Purchasing a video card can be very confusing. Looking at the different model lines and features across multiple manufacturers boasting over clocked memory, or specialty cooling can be enough to make your head spin. Focusing on AMD there are two series that are Direct x 11 compatible the 5000 and 6000 series Gpu’s. Released in 2010 the 6000 series cards are the second generation DX 11 GPU’s and offer AMD PowerTune technology making the cards more energy efficient with lower operating temperatures. Today we have the Sapphire Vapor-X HD6850, here is what Sapphire has to Say:
The SAPPHIRE exclusive Vapor-X cooler ensures that the card runs quietly and efficiently. Together with other special hardware features including on-board 10-phase power control and SAPPHIRE’s highly efficient, cool running patented Black Diamond chokes this ensures there is a good margin for performance tuning (overclocking) by enthusiast users. SAPPHIRE’s overclocking tool for these models – TriXX – is available for users to download from the SAPPHIRE Select Club – free for SAPPHIRE enthusiasts to join online.
You can bet from reading this the Vapor-X 6850 is worth a look. Let’s delve into the difference between Sapphires 5850 1Gb Vapor X, The Stock 6850 1Gb and the Vapor X 6850 1Gb
| Vapor-X 5850 1Gb | HD6850 Stock | Vapor-X 6850 1GB | |
| Core Clock: | 735Mhz | 775MHz | 800MHz |
| Stream Processors: | 1440 | 960 | 960 |
| Memory MHz (Effective) | 4200 MHz | 4000MHz | 4400MHz |
| Memory Size | 1024 MB | 1024MB | 1024MB |
| I/O | 2xDual Link DVI1xHDMI1x Display Port | 1xDual Link DVI1xDisplay Port1xSingle Link DVI1xHDMI 1.4a / DisplayPort 1.2a | 1xDual Link DVI2xMini Display Port1xSingle Link DVI1xHDMI 1.4a / DisplayPort 1.2a |
So what does a ~10% overclock in both Core and Memory Clock mean for performance? We’ve seen the Vapor-X cooling in the past have great results with cooling, will we see the same with the 6850? Lets move on to see if we can get some of these questions answered.
