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We already knew that the AMD HD6850 was a great value for money card, but in CrossfireX they really come to life, delivering first rate gaming performance in modern titles, even across three screens at 5760×1080 resolution.
The XFX HD6850 Dual Fan is an exciting reboot on the reference design, delivering lower noise and improved thermals to the enthusiast masses. Not only that, but power consumption has also been tuned and these cards make the foundation for a very impressive CrossfireX system build.
In the early part of the review, we built several configurations, all costing under £300 and the XFX Crossfire system came out on top, beating the HD6970, GTX460 SLI and GTX570 solutions.
The XFX bundle is very spartan, but when you factor in a £144 inc vat asking price with a custom modified cooler there really is no better value mid range card right now on the market. The only thing missing is a Crossfire connector, which seems like a rather unusual omission to us.
Is there anything else we would recommend under £300? Well it is worth bearing in mind that the ultimate performance of the HD6850 in Crossfire will be related to driver profiles, so either HD 6970 or GTX 570 bears serious consideration if this is an issue for you. The HD6970 is a little bit slower overall, but it offers 3 panel gaming out of the box, so its our top choice right now.
XFX have really delivered a kick ass product with this low cost, modified HD6850 design. One card is enough for 1080p, but two in Crossfire means you can add another two monitors and totally transform your gaming experience.
KitGuru says: Another great product from the XFX team. A ‘Must Have' purchase, especially at this price point.
Christ thats a lot of work. those cards are brilliant for 145. great for a future upgrade if you bought one now.
fucking A1 man. great work
Very very very very nice. I like the cooler design from XFX. these guys are delivering
Lovely. liked the videos too. I must get that battlefield game, keep meaning to.
great design from XFX< especially the power drain and noise. excellent
Also, have to hand it to you, quality of reviews this week has been top drawer.
A good point was made on the crossfire driver profiles. are they any faster out of the drawer with them now ? they seemed to be slow in the past.
nice performance, but im saving for a 6990. if its good, It better be.
Keep em coming, but I too am waiting on 6990 review next year. im all set for reading. you got one already Zardon?
Read this over a cup of tea. what a great article and i liked the rating system, its hard to work out later what did what and what is performing better in which engnie.
HAWX2 seems like a total farce to me.
Wicked. The prices of all these cards now are great. still got my GTX460 and love it, no need to move, but ive my eyes on the GTX580, if I ever get the money.
Am I the only one who finds the new AMD range a little underwhelming? id expected the HD6900 series to do more. these are good cards though for the money.
I am ordering these for my son for his birthday in January. if I order now I might get them in time, due to the crap weather here 🙁
Hard to beat this at the price, I’m sold
Excellent idea. Unfortuantely AMD can be slow with profiles for CFX sometimes so performance would be much worse
Good detail, 6850s are good value cards, I like this design from xfx
Shame scan won’t deliver before Christmas because of our shitty weather. 🙁
I’ve no idea why AMD and XFX are selling 6850s with such low core clocks, they have huge headroom.
Ordering anything in the UK now is a waste of time, but this card is worth 144 quid ! will wait till new year before deciding anything, but its one of the top 3 choices for me. (not ordering two though, ive only one screen).
nothing to say, but well done. liked the article.
Excellent editorial piece from KG. cards are very good, I already have a powercolour HD5850, but I might upgrade next year to a 6950. Crossfire is great in principle, but I had issues with a older cfx setup. never again.