Video cards of the new AMD Radeon HD6800 series were announced this fall. Our test laboratory received Radeon HD6850 and HD6870 video cards with a reference design of the printed circuit board and cooling system. Since these models are in the upper price range, we compared them with the two closest competitors of the previous series - the Radeon HD5830 and HD5870.
Before we talk about the testing methodology and the results obtained, let's look at the main innovations implemented in the new line of video cards. A detailed description of the Barts architecture, which is used in these video cards, was published in the November issue of the magazine in the article “AMD Radeon HD6850 and HD6870 - first release.” Here we will consider only the main points of this architecture and its differences from previous graphics chips of the Cypress series. For several years now, autumn has become a traditional time for AMD to release new or update graphics architectures of previous generations. Alas, the development of more advanced technical processes at the Taiwanese TSMC factory was delayed, since the transition to the 32 nm standard was completely canceled, and the next step should be the transition to the 28 nm standard. Because of this, graphics chip manufacturers who use TSMC factories are forced to continue using the previous 40-nanometer process technology, which was also difficult to implement and bring to fruition. Therefore, the transition to a new process technology for AMD Radeon GPUs with the updated Barts architecture was also canceled, and new chips were released based on the 40nm process technology.
Note that the main slogan of the new line of Radeon HD6800 video cards is “Today, the best just got better,” which loosely translated means: “Everything is the same, but a little better.” Therefore, you should not be surprised that the Barts architecture is practically no different from the solutions of the previous line on the Cypress chip. Due to problems with the factory and the new technological process, AMD was unable to release a completely updated architecture this time, so it modified the existing one. Video cards based on the Barts architecture do not belong to ultra-high-performance solutions and are intended only to expand the line of Radeon HD5800 video cards and improve performance in new applications due to new tessellation technologies, but not to replace it. Also, the new architecture is optimized to reduce power consumption of video cards and reduce the cost of their production based on the price/quality ratio.
In general, there are very few changes in the new chip and they are aimed primarily at more efficient processing of geometry and tessellation, as well as improving image quality due to anti-aliasing effects and higher-quality anisotropic filtering. In addition, users are provided with slightly modified AMD Eyefinity technology. And although AMD expects to completely fill the upper segment of the video card market with new video cards based on the Barts architecture, in fact, the new HD6850 and HD6870 video cards are not much inferior to the top-end video card of the previous HD5870 series in terms of performance in real applications, and in some cases even surpass it. We will talk about the performance of new solutions in this article, and in addition, we will consider the power consumption of video cards and their cooling systems.
Testing methodology
To test video cards, we used the test script ComputerPress Game Benchmark Script v. 5.0, which allows you to fully automate the entire testing process, select games for testing, screen resolutions at which games are launched, as well as setting games for maximum display quality or maximum performance, and setting the number of runs for each game.
The methodology for testing video cards is described in detail in the article “New gaming benchmark ComputerPress Game Benchmark Script v. 5.0”, published in the April issue of the magazine, and therefore we will not repeat it. We only note that in this testing we used Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit as the operating system. For all video cards, the latest AMD Catalyst 10.9 driver was installed at the time of testing. Since only video cards based on AMD Radeon HD chips took part in this testing and all of them supported the DirectX 11 API, we used two settings for maximum quality in the games Heaven Benchmark 2 and Dirt 2. Thus, three rather than two results were obtained for these games. In this testing, unlike previous ones, the concept of a reference configuration is not used, and the results are reduced to the calculation of an integral performance assessment for each individual game (benchmark), which is not tied to the reference configuration. Therefore, for the games Heaven Benchmark 2 and Dirt 2, the geometric mean was taken from three results in order to get a more realistic picture of performance in these games and to use the new DirectX 11 API. In other tests, the geometric mean was taken from two results - when configured for maximum and minimum image quality.
Test results
Comparative testing results in the form of integral indicators for each game are presented in Fig. 1-9.
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The technical characteristics of all tested video cards, as well as their approximate prices, are shown in the table.
