Worth purchasing an HD6850?

[reze-daniel]

Well, the question is in the title really..
At the moment i have an HD4670 with 512MB of ram but it's still serving me well (on 1280x1024 which is my native as well).
My rig is a Q9400 With 3Gb's of ram (32Bit System).

The main problems i have with getting the HD6850 is now are:
1. It doesn't have enough video memory to be futureproof even on a resolution as low as mine.
2. The 7850 is right around the corner and it will come with 2Gb's of ram not to mention that it'll also be faster.

Basically the big reason i want the 6850 is so i'll be able to run some of the AAA titles now, (BF3, Skyrim, Rage) on acceptable settings and also the very attractive price.

Any thoughts?

 

[pigulici]

Go with 6850, until the 7850 will be here, with a good driver and a good price , will take at least 6 months from now, and if you will wait everytime for the next bigthing, you will never buy something

 

[Goodman]

I got an 6850 & can play Crysis warhead just fine @1920x1080 4xAA
At 1280x1024 an 6850 will blow any games away at 8xAA (or 4xAA) + 16xAnsio no worries

If your are on DDR3 i would got 8GB now or at least 4Gb & Win7x64 that would make more a difference than a GC with 2GB of ram

 

[mediasorcerer]

I had a 6850 gotten new cheap and its a great card for the price.

 

[DrunkenMafia]

for sure man, it will be a great upgrade. I would also try squeeze in a 64bit os and 4gb ram. 7XXX series are still 6 months away at least, knowing AMD that actually means 9.5yrs.

Forgot to mention, make sure you have a decent 500watt min PSU.

 

[Jetster]

Go for it. Even if you went with a better card say the 6950 you wouldn't get the performance it was capable of with the Q9400 and a 32 bit system. So the 6850 / 6870 is the sweet spot for your GPU upgrade right now. Next would be 7 64bit then new MB / CPU /ram. Before you start thinking about the 7000s

 

[n-ster]

bang/buck, the 6850 is def great

 

[micropage7]

yeah. bigger memory would help you much in handling alot of textures.

 

[Fourstaff]

If you were using the 4670 before, the 6850 will be good for another few years at least. Not top of the range eyecandy, but you should be able to run Medium for years.

 

[mcloughj]

Hey, sorry to hijack this but I have a similar Q.

I currently have a 4870 and was thinking of going with a 6870 in order to smooth out some of the games (BF3, BM:AC) that I'll be throwing myself into.

However I am thinking of a new system early next year (a 2700, 8 gb ram etc). Should I wait for the 7000 series AMD cards?

I have a 1920x1200 screen.

 

[HossHuge]

A 4670 is about half of a 4850 and a 4850 is about half of a 6850 so you're looking at 4x the performance.
And 6850's overclock well if you're in to overclocking. I'd recommend you get a Sapphire Toxic or a MSI Cyclone. I run my Sapphire at 1000/1200. I have an Asus 6850 as well but it doesn't overclock as well (Although Asus put out a V.2 6850 with 2 - 6 pin connecters so maybe this has changed). All the reviews on the MSI show it to be a good overclocker as well.
At that resolution you wouldn't notice any difference with a 7850 for a awhile and by that time you might need a new monitor anyways.

 

[mediasorcerer]

I guess the big dilemma is should i wait or buy, i had the same dillema last week, and i just went and hunted down the cheapest 6950 2g[from 6850 1gb] i could find, so far, im very happy and even if 7 series comes out next week,so what, i still got a great card that will play all the games i want at any settings almost possibly for next 3 years?, otherwise, you wait for ever,
so from that perspecvtive, i say ,if it makes you happy, get it, who knows what can happen, id hate to die never owning a bit of graphics grunt in my life haha already!! btw, i can sell it anyhow later on and then upgrade.

damn in hell upgrade envy aaah!!

ps i advertised mine here for 100$ last week , but i sold it ,it was in perfect nik and bout 2 mnths old only.so they are out there and cheap,

 

[HossHuge]

Hey, sorry to hijack this but I have a similar Q.

