Please post in this thread if you are the owner of a 6850/6870.

WaTaGuMp · Oct 29, 2010

Skurge said:
You haven't changed your signature yet.

I will get to it, right now I am having FPS issues in COD4MW2.

Lonyo · Oct 29, 2010

I'm not totally sure why the GPU clock is reporting so high. I have 2 monitors hooked up, but I thought that only affected the RAM, or does it do core as well?

WaTaGuMp · Oct 29, 2010

Passed the clock tests in the CCC at 900/1100. FPS in COD4MW2 went down a lot, running in the 20-30 area.

Lonyo · Oct 29, 2010

Try throwing down the memory to stock and leaving the core?
Does the fan stay at 50% while gaming?
I haven't checked what my fan hits under load and it's still on auto. Nicer idle temps are always nice though.

WaTaGuMp · Oct 29, 2010

Lonyo said:
Try throwing down the memory to stock and leaving the core?
Does the fan stay at 50% while gaming?
I haven't checked what my fan hits under load and it's still on auto. Nicer idle temps are always nice though.

Pretty sure the fan runs at 50% all the time using the manual setting. Something is wrong, just benched Dirt2 and got an average of 22 FPS.

blastingcap · Oct 29, 2010

Skurge said:
Didn't you get a GTX460?

What happened was this:

1. price gouging everywhere but newegg, and the shipping/tax was too much for me so I ordered a EVGA GTX460-768
2. The EVGA arrived with a partially-torn-off resistor, so I am sending it back (I have 30 days to do so)
3. I ordered an MSI Cyclone but they took so long to ship that it gave time for Amazon to update the ASUS 6850 shipping expectations and to drop the price to something reasonable, finally ($187, which was lower than every other 6850, including the Sapphire). So I canceled the Cyclone. I pre-ordered an ASUS 6850 that will ship in "2-4 weeks" according to Amazon
4. Today the Sapphire dropped to $180 (it was $200+ before). Also, I did some reading and was shocked that the DirectCU line is getting cheapened. ASUS used to give more power phases than reference, but they used 3 for the GPU, same as the reference 6850 I think; also I hate the ASUS mini-shroud which doesn't look like it will direct air out of the backvent = more hot air will loiter in my case). And ASUS didn't advertise all-solid caps which to me means they are NOT using all-solid caps. This means they might even be at the same level as Sapphire, which apparently uses mixed caps. So why not get a Sapphire instead and save $7 AND get it up to 4 weeks earlier?
5. So I canceled my ASUS order and am ordering a Sapphire now. I feel better about the Sapphire shroud, and I see little quality difference between the ASUS and Sapphire. Even if the ASUS can overvolt more, I don't plan on overvolting much if at all. Plus the Sapphire is available TODAY.
6. If I intended to keep the card for more than a year, I would have gone for quality, but to me this is just a stopgap until 28nm arrives.

Edit: Then again, I just read THIS: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3917/...-palit-and-calibre-overclocked-and-reviewed/2 which kind of scares me. I guess I may end up canceling my Sapphire order and waiting for Anandtech's 6850 Roundup article next week before deciding on what to do.

WaTaGuMp · Oct 29, 2010

Ok got the FPS issue sorted. Had most of my settings for quality over performance. Changing that brought everything back up. I use to run quality using my 4870, so just got to get use to a new card and what works best.

blastingcap · Oct 29, 2010

WaTaGuMp said:
Ok got the FPS issue sorted. Had most of my settings for quality over performance. Changing that brought everything back up. I use to run quality using my 4870, so just got to get use to a new card and what works best.

Enjoy the morphological AA settings if you are using that, I heard that it improve image quality at the sacrifice of like, 1 or 2 fps. Nice!

Lonyo · Oct 29, 2010

OK, just did a test (I have a power meter hooked up).

It seems to like 500/1050 when ATI Overdrive is enabled even under no load.
When I disable ATI Overdrive the clocks drop to 100/300 and power drops from ~148w to ~115w (That's with only one monitor plugged in and enabled. The second has to be physically unplugged from the card, not just disabled in Windows).

It runs 500/1050 with ATI overdrive enabled under no load with 2 monitors (same as with one) and power is the same ~148.
When ATI overdrive is disabled and 2 monitors are hooked up, it's 250/1000 and ~142w.

So, no overdrive stock 775/1000, overdrive O/C 850/1050 gives:

1 monitor no overdrive: 115w (100/300)
1 monitor overdrive: 148w (500/1050)
2 monitors no overdrive: 142w (250/1000)
2 monitors overdrive: 148w (500/1050)

T2k · Oct 29, 2010

WaTaGuMp said:
Ok got the FPS issue sorted. Had most of my settings for quality over performance. Changing that brought everything back up. I use to run quality using my 4870, so just got to get use to a new card and what works best.

That's just downright silly - BF:BC2 needs waaaaay more resources and it runs absolutely fine in 19x12 with everything set to highest quality and maxed out sans AA which is at 4x.

It either your rig - eg some messed-up settings or that older dual-core - or that shitty MW2 engine (game looks pretty mediocre.)

WaTaGuMp · Oct 29, 2010

blastingcap said:
Enjoy the morphological AA settings if you are using that, I heard that it improve image quality at the sacrifice of like, 1 or 2 fps. Nice!

I just tried morph in COD4MW2, took way more of a hit then 1-2 FPS. Its an older game, so maybe its the game. Still testing things now.