AMD Radeon HD6870
The AMD Radeon HD6870 video card in its performance in some tests successfully catches up with the previous single-processor Radeon HD5870, which is especially noticeable in tests using games with the DirectX11 API. Thus, we can confidently say that this series of video cards was just as successful for AMD as the previous one. Upgrades to the new Barts architecture provide greater performance in gaming applications using the new DirectX11 API. This graphics card features some of the highest single-GPU performance available on the latest AMD GPUs. The main technical characteristics of this video card are given in the table, so let’s look at its appearance and cooling system. The cooling system used in this model, compared to the system installed on the reference video cards of the previous Radeon HD5870 series, has undergone significant changes. The length of the printed circuit board and along with it the cooling system have decreased, while the weight of the video card has also decreased.
At the top of the board, in the usual place, there are two 6-pin power connectors. On the same part of the board, but closer to the interfaces, there is a Crossfire connector for connecting two video cards. Unlike previous versions of AMD video cards, this model has two air outlets located on the back wall next to the interfaces and on the top next to the Crossfire connector. The cooling system is built on the basis of a 4-pin controlled fan made in the form of a turbine. The air from the fan is cooled by an aluminum heatsink that covers the graphics processor and memory chips. This heatsink has a copper base in contact with the graphics chip. And from the copper base extend four copper tubes, cooled by an aluminum radiator.
This model uses GDDR5 memory chips manufactured by Samsung, which are labeled K4G10325FE-HC04. The access time of these chips is 0.4 ns and the nominal frequency is 1.25 GHz (5 GHz QDR). The memory chips in the video card operate at a frequency of 1.05 (4.2 GHz QDR) GHz, so the video card has some headroom for slight overclocking. The back of the video card, on which the interfaces are located, has two DVI connectors, as well as HDMI and two mini-Display-Ports.
Note that compared to previous reference cooling systems from AMD, the new cooling system is much quieter. Temperatures at maximum load in idle mode also decreased compared to the reference Radeon HD5870 video cards.
AMD Radeon HD6850
The younger model AMD Radeon HD6850, built on the new Barts architecture, is a modified version of the Radeon HD6870 graphics adapter. In addition to reducing the graphics core frequency and lowering the memory frequency, this video card has fewer unified processors and texture units. To ensure reliable power, this model is equipped with an additional 6-pin power connector.
The AMD Radeon HD6850 is equipped with a stripped-down version of the cooling system used in the older Radeon HD6870 model. The dimensions of the card are reduced, and the cooling system only cools the graphics processor and does not come into contact with the memory chips. This model also uses heatpipes designed to efficiently transfer heat away from the GPU. According to testing results, this system successfully copes with the task and does not allow the graphics core to warm up above 83 °C.
In terms of performance, the Radeon HD6850 graphics card is not much inferior in performance to the Radeon HD6870 graphics card, although it actually has lower performance in all applications without exception. Alas, we could not compare the results of the new model with the results of testing the HD5850 video card due to their absence, however, the new model successfully surpasses the Radeon HD5830 video card in all tests.
conclusions
Based on the test results, it can be argued that AMD's new series of video cards based on the Barts architecture turned out to be very successful. Increased performance in modern applications using DirectX11 suggests that AMD still has quite a lot of potential to improve its GPUs. A unique response to NVIDIA's release of new high-performance GeForce GTX580 graphics processors allows AMD to gain a foothold in the performance graphics market.
In conclusion, we note that the new model provides the user with very high performance in gaming applications, while being inferior to the previous Radeon HD5870 model. In addition, we cannot ignore the fact that this video card allows you to comfortably play modern games that support the new DirectX11 API, since in tests with DirectX 9 and 10 APIs, the HD6850/HD6870 video cards are inferior to the HD5870 solution. The new models have demonstrated high potential in tessellation speed. In the Heaven Benchmark 2 and Dirt 2 tests, which have full support for DirectX 11, the new Radeon HD6870 video card is ahead of the previous generation HD5800.
(or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6830) is a high-performance laptop card that supports DirectX 11. Technically, this adapter has the same features as the Mobility Radeon HD 5830, but has a higher clock speed. Just like all cards of the Mobility HD 5800 / 6800M series, the HD 6830M video adapter is based on the HD 5770 (RV840) desktop chip.
The HD 6830M's memory interface consists of two 64-bit controllers that lead to a 128-bit memory bus. It provides access to 1024 MB of DDR3 memory. Due to the small bus width and lack of GDDR5 support, memory performance can be considered the weak link of this card.
