience would change based on supporting hardware and the perception of individuals playing the video game.

Intel P55 Express Test System

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus III Formula (2001 BIOS)
System Memory: 2x 2GB Patriot Viper II Sector 5 2400MHz (8-11-8-24)
Processor: Intel Core i7-860 (OC @ 3.8 GHz)
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megashadow (2x Noctua NF-P12 Fans)
Video: GIGABYTE GV-R685OC-1GD (Catalyst 10.12)
Drive 1: Intel X-25M 80GB
Drive 2: Seagate 1.5TB
Enclosure: Corsair Obsidian 800D Full-Tower
PSU: Antec Signature 850 Watts
Monitor: Samsung 24"; Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920X1200
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (Build 7600)

DirectX 10 Benchmark Applications

3DMark Vantage v1.02
- Extreme Settings: (Extreme Quality, 8x Multisample Anti-Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, 1:2 Scale)
Crysis Warhead v1.1 Benchmark
- Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 4x and 16x AF, Airfield Demo)
Just Cause 2
- Extreme Settings: (Max Display Settings, 8x Anti-Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, Motion Blur ON, GPU Water Simulation OFF, Bokeh OFF)

DirectX 11 Benchmark Applications

Aliens vs Predator Benchmark 1.0
- Extreme Settings: (Very High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, SSAO, Tessellation, Advanced Shadows)
Lost Planet 2 Benchmark 1.0
- Moderate Settings: (2x AA, Low Shadow Detail, High Texture, High Render, High DirectX 11 Features)
Metro 2033
- Moderate Settings: (Very-High Quality, AAA, 16x AF, Advanced DoF, Tessellation, Frontline Scene)
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
- Moderate Settings: (High Quality, Normal Tessellation, 16x AF, 4x AA)

Video Card Test Products

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB (675 MHz GPU/1350 MHz Shader/900 MHz vRAM - Forceware 260.99)
AMD Radeon HD 6870 (900 MHz GPU/1050 MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst Driver 10.12)
ATI Radeon HD 5870 (850 MHz GPU/1200MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst Driver 10.12)
AMD Radeon HD 6850 (732 MHz GPU/1464 MHz Shader/950 MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst 10.12)
AMD Radeon HD 6850 CFX (775 MHz GPU/1000 MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst 10.12)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI (675 MHz GPU/1350 MHz Shader/900 MHz vRAM - Forceware 260.99)

Graphics Card	GeForce GTX460	Radeon HD6850	Radeon HD6870	Radeon HD5870
GPU Cores	336	960	1120	1600
Core Clock (MHz)	675	775	900	850
Shader Clock (MHz)	1350	N/A	N/A	N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)	900	1000	1050	1200
Memory Amount	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit

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Comments

# Uhh what? — Cody 2011-01-20 22:07

I'm an owner of the 775 model version, I have the card running stable at 950 Core clock / 1200 Memory with the standard voltage. Bumping the voltage to 1200 in Trixx results in a stable 1000 GPU core clock. You need to update Trixx to the latest version.

##hardwarecanucks.com/forum/overclocking-tweaking-benchmarking/39957-gigabyte-6850-3-decent-ocr-seems.html

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# RE: Uhh what? — Servando Silva 2011-01-20 22:31

I used the latest version of TriXX, it just wouldn't go above 860-870MHz (Core) without getting artifacts. Anyway, you've got the non-OC version with different ICs, which is one of my key-points in my article.

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# RE: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD — Cody 2011-01-21 08:26

I have experience with the OC version as well, it can hit 1GHz @ 1250 (Voltage setting in Trixx) and run stable however it runs a bit hot after a while in Furmark. Currently I have his OC'd to 950 / 1150 without artifacts at the stock voltage with the fan speed at 1175.

Perhaps you just got unlucky?. Either way I liked your review.

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# RE: RE: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD — Servando Silva 2011-01-21 11:10

Really? Everywhere I read about a person getting the OC version just complains about not supporting voltage changes and trying to change it for the non-OC version. There are some threads at Xtreme Systems about volt-modding as that's the only way to do it. Just to add, you're using TriXX 3.0.2 BETA, right? That's the latest version announced at Sapphire's homepage.
Glad you liked the review.

