NEW! SAPPHIRE AMD HD 6850 Benchmark/Review @ 950/1150 w/ AMD 11.4p Drivers!

[RavenSEAL]

Old Benchmark @920/1130 left for reference! You can find it here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2129840

SAPPHIRE AMD HD 6850 OVERCLOCKED TO 950MHz GPU 1150MHz MEMORY

Basic System Information

Raven-1
C2D E8500 @ 3.6Ghz | Windows 7 HomeP x64 | 4 GB DDR2 Corsair XMS2 | 1TB RAID0 on nVidia RAID @ 178.2MB/s | Sapphire AMD Radeon HD6850 @ 950/1150 1.187v | Antec EA500-D 80PLUS PSU| ASUS MS226H LCD 1080p Monitor

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Why make a new thread?

New optimized drivers & new clocks! Experience gained! More much to share! Prices are dropping! Good time to get your self a new GPU! Why not an HD6850?

Also, because it feels awesome to help people out!

AMD CCC+Drivers 11.4

Fresh off the oven, testing them out. Some benchmarks display increment in FPS when testing different version @ the same clock speed!

Please Account for the Following

These benchmarks are being run on an old *** Core 2 Duo CPU, add a few FPS if you got a quad/six-core for games that take advantage of more than 2 cores or have higher single thread performance

>>BENCHMARK<<

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.5

Added a couple of minimum FPS and about 3 on the average




3DMarkVantage (DX10/Performance Settings)

I dig an extra 500~ points





Crysis Benchmark

The usual, nothing does anything, it's crysis.




STALKER CoP Benchmark

Yep...this one is hard to believe...I checked twice, and then again.

Reference images:
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2181/82906710.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n615/RavenSEAL/pry.jpg

Just Cause 2-Concrete Jungle(DX10)

2 FPS, decent gain! Not much improvement gained by 11.4 though.



Batman AA: GOTY
Decently consistent


MORE COMING SOON!
​

 

[RavenSEAL]

Old Benchmark @920/1130 left for reference! You can find it here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2129840

SAPPHIRE AMD HD 6850 OVERCLOCKED TO 950MHz GPU 1150MHz MEMORY

Basic System Information

Raven-1
C2D E8500 @ 3.6Ghz | Windows 7 HomeP x64 | 4 GB DDR2 Corsair XMS2 | 1TB RAID0 on nVidia RAID @ 178.2MB/s | Sapphire AMD Radeon HD6850 @ 950/1150 1.187v | Antec EA500-D 80PLUS PSU| ASUS MS226H LCD 1080p Monitor

MORE COMING SOON!
​

 

[Rhezuss]

Nice overclock Raven and nice thread.
You should try it with a GTX 560 Ti

 

[SolMiester]

How are we supposed to compare the different driver versions when you have different clocks?..

 

[Castiel]

Weak overclocks

Love my backup 6870. Overclocks like a beast.

 

[happy medium]

90/100% gains in Stalker? Hmmmmm ok, I'm gonna call that impossible, sorry.
2 fps gain in Just Cause came from the overclock
Crysis ? nothing.
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.5 needs to be ran 3 times to get correct minimums.
3d mark score was higher because of overclock.

So basically the drivers have shown no improvement.

Thanks for the review.:thumbsup:

 

[RavenSEAL]

The unigine benchmark are both the same clocks, differentt drivers. Min fps went up 7.
Also, the previous benchmark isn't meant to compare, just there for reference.

How are we supposed to compare the different driver versions when you have different clocks?..

Happy, idk know that happened, but the screenshots are there, it's,not like I purposely BSd them at 1am lol.

I'll re run the bench later today

Edit: I do have 3dmark on both drivers, I'll post that when I get home, only about 90 points up

 

[RavenSEAL]

Weak overclocks

Love my backup 6870. Overclocks like a beast.

This card has to last me a couple of years, can't burn it out just yet

 

[Qbah]

The unigine benchmark are both the same clocks, differentt drivers. Min fps went up 7.


Happy, idk know that happened, but the screenshots are there, it's,not like I purposely BSd them at 1am lol.

I'll re run the bench later today

I ran Heaven first time, got 6FPS MIN. I closed it, opened WordPad, wrote MOAR FPS, opened Heaven again, run the test and got 15FPS MIN!!!1 WordPad increases the minimum by 9FPS!!1 True story.

RavenSEAL, to get the right minimum frames, you need to run Heaven a few times. But then again, what is right? Do people start games a few times too, load load load to get better minimums? The low minimums in Heaven occur mostly on scene transitions, not during the actual flying. So if they occur (and it doesn't always happen), they give you the wrong idea.

Just run the benchmark a few times. You'll get "proper" minimums then.

 

[SlowSpyder]

90/100&#37; gains in Stalker? Hmmmmm ok, I'm gonna call that impossible, sorry.
2 fps gain in Just Cause came from the overclock
Crysis ? nothing.
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.5 needs to be ran 3 times to get correct minimums.
3d mark score was higher because of overclock.

So basically the drivers have shown no improvement.

Thanks for the review.:thumbsup:

When Nvidia fixes their Dragon Age 2 issues sorted out and people see huge improvements (probably over 100% in many cases) are you going to call that impossible as well?

