| PowerColor Radeon AX6850 SCS3 |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Tuesday, 05 July 2011 | |
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Page 3 of 15
AX6850 1GBD5-S3DH Detailed FeaturesWith the cooler removed, the bright red PCB is exposed. The 1GB of GDDR5 video RAM is cooled with small copper heat sinks attached with thermal adhesive. Although it makes no functional difference it would have been nice to see the RAM sinks lined up better.
Compared to the "stock" PowerColor Radeon HD6850 video card on the left, the AX6850 1GBD5-S3DH is an obviously different board layout. PowerColor doesn't make any special claims about this board (other than its silent cooling), so the reason for the different board layout is a mystery.
Compared to the "stock" PowerColor Radeon HD6850, the extra width of the SCS3 version is obvious.
PowerColor says the AX6850 1GBD5-S3DH is a "double slot form factor", but its gigantic cooler makes it a 3-slot card at best, and the extra heat sink material on the back of the card make it a four-slot card if there's another slot behind it. It's perhaps possible you could fit a very thin card behind it, but in a standard tower case, the heat roiling off the back of the SCS3 would likely toast whatever was in the other slot.
Let's review the detailed technical specifications of this card in the next section.
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Comments
Oh, and I'm one of the "disturbing" people who still us XP. Almost all my games are DX9 (amazing how many there are - especially RPGs) and it does exactly what I need it to.
Just thought I would drop the news for those interested in buying it from somewhere else other than "Sears", lol. Since when did Sears get into the PC Parts market?
I use my PC (tower case) for games but also as media player with a beamer.
Since my PC is very close to my ears during "movie-watching sessions"... to keep noise low is very important.
Currently I am using a hd 4850 with Accelero s1 rev.2, but looking for a performance increase I was disapponted in seeing that I should had bought a card and a new separated special heatsink...
So... This SCS3 for me is exceptional! It fits all my needs. Just bought! It should arrive in 5-6 days...
;)
I have to say that the card doen't seem to need the additional fan (my case is however well vented), but as I said, I trid it not so much.
In my case, upgrading from 4850, the performance improvement is impressive (with Crysis 2 now I use Umtra settings, after downloaded hi-res texture and patch for dx11)!
And no noise at all when I watch movies (I have scythe kaze master as reobus for fan controlling and if I don't use the card for gaming, the even -really- ultra silent "magnetic bearing" fan is off).
So, in my opinion, if you search for noiseless card with high performance it is competitive with standard 6850 equipped with third part heatsinks and, for sure, with higher reliability.