# 6850 or 6870 ?



## gunners009 (Nov 17, 2011)

Hi 
I am confused weather to go for 
HD 6850 or 6870..
I have seen Passmark benchmarks.Both card have relatively same scores.

And one more Question hows is ASUS 6870 DirectCU

Thanks


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## avinandan012 (Nov 17, 2011)

if budget is not an issue then go for 6870. 

that cooler is good enough


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## ssb1551 (Nov 17, 2011)

most importantly which PSU do you have?


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## thetechfreak (Nov 17, 2011)

if you have budget obviously you should go for 6870.

yes. Please post your full configuration(with proper PSU info)


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## Cilus (Nov 17, 2011)

Go with HD 6870 and it performs resonably better in gaming than HD 6850. For HD 6870, a decent 500W PSU is reuired. FSP SAGA II 500W, Corsair CX500 V2 or Tagan Stonerock TG500 are the recommended here.
Let us know what PSU you're having.


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## gunners009 (Nov 17, 2011)

i have GS 600 PSU and i2500k processor


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## topgear (Nov 18, 2011)

^^ then you are all set and if you can try to get HD6950 1GB version


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## gunners009 (Nov 18, 2011)

cost ??


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Nov 18, 2011)

^13.5-14.2k
Sapphire HD6950 1GB PCIE


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## Cilus (Nov 18, 2011)

In flipkart Asus HD 6950 2 GB Direct Cu II is available @ 14K, Order it today before the increase the price.

Flipkart: Asus EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5: Graphics Card


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## gunners009 (Nov 18, 2011)

i have CM elite 335 Cabinet
will 6950 fit into it 

@ Cilus : Now its for Rs. 18502


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## topgear (Nov 19, 2011)

could be a little cramped but it will fit


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## macho84 (Nov 19, 2011)

They increased the price soon. No luck though. i was also thinking if i could but its too costly upgrade.


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## topgear (Nov 19, 2011)

Still the price is much lower compared to other HD6970s


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## gunners009 (Nov 19, 2011)

Decided to buy 6870 ..as 6950 will be costly for me 
MSI or Saphire or Asus
Which brand is best ?


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## topgear (Nov 20, 2011)

all of three are good but most people will go with the First two brands


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## Gollum (Nov 20, 2011)

i would go with msi or Asus


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## Cilus (Nov 20, 2011)

One of my 6870s is from Sapphire and let me share my experience. They are cheaper than brands like Asus, MSI or HIS but their build quality is very good. The best thing is even their base models come with Custom Cooler design with Copper heat pipes, resulting better cooling than the base models from other brands. So a good degree of overclocking is possible with it. Currently this model is available within 10.8K to 11.2K. In CosttoCost site it is listed as 10.2K only.
Regarding their after-sales service, they are far far better than Asus (the notorious Rashi peripherals)....I can't comment on MSI service. When my card went kapput due to high voltage fluctuation and without using a UPS, I called out the shop from where I've purchased it. They asked me to come at a particular day and the card was replaced within 1.5 Hrs on the same day only.


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## Gollum (Nov 20, 2011)

Rashi is bad mostly in kolkata. But its good in karnataka.


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## gunners009 (Nov 20, 2011)

@ Topgear ,Cilus and others guys 
thanks for helping me out....i am going for 6870 this week

one last question, HD 7000 series coming in Dec or Jan ..Should i wait for that or get 6870 ??

Thanks


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## topgear (Nov 21, 2011)

most probably in January and even after that it will take some time to get in here - if you can wait then I would suggest you to hold your horses a little more for AMD 7 series gpus - the waiting will be fruitful


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## gunners009 (Nov 21, 2011)

hmmm
7800 will it come early??


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## topgear (Nov 22, 2011)

^^ Nope - not before January

keep an eye on this thread 
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/graphic-c...ds-southern-islands-track-release-2011-a.html


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## gunners009 (Nov 22, 2011)

topgear said:


> ^^ Nope - not before January
> 
> keep an eye on this thread
> *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/graphic-c...ds-southern-islands-track-release-2011-a.html



thanks a lot mate ..


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## topgear (Nov 23, 2011)

^^ you're welcome buddy


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## AcceleratorX (Nov 24, 2011)

Just my two cents: From the three brands you mentioned, Asus is the best but possibly the costliest (in terms of build quality). MSI is quite good.

Sapphire will be quite cheap, and has average build quality (contrary to Cilus, I've found Sapphire to have not so great build quality. The capacitors are of variable quality (some capacitors are really good, some are not so good, even on the same card), the cooling system looks very high quality but it really isn't a lot better IMO - I've seen Sapphire's copper heatpiped cards running at (almost) the same temperatures as cards from Powercolor with much cheaper looking coolers). 

RMA is quite good, I can agree with Cilus on that. My advice is that if you can get something better, then forget about Sapphire. Sapphire is an "ok" brand, the kind that will work well but won't have anything about it particularly stand out.

Nobody even talks about XFX cards anymore, but they're out there somewhere. Anyone have any experiences to share, whether they have stepped up their game? Years ago they weren't very good quality products....."Well manufactured, but poorly designed" is what always came to my mind when looking at XFX cards back in the day!


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## Skud (Nov 24, 2011)

A lot have been said about Sapphire's coolers, but let me tell they are actually very good, if you are not after achieving very low temps like MSI's TF coolers or HIS IceQ coolers. Build quality is good and they OC really well. I reached 900/1325 on my 6950, with a little voltage bump and it was stable in games and benchmark. On load, temps rise only 1-2C over stock, whereas idle temps remain same. Of course, its colder now, but temps in summer with 850/1300 (stock volts) was more or less similar. 

Plus Sapphire's bundle is pretty good, if anybody needs them, and you get a chance to enroll for Sapphire Select Club on select cards for additional goodies.


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## Cilus (Nov 24, 2011)

^^Agreed. I have both XFX and Sapphire HD 6870; both are cheapest of the different HD 6870 models from the respective companies. I have checked that the Sapphire one is shorter and runs around 2 to 5 degree cooler than my XFX card.


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Nov 24, 2011)

Skud said:


> A lot have been said about Sapphire's coolers, but let me tell they are actually very good,* if you are not after achieving very low temps like MSI's TF coolers or HIS IceQ coolers.* Build quality is good and they OC really well. I reached 900/1325 on my 6950, with a little voltage bump and it was stable in games and benchmark. On load, temps rise only 1-2C over stock, whereas idle temps remain same. Of course, its colder now, but temps in summer with 850/1300 (stock volts) was more or less similar.
> 
> Plus Sapphire's bundle is pretty good, if anybody needs them, and you get a chance to enroll for Sapphire Select Club on select cards for additional goodies.



what sapphire dual fan cooler for? 

and nice oc skud.


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## Skud (Nov 24, 2011)

@Jas: that's a nice card although it has cut a few corners like lesser output options and just a single crossfire bridge.

But does it matter? I have heard in CFX setup dual bridges help in stability. Can anybody confirm?


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