 

[RavenSEAL]

I ran Heaven first time, got 6FPS MIN. I closed it, opened WordPad, wrote MOAR FPS, opened Heaven again, run the test and got 15FPS MIN!!!1 WordPad increases the minimum by 9FPS!!1 True story.

RavenSEAL, to get the right minimum frames, you need to run Heaven a few times. But then again, what is right? Do people start games a few times too, load load load to get better minimums? The low minimums in Heaven occur mostly on scene transitions, not during the actual flying. So if they occur (and it doesn't always happen), they give you the wrong idea.

Just run the benchmark a few times. You'll get "proper" minimums then.

I ran it twice just now, got 15.7 and 16.2fps min. :hmm:

+ http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31363130&postcount=23

 

[Qbah]

I ran it twice just now, got 15.7 and 16.2fps min. :hmm:

+ http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31363130&postcount=23

Cool, but you didn't for your first review. If you ran Heaven 3 times on 11.2s, you'd get similar numbers as now and not 6 or something. You think it's 11.4s that increased the minimums, but that's not the case.

I ran Heaven 2.5 on 11.2s - first time I got 6 minimum. I ran it again and then I got 15 without changing anything. Was it magic? No. Minimum is just a very short snap shot of performance and it can happen due to many other reasons, not only driver related.

 

[Skurge]

So anyone else test STALKER? Those numbers are mighty impressive.

 

[happy medium]

When Nvidia fixes their Dragon Age 2 issues sorted out and people see huge improvements (probably over 100% in many cases) are you going to call that impossible as well?

Are you telling me that AMD has taken over a year to fix Stalker and just found some way to double the framerates?:hmm:

Dragon Age is a new game and both companys still have bugs to work out.
I didn't see any Dragons age benchmarks in this thread so who cares?:thumbsup:

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Need 4ghz on the CPU and 1000 core on the gpu.

 

[Skurge]

Are you telling me that AMD has taken over a year to fix Stalker and just found some way to double the framerates?:hmm:

Dragon Age is a new game and both companys still have bugs to work out.
I didn't see any Dragons age benchmarks in this thread so who cares?:thumbsup:

There was nothing to fix, stalker was always faster on AMD hardware, now its even faster, I'd say thats a good thing, wouldn't you? Gaming Evolved must be really paying off.

AMD don't have any bugs in dragon age 2. Maybe nvidia should work with devs more

 

[Powermoloch]

interesting, i might patch just to see how much stalker improved luls

 

[Lonyo]

I'm currently on 11.2 with a 6850.
I will run some Stalker COP benchies and then update to 11.4 and see if I get anywhere like the same sort of results.

If anyone posts between now and when I update, I will try and include any Stalker specific testing they want.

AA - standard, application
AF - 8x
Cat AI: Texture Filtering - Quality, enable SSO
VSync - Off (application)
AA - MSAA (performance)

Going to try some tests with AMD tessellation optimisations off and on.

 

[Skurge]

I'm currently on 11.2 with a 6850.
I will run some Stalker COP benchies and then update to 11.4 and see if I get anywhere like the same sort of results.

If anyone posts between now and when I update, I will try and include any Stalker specific testing they want.

AA - standard, application
AF - 8x
Cat AI: Texture Filtering - Quality, enable SSO
VSync - Off (application)
AA - MSAA (performance)

Going to try some tests with AMD tessellation optimisations off and on.

Now that you mention tessellation. I wonder if AMD added some profiles to the driver and STALKER is one of them.

Just speculating.

 

[happy medium]

I'm currently on 11.2 with a 6850.
I will run some Stalker COP benchies and then update to 11.4 and see if I get anywhere like the same sort of results.

If anyone posts between now and when I update, I will try and include any Stalker specific testing they want.

AA - standard, application
AF - 8x
Cat AI: Texture Filtering - Quality, enable SSO
VSync - Off (application)
AA - MSAA (performance)

Going to try some tests with AMD tessellation optimisations off and on.

And I'll slap my 5750 in and do the same.:thumbsup:

I have to reinstall the game , its so old I havent played it since last year. I wonder if it will change the gameplay experience? :hmm:

 

[happy medium]

Now that you mention tessellation. I wonder if AMD added some profiles to the driver and STALKER is one of them.

Just speculating.

In all fairness, even if they did make the game faster, who cares? it over a year old.

Really thats a little late, don't you think?:'(

 

[Lonyo]

Now that you mention tessellation. I wonder if AMD added some profiles to the driver and STALKER is one of them.

Just speculating.

That was my thought, hence the testing ^^.

 

[Skurge]

In all fairness, even if they did make the game faster, who cares? it over a year old.

Really thats a little late, don't you think?:'(

That doesn't matter. I haven't finished it cause it was barely playable on my 5770. Why do people still bench Crysis thats even older.

Performance is performance. When I get a new rig, STALKER is one of the games I'll be playing. Most of the games I was playing last year were 2-3yrs old. Even stuff like FFX, Quake 2, Doom3 were 6+yrs old.

 

[rogerdv]

Right now Im planning to get the 6850. But I would like to see your temperatures when overclocked.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Right now Im planning to get the 6850. But I would like to see your temperatures when overclocked.

Done, check the 1st post.