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# RE: RE: RE: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD — Cody 2011-01-21 18:51

Yes 3.0.2, the slider just slides over. I was at my buddies house looking at the card to make sure it was the OC version and it allowed the voltage to be modified. He however bought it Openbox (which I didn't know) so perhaps the person who sold it to him already unlocked the voltage.

That or maybe it's not actually adjusting the voltage.

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# RE: RE: RE: RE: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD — Servando Silva 2011-01-21 21:41

It's not that the voltage is locked, problem is that this specific version includes a different GPU Core voltage controller, which has no software support (yet), not even with TriXX or MSI AF. Since the controller they used isn't very common, I doubt we'll see something avalable soon.

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.

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# black screen no signal ! — Agassizi 2011-01-30 15:36

Unfortunatelly is a lot os problems with this (GigabyteHD6850)vide ocards.There ara many users who reported when he playing games after a short period of time the monitor instantly turn off and apear the NO SIGNAL labell, and nothings help just a restart.Can I ask which BIOS version are you used when you make this rewiew? Because in the last 3 months arived 3 BIOS versions.The last BIOS changed the card specification. IDLE 40% cooler, and the GPU RAM ferequency was modyfied to 775/1005.(the original was 25%cooler speed and 775/1000.
Another strange thing, the factory original bios set the coolers to run at 73% and ofcourse the sound level was realy anoying.

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# RE: black screen no signal ! — Servando Silva 2011-01-30 18:54

I didn't have any of the problems mentioned. I used the BIOS shipped with this sample, which is displayed at the testing methodology section. Another thing is that this is the OCed version, which means it's got 820 MHz/ 1050MHz instead of 775MHz.
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.

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# BS no signal error — Agassizi 2011-01-31 10:29

Hi,
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.

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# RE: BS no signal error — Servando Silva 2011-01-31 21:09

I'm sorry to hear that.
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.

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# RE: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD — Agassizi 2011-02-01 05:46

win 7 64bit genuine, PSU enermax 600W 87+,HD Gigabyte HD 6850 BIOS F3_B , Catalyst 10.12(but the new 11.1 give the same BS problem)
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

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# Gigabyte BS No signal error — Agassizi 2011-02-01 06:09

I forgot to tell one thing, last year in november -december when the it was not aviable the F3C(fixed?) Bios on the Gigabyte page , a couple of users trying different "tricks? and a couple of person report , if downclock her cards memoryclock at 900 the problem disapear.( 775/900 )MHZ)_. Anyway in my opinion this is not a correct sollution.NObody spending her money to be forced to downclocked her card.

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

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# BS + FREEZING HD 6850 — rdizzle 2011-02-16 08:33

I recently had the same issue with my HD 6850.
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

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# Msi Afterburner beta 7 — rdizzle 2011-02-16 08:43

I also forgot to mention that I recently updated MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 beta 7 coming from beta 6...and I noticed this happening...
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...

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# Oc rates — Pedro 2012-01-15 04:50

Hi Folks i've just installed my brand new HD 6850 GV-R685OC-1GD, and as per i upgraded from Sapphire 5570 1GB DDR3 to this new one i've already had the Catalyst Control Center installed. I just put the GPU and the driver was automatically installed by w7 and updated by Catlayst (i did not installed the Gigabyte installation CD)
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

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# RE: Oc rates — David Ramsey 2012-01-15 08:04

You can do it safely, as in "it won't physically damage your card". However, there's no guarantee the card will run with those settings: you could see visual artifacts, or the computer could lock up or crash.

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# RE: Oc rates — Olin Coles 2012-01-15 08:13

The Radeon HD 6850 is a good overclocking card, but the limit varies from card to card. I suggest finding the maximum GPU and Memory overclock (GPU is more important, and memory really doesn't/shouldn't be overclocked), then backing down 10MHz or more.

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