I currently have a 4870 and was thinking of going with a 6870 in order to smooth out some of the games (BF3, BM:AC) that I'll be throwing myself into.

However I am thinking of a new system early next year (a 2700, 8 gb ram etc). Should I wait for the 7000 series AMD cards?

I have a 1920x1200 screen.

You could always get a 6870 now and then another one later. They scale really well. But at that resolution, I'd get 2GB of memory. So maybe a 6950 2GB would be better. You could also try and unlock it to a 6970.

 

[micropage7]

if you buy not in a rush you could wait 2 months and you gonna have it at lower price. but some people prefer get the first although it cost more

 

[acerace]

But what I was worried about is, will the 2.1 graphic cards run in slot 1.x? AFAIK, LGA 775 don't have 2.0 slot. (Only G45 and above)

 

[Frick]

If you were using the 4670 before, the 6850 will be good for another few years at least. Not top of the range eyecandy, but you should be able to run Medium for years.

It will be top of the range at 1280x1024. Heck my HD5750 maxes out almost everything (probably excluding BF3 at ultra).

I'd go for it though if you have the money, it'll last some time.

 

[reze-daniel]

First off, thanks to everyone for all the feedback!

Secondly, I really hadn't given much thought to the fact that my system might be a potential bottleneck, I was under the impression that the Q9xxx series are strong quad cores.

I don't really have 3Gb's of ram (who installs 3GB's?), I have 4Gb's of DDR2-800 but seeing as how my Windows 7 is 32bit... Would I be looking at a big performance boost by moving up to 64Bit OS?
Maybe a big enough boost not to even be a bottleneck for the 7xxx series?

If not then i'll just go with the HD6850 for the time being. Any tips on which card runs the coolest? I just recently bought a new Antec PSU 620W so no fear on the power side, and my case is a midtower with plenty of fans and space. (BTW, no intention of Oc'ing)

 

[pigulici]

I have GV-R685OC-1GD and I'm happy with it:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3630#ov

 

[ViperXTR]

last time i slapped a sapphire HD 6850 on my old 1280 x 1024 display, it was limited by the processor speed lol.

 

[Inceptor]

Maybe a big enough boost not to even be a bottleneck for the 7xxx series?

It all depends on how much of a performance boost the 7xxx series turns out to be.
The 78xx gpu's, if the pattern holds, will be updates of the 69xx. Might not be much better, or only a few percentage points... unless something spectacular is actually going to happen.
You'll definitely see an improvement going to Win 7 x64.
But the C2Q + DDR2 is a problem.
Go with the 6850, you'll have absolutely no problems, even if you don't change anything else.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

bang/buck, the 6850 is def great

Yeah and with the fantastic scaling of 6000 series two of them in Crossfire is serious bang for buck. Not suggesting two for OP, just sayin'...

 

[Fourstaff]

First off, thanks to everyone for all the feedback!

Secondly, I really hadn't given much thought to the fact that my system might be a potential bottleneck, I was under the impression that the Q9xxx series are strong quad cores.

I don't really have 3Gb's of ram (who installs 3GB's?), I have 4Gb's of DDR2-800 but seeing as how my Windows 7 is 32bit... Would I be looking at a big performance boost by moving up to 64Bit OS?
Maybe a big enough boost not to even be a bottleneck for the 7xxx series?

If not then i'll just go with the HD6850 for the time being. Any tips on which card runs the coolest? I just recently bought a new Antec PSU 620W so no fear on the power side, and my case is a midtower with plenty of fans and space. (BTW, no intention of Oc'ing)

If you are doing a reinstall, 64bit gives you 1gb of ram for no additional cost. Q9xxx is still quite powerful, despite it being 2 gen old tech. The 6850 will not get bottlenecked, if it does its going to bottleneck at 60+ fps, well within "it doesn't affect anything anyway" territory. 620w is good for 2 6850, no worries there.