The card has 800 MADD cores (so-called stream processors), which are assembled into 160 five-dimensional groups. The cores support DirectX 11 hardware features (tessellation, OIT, post-processing, shadows, HDR texture compression), and also have a theoretical calculation power of 0.92 TFLOPS. In addition, on the chip you can find 16 ROP units (rasterization and blending operation units), 40 TMU (texturing units) and 40 TAU. ATI Stream, OpenCL and DirectCompute 11 can help with general computing.
In terms of gaming performance, the card 6830M is between HD 5830 and 5850M/6550M with DDR3 memory. This suggests that the GPU power for demanding games (Metro 2033, Call of Duty Black Ops or Mafia 2) will not be enough. You won't be able to play the above games at high settings. However, at a resolution of 1366x768 pixels, without AA (AntiAliasing - an image smoothing method that eliminates the “staircase effect”), games should work fine.
Series Mobility Radeon HD 6800M equipped with an old UVD2 video processor, which is used to decode HD video using a graphics card. It only accepts VC-1, H.264 and MPEG-2, while the new UVD3 in the 6900M series supports DivX. With Flash 10.1, the 6800M series can help speed up Flash HD videos (YouTube).
Like the HD 5830, the 6830M can transmit eight-channel HD audio (Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio) over HDMI 1.3a. The 6830M still supports the original version of Eyefinity (not the improved Eyefinity+), which is used to connect 6 monitors to the graphics chip. This is only possible if there is enough DisplayPort in the laptop.
The power consumption is approximately the same as the old one (about 24 W), so the adapter is installed in laptops with a diagonal of 15-17 inches.
| Manufacturer: | AMD |
| Series: | Radeon HD 6830M 800@575MHz |
| Code: | Granville-LP |
| Streams: | 800 - unified |
| Clock frequency: | 575* MHz |
| Shader frequency: | 575* MHz |
| Memory frequency: | 900* MHz |
| Memory bus width: | 128 Bit |
| Memory type: | DDR3, GDDR3 |
| Maximum memory: | 1024 MB |
| Common memory: | No |
| DirectX: | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 |
| Energy consumption: | 24 W |
| Transistors: | 1080 million |
| Technology: | 40 nm |
| Laptop size: | big |
| Release date: | 07.01.2010 |
| Manufacturer link: | http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/amd-radeon-6000m/amd-radeon-6800m/Pages/amd-radeon-6800m.aspx#2 |
*Clock speeds indicated may be subject to change by the manufacturer.
AMD Radeon HD 6800 a popular series of video cards, which at one time was quite popular among gamers and fully satisfied all user requirements. For the video card to work, you need to install the driver on your computer, after which the system will be able to detect the card and bring it into working condition. The driver installation process is quite simple and almost any computer user can handle it. WITHdownload driver for AMD Radeon HD 6800 series video card and the entire line is available for free using the link below.
Driver installation procedure:
- Run the installation file;
- Let us choose if desired;
- We agree with the user rules;
- We are waiting for the installation to finish.
- driver for x32bit and x64bit operating systems Windows 10 / Windows 8.1 / Windows 7;
- driver and additional software Catalyst x32bit and x64bit operating system Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 / Windows Vista;
- component of Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 libraries;
- driver for the Windows XP x32bit and x64bit operating system.
Download AMD Radeon HD 6800 series driver:
Windows 10 x32bit:Windows 10 x64bit:
Windows 8 x32bit:
Windows 8 x64bit:
Windows 7 x32bit:
The stable operation of PC components depends not only on their compatibility with each other, but also on the availability of up-to-date software. There are different ways to install a driver on an AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series video card, and we will look at each of them below.
The model of this graphics adapter is no longer completely new, so after some time some driver installation options may become irrelevant. We will list several methods for searching and installing software, and you will have to choose the most suitable one for yourself.
Method 1: Official website
If there is a need to install/update a driver, the best solution is to download the required software version from the manufacturer’s official website. Let's figure out how to find the necessary driver for the AMD video card model you are interested in.
- Use the link above to go to the manufacturer's official resource.
- In the block "Selecting a driver manually" fill in the fields as follows:
- Step 1: Desktop Graphics;
- Step 2: Radeon HD Series;
- Step 3: Radeon HD 6xxx Series PCIe;
- Step 4: Your operating system along with bitness.
When finished filling out, click on the button "DISPLAY RESULTS".
- This will open the download page where you need to make sure that all the requirements meet yours. In this case, the specific model (HD 6800) is not among the supported products, but it is part of the HD 6000 Series, so the driver will be fully compatible in this case.
