anemic 6850 - 15FPS?

I cant understand why this highly regarded card performs so poorly - Core Temps max @78C GPUZ 48c is this all I can expect?

AMD Radeon HD 6850 video card 3DMark 11 benchmark test score

Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 @ 3500 MHz
AMD Radeon HD 6850
SLI / CrossFire Off
Core clock 850 mhz
Memory clock 1150mhz
64-bit Windows 7 (6.1.7601)
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R
Memory 4096 MB

3DMark Score P3667
Graphics Score 3714
Physics Score 3642
Combined Score 3383
GraphicsTest1 17 FPS
GraphicsTest2 17 FPS
GraphicsTest3 23 FPS
GraphicsTest4 11 FPS
PhysicsTest 11 FPS
CombinedTest 15 FPS

I just finished building my first gaming rig, and picked up a 6870 to go with my i5-2500k. From what I've heard, the 68xx series (particularly the 6850 and 6870) don't bench very well, but work great in-game. For me the 6870 is running fantastic, and has run everything I've thrown at it on extreme/ultra high graphics settings, including Crysis and Crysis 2.

The highest 3dmark11 bench I've been able to get is 4779, but that's after substantially boosting my physics and combined scores by OC'ing to 4.8Ghz on my CPU, and 950Mhz/1150Mhz on the 6870.

So it runs great in reality (i.e. games), but doesn't bench amazingly well for some reason...

Those scores look ok to me. The HD6850 is only slightly slower than a nVidia GTX460 from what I've seen and I get a 3DMark11 Pscore of 3796 with my GTX 460. This is with the card heavily overclocked. So looks fine to me.

Thanks - I was hoping to xfire a pair of these and to get a framerate of at least 40fps 60 would be ideal - not sure even the lower number is reachable......(my "plan" was to get a cheep (<$60) xfire board to tide me over till ivybridge for a major rebuild - )

any suggestions on the wisdom of tweaking voltages on the card - I read on another thread that rivatuner doesnt like these so much...but maybe that was an older version...

Thanks again

which games are you hoping for more than 40 fps in? and at what settings and resolution?

Hi - sorry it took so long to answer - work keeps getting in the way of the really important things...current obsession is Mass Effect series - (with an eye on 3 when it comes out) Civ V, Portal Shogun & whatever other trouble I have time to get into (Mirrors edge looks interesting...& there's always the big guns --COD, Crysis etc). Currently running @ 1600x900 - (limit of present monitor 1680x 1050) but would like 1920x1200 capacity -

Use your monitor's native resolution, a few less pixels won't matter much. And which game gives you 15 fps ? And did you run the 3dmark11 32 bit exe(select custom when installing and there's an option for 32 bit) ? 64 bit exe is bugged so cpu scores will be lower, which then reduces overall score a bit.


This is the max i could get on my current system. 3.9ghz cpu, 2.6ghz cpu-nb, gpu 850/1200, 32 bit 3dmark11

...and with 64 bit(normal shortcut) my cpu tests (physics & combined) are almost identical to yours.

In most reviews this card gets 3600 on stock, but with a first generation i5/i7 cpu.

Hey dont feel bad I only get 3528 on my HD6770

isnt a 6770 slower than 6850? or has AMD's branding system flummoxed me again?

15 fps comes from the freebie version of 3-DMark 11 64 which runs at 1280x720 (s'pose I should send them the $20 they're asking for...) I'm uninstalling 3DMark and reinstalling w/ the 32 bit binaries - results will not be comparable since my mobo is back on strike (thanks I think to a Redmond 'impotent' update) and will not OC (the fix is to pull everything, reboot reinstall and OC - no time to do so right now - aw nuts there's always time to crawl under the desk...) Back later w results...

I am trying (unsuccessfully so far) to open the console in ME1 - so I run FRAPS - which I can't right now...

But on operating on the axiom that that good enough is anything but, I have snuck a cheep biostar TP45 HP ($45+shipping) into the premises - which will a)extend the useful life of my q6600 and ddr2, b)overcome the glitches my hitherto trusty EP35 has developed, c) carry me through til ivybridge, asus, ddr3 and my wallet intersect, and 4) heh, heh, present me the quandry of what to put in that second pci-e slot...

That fps in 3dmark is normal. You should check games.

@archer : http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire__hd6770_flex/14.htm
a stock 6770 only gets 2800 where a 6850 gets 3600 How overclocked is yours

You have a q6600 @ 3.5 and a mid-range 6850.. what did you expect?

Catscratch said:

That fps in 3dmark is normal. You should check games.

@Archer : http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire__hd6770_flex/14.htm
a stock 6770 only gets 2800 where a 6850 gets 3600 How overclocked is yours :D

Click to expand...

Very

992/1388 is my 24/7 Game speed. It goes faster for a lot of benchmarks though. This was 992/1388.

Vixro...what did I expect? Something approaching full motion video...and I do realize the q6600 is not the latest and greatest - just not sure the 6850 was such a good choice - whether to sell it and go with a single card (6950 or new AMDs when they come out) or buy another 6850 and Xfire...(i've heard nice things about these in tandem...as in will beat a 580...not sure i'm a believer tho)

Archer - Obviously I am in awe of your OC can u recommend any particular video OC program? - catalyst will only take me to a stable 850/1150.

Thx

Angelicus said:

Vixro...what did I expect? Something approaching full motion video...and I do realize the q6600 is not the latest and greatest - just not sure the 6850 was such a good choice - whether to sell it and go with a single card (6950 or new AMDs when they come out) or buy another 6850 and Xfire...(i've heard nice things about these in tandem...as in will beat a 580...not sure i'm a believer tho)

Archer - Obviously I am in awe of your OC can u recommend any particular video OC program? - catalyst will only take me to a stable 850/1150.

Thx

Click to expand...

MSi afterburner.

3dMark11 is a benchmark, and as such doesn't really represent the majority of games out at the moment. And being so new, only the high end setups make it look decent.

Overclocking the GPU will help, and unless you are unhappy with its performance in games I wouldn't worry about it!

Angelicus said:

isnt a 6770 slower than 6850? or has AMD's branding system flummoxed me again?

Click to expand...

Not the first time I saw horse crap like that, back when it was ATI, in the DirectX 8.1 era,
Radeon 9000 Pro was often slower than Radeon 8500.

Many thanks to all - will go now and merrily cook some silicone...will set up on the Biostar board next week - hope to get another 6850 soon - any point in trying to configure my old 9600GT as a dedicated physX card? Another person on the forum apparently did - but I wonder if he saw any diff outside of benchmarks...s'pose I could ask...