HIS Radeon HD 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1GB Video Card Review
HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Video Card
Today we are going to take a look at an AMD based video card that not only provides a ton of power, but it also includes a cooling system to help tame the high temperatures that go along with high speed graphics. Of course I am talking about the HIS (Hightech Information Systems) Radeon HD 6850 Turbo video card (H685QNT1GD), that just happens to include their very effective IceQ X cooling system to help cool off the 820MHz clocked GPU and the 4400Mhz clocked memory. Of course you are all asking, “Does it have all of the features and bells and whistles that we have come to love in an AMD based video card?” To put it simply… yes. If you want to be immersed in your games Eyefinity is there for you. All you need to do is hook up your three monitors and bam; now you have peripheral vision. Want to play your games or watch Blu-Ray Discs in full stereo 3D? Eyedefinition with HD3D has your back. You can also speed up applications and enjoy brilliant video with AMD Eyespeed technology. Did I mention 3D capability? Ok so I will say it again with AMD HD3D you can now game and watch movies in full 3D, and all with the Direct X 11 compatibility that we all love. Oh, hey, I almost forgot to mention Crossfire; yep… it’s in there, but unfortunately just like all of its 6800 series brethren you can only add one other card thus being able to have a dual card set up.
HIS is a video card manufacturer out of Hong Kong that provides ATI/AMD based high performance video cards. Founded in Hong Kong back in 2007 HIS has steadily risen as one of the major players in the very lucrative video card market. Their cards have won over 600 awards and feature the heat killing IceQ cooling technology on most of their cards. Most of the 6850 cards that I have looked at recently have been based on the reference design of the card and tended to produce a bit of heat. The HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo (H685QNT1GD) is actually built on a shorter length PCB coupled with the IceQ cooler to try and combat heat and give the card a killer look. You can have your own HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo (H685QNT1GD) for $189.99 plus shipping, and this also includes a two year warranty on parts and labor.
HIS currently makes 3 different versions of the Radeon HD 6850:
- HIS 6850 Fan 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI/2xDVI/DP
775 Mhz Core Clock 4000 MHz memory Clock (H685F1GD) at $164.99 - HIS 6850 IceQ X 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DP/2xDVI/HDMI
775 MHz Core Clock 4000 MHz memory clock (H685QN1GD)at $179.99 - HIS 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DP/2xDVI/HDMI
820 MHz Core Clock 4400 MHz Memory Clock at $189.99
We are looking at the HIS IceQ X Turbo Radeon HD 6850 H685QNT1GD Video Card today, which is the fastest of the trifecta and features the custom GPU cooler.
We put this card up against a few of its AMD Radeon HD 6850 brothers in our testing today to take a look at how it fared against some of the other manufacturers that are within the same price point. As you read on I think you may be pleasantly surprised to see the results; not just the results of this particular card but of the entire 6850 line as a whole. With a stock 820MHz GPU clock speed 1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 4400MHz, the HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo is aimed squarely at the gaming market, and rightfully so because we as gamers demand awesome graphics, and we are only going to go out and spend our money on a high end card that we know is a proven winner and will let us squeeze every last frame rate we need and deserve out of a video card. Does the HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo (H685QNT1GD) fit the bill? Well, I guess the next 15 pages will tell us that story. So enough with the jibber jabber and let’s get on with this review.
Below I have listed out some of the features and specifications of the card we are taking a look at today.
HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Video Card Features:
- Microsoft DirectX 11 Support
Get intense gaming performance and unrivalled image quality with stunning 3D visual effects, realistic lighting and lifelike imagery, driven by AMDs second-generation DirectX 11-capable graphics. - AMD Eyefinity Technology
Enjoy the ultimate immersive gaming experience with AMD’s Eyefinity multi-display capabilities - AMD Advanced Parallel Processing technology
Accelerate the most demanding applications for improved performance - Advanced GDDR5 Memory Technology
Delivers more speed and higher bandwidth with AMD CrossFireX Technology
Increase your gaming performance with AMD CrossFireX Technology - 3rd Generation TeraScale Engine
Provides increased processing power for the latest games and accelerated applications - 40nm Process Technology
Provides enhanced processor performance while using less power and better transistor efficiency than previous generation technology - Accelerated Video Transcoding
Helps improve video transcoding performance - Display Flexibility
Core flexibility with maximum connectivity for the latest display technologies: HDMI 1.4
Helps ensure you get the full Blu-ray and PVR experience from your PC - DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Support
Get a fully immersive high-definition audio experience with the latest Blu-ray movies - AMD PowerPlay Technology
Power draw scales according to activity so when GPU activity is low, the power draw is minimal - Enhanced Unified Video Decoder (UVD) 3
Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies, online video and other HD content beyond 1080p with low power and low noise with GPU acceleration and enhanced Unified Video Decoder (UVD) 3 features
HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Video Card Specifications
- Model Name: HIS 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DP/2xDVI/HDMI
- Chipset: Radeon HD 6850 PCIe Series
- ASIC: RadeonTM HD 6850 GPU
- Manu. Process (Micron): 40nm
- Memory Size (MB): 1024
- Memory Type: GDDR5
- Engine CLK (MHz): 820Mhz
- Memory Clock (MHz): 4400 MHz
- Memory Interface (bit): 256
- Open GL Optimization and Support: 3.2
- Minimum Power Requirement (Watt): 500 or Greater
- Max. Resolution: 2560×1600
- Card Dimension: 13.5 x 4.2 x 23.5 cm (HxWxD)
- Bus Interface: PCI Express x16
- ATI Radeon CrossFireX Technology: v
- ATI Radeon PowerPlay: v
- Display Port: Yes
- HDMI: Yes
- DVI: Upper Single-link DVI-D + Bottom Dual-link DVI-I
- VGA: No
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