There are two types of drivers for a video card, we are interested in the first one - "Catalyst Software Suite". Click on "DOWNLOAD".
- Once the software has been downloaded, run the installer. In the window that opens, you will be asked to select the path for unpacking using the button "Browse". It is better to leave it by default, but in general there are no restrictions on changing the directory. To go to the next step, click "Install".
- The files will begin unpacking. No action is required.
- The Catalyst Installation Manager will launch. In this window, you can change the interface language of the program installer, or you can immediately click "Further".
- The next step is to select the installation type. You can immediately change the location on the disk where the driver will be installed.
In mode "Fast" The installer will do everything for you using standard driver installation parameters.
Mode "Custom" prompts the user to manually configure what they need to install. We will analyze further installation in this mode. For a quick installation, you can skip the next step of our instructions. After selecting the type, click the button "Further".
A short analysis of the configuration will occur.
- So, a custom installation shows which components the driver consists of and which of them may not be installed into the system:
- AMD Display Driver- the main component of the driver, which is responsible for the full functioning of the video card;
- HDMI Audio Driver- installs the driver for the HDMI connector on the video card. Relevant if you use this interface.
- AMD Catalyst Control Center- an application through which settings for your video card are made. Item that must be installed.
However, if you encounter any problems with the operation of a particular component, you can uncheck it. Typically, this method is used by people who install some of the driver components of an outdated version, and some of the latest ones.
- A license agreement will appear, which you must accept to continue with the installation.
- The installation will finally begin. Upon completion, all that remains is to restart the PC.
This is the safest method, but it doesn’t always work: it’s not always possible to find drivers for graphics adapters that are too old, so over time you have to look for alternative methods. Plus, it's not the fastest.
Method 2: Official utility
An alternative to manually searching for a driver is to use an application that scans the system and then automatically selects the latest software version. It is somewhat faster and simpler than manually downloading software for a video card, but it itself only works in semi-automatic mode.
- Go to the company’s website using the link above, find the block "Automatic detection and installation of driver" and press "DOWNLOAD".
- Run the downloaded installer. Here you can change the unpacking path if necessary. Click to continue "Install".
- The files will be unpacked, this will take a few seconds.
- In the window with the license agreement, if you wish, you can check the box next to the item about sending data about the use and configuration of the system. After that click on "Accept and install".
- The system and video card will begin scanning.
As a result, 2 buttons will appear: "Express installation" And "Custom installation".
- The installation will launch the Catalyst Installation Manager, and you can read how to install the driver using it in Method 1, starting from step 6.
As you can see, this option simplifies the installation slightly, but is not much different from the manual method. At the same time, the user can choose other options for installing the driver, if for some reason these are not suitable for you (for example, at the time of reading this article, the driver had already been removed from the official website).
Method 3: Specialized programs
In order to facilitate the installation of drivers for various PC components, programs have been created that automatically clean install them and update them. The most important time to use such applications is after reinstalling the operating system, negating all the efforts that users usually make to manually install drivers step by step. You can see the list of such programs in our selection at the link below.
The most popular is DriverPack Solution. It contains perhaps the most extensive database of supported devices, including the HD 6800 Series video card in question. But you can choose any other analogue of it - problems with updating the graphics adapter should not arise anywhere.
Method 4: Device ID
The identifier is a unique code that the manufacturer equips each device with. Using it, you can easily find a driver for a different version of the operating system and its bit depth. You can find out the video card ID through "Device Manager", we will simplify your search and provide the HD 6800 Series ID below:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6739
All that remains is to copy this number and paste it into a site that specializes in searching by ID. Select the version of your OS and from the list of suggested driver versions, find the one you need. Installing the software is identical to what was described in Method 1, starting from step 6. You can read about which sites to use to search for a driver in our other article.
Method 5: OS Tools
If you don’t want to look for a driver through websites and third-party software, you can always use the Windows system capabilities. using "Device Manager" you can try to install the latest driver for your video card.
To do this, just find in "Video adapters" AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series, right-click on it and select "Update driver", then "Automatically search for updated drivers". Then the system itself will help you search and update. Learn more about the graphics adapter driver installation process via "Device Manager" you can read in a separate article at the link below.
We looked at all possible ways to install the driver for the Radeon HD 6800 Series from AMD. Choose the one that is most suitable and simplest for you, and in order not to search for the file again next time, you can save the executable file for later use.