WaTaGuMp · Oct 29, 2010

T2k said:
That's just downright silly - BF:BC2 needs waaaaay more resources and it runs absolutely fine in 19x12 with everything set to highest quality and maxed out sans AA which is at 4x.

It either your rig - eg some messed-up settings or that older dual-core - or that shitty MW2 engine (game looks pretty mediocre.)

I was talking about the settings in the CCC set to quality over performance. Once I messed with those the FPS came back in COD4 and Dirt 2. The game settings in BC2 are what I had them at for my 4870, which is maxed but had 2x AA. Now using 4x AA in it.

Seromontis · Oct 30, 2010

when I get my 6870 where is the driver that I need to install?

Lonyo · Oct 30, 2010

Seromontis said:
when I get my 6870 where is the driver that I need to install?

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU86AMDCat1010cHotfix.aspx

T2k · Oct 30, 2010

WaTaGuMp said:
I was talking about the settings in the CCC set to quality over performance. Once I messed with those the FPS came back in COD4 and Dirt 2. The game settings in BC2 are what I had them at for my 4870, which is maxed but had 2x AA. Now using 4x AA in it.

Ah, OK though compared to your 4870 it should be better than just 2x->4xAA, I think.

WaTaGuMp · Oct 30, 2010

T2k said:
Ah, OK though compared to your 4870 it should be better than just 2x->4xAA, I think.

I had super sampling on in the CCC, that was what made the performance hit.

Noodletoe · Oct 30, 2010

Lonyo:

3 days 'til my 6870 arrives (saphire from newegg, upgrade from 3870)... anticipation is killing me!
Curious if you have any regrets not going with the 6870? I have a very similar system as yours (q8300 @3.2, 2g ram, w7), wanted the 6850, but was worried I'd have regrets. Also, the q8300 is new for me, upgrade from a e2180@3.0 - sounds like the q8300/6850 is working good for you?

Arsynic · Oct 30, 2010

Got my 6850 and mildly overclocked it and I'm getting around 14k 3D Marks. Is this about normal?

Lonyo · Oct 30, 2010

Noodletoe said:
Lonyo:

3 days 'til my 6870 arrives (saphire from newegg, upgrade from 3870)... anticipation is killing me!
Curious if you have any regrets not going with the 6870? I have a very similar system as yours (q8300 @3.2, 2g ram, w7), wanted the 6850, but was worried I'd have regrets. Also, the q8300 is new for me, upgrade from a e2180@3.0 - sounds like the q8300/6850 is working good for you?

I've only tried it in Crysis Wars and Starcraft 2 (I also upgraded, from E5200 @ 3.33 to Q8300 at 3.2GHz, and had an HD4850).
No improvement in the SC2 choke situations, because they are totally CPU limited it seems.
I can basically turn up everything and it works just as well.

It also "fixed" whatever problem I had in TF2 (it used to run at like 5~20fps for some reason), but now it runs faster than it used to when it did work properly, which is always nice.
It's not as fast as I would like in Crysis and SC2, but part of that is it's Crysis, and the other part is being CPU limited (SC2).

Might try Mafia 2 out tomorrow, which I hadn't used, but the whole thing seems solid so far, although nothing absolutely spectacular (but an HD6870 wouldn't change that).

cusideabelincoln · Oct 30, 2010

Lonyo said:
It also "fixed" whatever problem I had in TF2 (it used to run at like 5~20fps for some reason), but now it runs faster than it used to when it did work properly, which is always nice.

So you had a problem in TF2 and simply changing processors fixed the problem? Did you change anything else?

blastingcap · Oct 30, 2010

cusideabelincoln said:
So you had a problem in TF2 and simply changing processors fixed the problem? Did you change anything else?

Maybe he was hitting the framebuffer limit in TF2 with a lower-RAM part, before?

Noodletoe · Oct 30, 2010

I was hoping for more enthusiasm on the new q8300/6850 set up, lol... hopefully you got a nice improvement in Crysis at least, my e2180/3870 set up allowed me to play it, so if I don't get a very noticable improvement I will mildly devastated. q8300 ($159) and 6870 ($239) for me was tough to throw down, hoping this 775 board set up will give me another 3 years before my next build...

Lonyo · Oct 30, 2010

Nah, I don't know what my TF2 problem was, but when I changed CPU + graphics card it went away, but either way it doesnt matter, TF2 is running very smoothly with the 6850. (I'm fairly sure it was more CPU related though).

I played Crysis (original) on an Athlon X2 and 7800GT, and it was passable

Every time I upgrade, I increase settings so I end up with about the same performance overall (fps wise), but it looks prettier!

I might do some screencaps of MLAA on vs off to show how badly it impacts text. Anyone else want to join me?

WaTaGuMp · Oct 30, 2010

Lonyo said:
Nah, I don't know what my TF2 problem was, but when I changed CPU + graphics card it went away, but either way it doesnt matter, TF2 is running very smoothly with the 6850. (I'm fairly sure it was more CPU related though).

I played Crysis (original) on an Athlon X2 and 7800GT, and it was passable
Every time I upgrade, I increase settings so I end up with about the same performance overall (fps wise), but it looks prettier!

I might do some screencaps of MLAA on vs off to show how badly it impacts text. Anyone else want to join me?

Nope, right now I am not sold at all on MLAA. BTW I decided to ditch DVI and use the Displayport connection, text seems to look much better now.

Lonyo · Oct 30, 2010

Please post in this thread if you are the owner of a 6850/6870.

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