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series is a series of mid-class video cards from the famous company AMD. These video cards have replaced the series with index 5. All technical characteristics, test results in special programs and in games are described below.
History of the creation of a video card
It is worth clarifying that the 6800 series was the first to be produced under the AMD logo, and not ATI, after the merger of the two computer component manufacturing companies.
In 2010, there was a need to once again update the line of video cards offered by the company. During the presentation, AMD revealed all the details about the technical data and capabilities of the new series. AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series includes two models of video cards: HD 6850 and HD 6870. The last two digits conditionally determine the class of the video card. Accordingly, 6850 was the youngest, and 6870 was the older and more powerful.
These video cards were created to replace the flagship HD 5870, but, oddly enough, they were no longer leading, but occupied a middle-class position. The flagship of the company was the series with index 9 - HD 6900.
AMD Radeon HD 6800: characteristics
When developing all previous video cards, specialists from ATI followed the same principle as their colleagues from Nvidia. This means that efforts were put into all new developments and lines of video cards to achieve maximum performance and hardware power. After merging with AMD, the company's policy and approach to creating video cards took a slightly different vector.
AMD set out to create video cards with balanced power, performance and price. This series should compete with the 460 GTX and 470 GTX. For this, the creators decided to develop a new graphics processor. There is still debate about whether Barts is a breakthrough or a step back. On the one hand, the creators simplified the architecture and reduced the size. On the other hand, power consumption and performance have become much higher compared to the previous generation of AMD video cards.
According to the company itself, they did not make any revolution or breakthrough. The Barts graphics chip is a repeat of the previous generation, only with a new approach to old technologies. One of the reasons for this decision was problems with production and factory at the time of the release of the AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series, so the creators decided to upgrade the old generation.
But the goals of filling the hi-end video card segment based on upgrading the previous generation architecture were not achieved. The new series matches the performance of the HD 5870, but does not surpass it.
The entire series is based on the Barts processor, has support for shaders version 5, and a fixed amount of video memory - 1024 MB. Each video card has two DVI connectors, two miniDP outputs and one for HDMI. Both devices support CrossFire technology and display images on 8 monitors simultaneously. The junior video card 6850 operates at a frequency of 775 MHz, the senior 6870 operates at 900 MHz. The cost of video cards is $180 and $240, respectively. DirectX11 is also supported, which was important at the time the AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series was released.
Testing video cards
Both 6800 series video cards were tested under the same conditions and on the same bench configuration. All tests were carried out in 3D Mark and computer games released at the time of the release of the series of video cards.
AMD Radeon HD6850
This model of the line is the weakest in the AMD Radeon Hd 6800 series. The characteristics are greatly reduced compared to the older video card. Moreover, absolutely everything has been cut, including the capabilities of the cooling system. But the creators did not take into account one thing: despite the lower power, the video card heats up just the same. This is a definite disadvantage.
According to the results in 3D Mark, this video card is inferior to the older one in the series by only 2-3 thousand points. Let's take the most productive and demanding games of those years - Crysis and Far Cry 2. The difference in FPS is from 10 to 15 frames per second. If we compare this difference with the difference in price, then purchasing the HD 6850 looks like a very attractive solution.
AMD Radeon HD6870
The older model of the series is comparable in performance to the company's flagship HD5870. It is especially noteworthy that the AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series video card, the price of which is much lower than the cost of competitors from Nvidia, allows you to use the full capabilities of DirectX11. The HD 6870 copes especially well with this task.
The modernization of the Barts graphics processor made it possible to achieve competitiveness with the flagship of AMD itself and the GTX 460 from Nvidia with 1 GB of memory.
Summing up
The new generation of AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series, which received mixed reviews, is definitely worth your attention and your money. Both video cards occupy a niche between budget models and the flagship HD 5870, but at the same time, the line can compete with competitors in its segment from Nvidia. Samples from AMD look much better. The performance gain for Nvidia video cards is minimal, but the cost is $30-$40 higher.
Obvious disadvantages include a noisy cooling system with a cooler. In an effort to save money and simplify the architecture, the creators forgot to take care of proper cooling. A noisy cooler that can barely cope with the load discourages any desire to use the video card's capabilities to the fullest. But this is not necessary, because for experiments and overclocking there are video cards from Nvidia.