Radeon 6850 - Which company and dual monitor setup question

Setting up dual monitors is pretty easy.

plug both monitors in although the commands are slightly different from Windows xp, vista and 7 and linux. what you want is to extend you desktop (windows 7 says 'Extend these displays')

where do i type this command?

Never mind, figured it out lol..can't believe it was so simple

Still need a bit of help on what company to go for though..

Something between Gigabyte, Sapphire or Powercolor. They all pretty good, its a matter of personal choice

Well it's been over two years since I've bought a video card.. I'm so torn D:

Does the double lifetime warranty from XFX not qualify XFX as a good brand to buy from?

If you feel safer that way. They all should less for a while if you don't overkill it ahead of time. I'd stick with Gigabyte thought, 2 fans and quite open for better cooling.

I was reading the reviews and many say that the drivers do not support DirectX 11. Is this still true or have new drivers come out yet?

I just bought the Gigabyte 6850, will receive in 12 hours or so, I can give you a heads up after I hook it up.

Oh, sounds awesome! Thanks a lot!

What are your specs?

My specs are

Samsung t260hd 1920 x 1200
i5 750 stock(not sure why it says 2797mhz in 3dmark)
p55m ud4
ocz intel xtreme 4gb 1600(my motherboard runs it at 1066 though)
corsair tx750
and of course Gigabyte 6850 OC edition


Here is my 3dmark basic score

3649

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/991522;jsessionid=E14A1E4874850470E16F48695F649861?show_ads=true&page=%2F3dm11%2F991522%3Fkey%3DNKQ9BxyMV2Ds4QVL4C2ZzCCNMp3SvM

I have only played Left 4 Dead 2 but I have everything maxed out and I get 60fps. The thing is silent, I was amazed because I didn't realize how loud my 4650 really was. Now, what to do with that buzzing side fan?

The build quality is superb. There are no fancy accessories but you do get the power adapter, vga to dvi, driver disk, and of course the owner's manual.

I don't have much experience but I had this thing out of the box, installed, and had the drivers updated in 5 minutes. I have played about an hour and I have no complaints, it is a very solid card, runs silent and cool, and it looks awesome.

lol a bunch of people keep telling me that the card is super loud..i guess they messed with the voltage and oc'd it even more or something

oh well, thanks a lot for the thumbsup on the card! i'll be purchasing it sometime next week so i hope everything will go well  

One thing i should note:

If you plan on overclocking don't get the Gigabyte - it obviously comes factory overclocked but you cannot adjust the voltage. Now, I may be wrong, but from what I've read is that the first generation of the Gigabyte 6850OC editions you could adjust the config in MSI afterburner to allow voltage tweaking but on the newly manufactured models you cannot. I have tried everything but nothing seems to work.

As far as others saying it is loud, it could be that Gigabyte ships the card with the fan at 50%. You don't need it that high and can safely lower it to around 35-40%. I cannot hear it at 35% and it is barely audible at 50%.

If you are looking to overclock you should try the ASUS Directu 6850 or the Sapphire 6850.

I don't know much about overclocking to be honest and so I plan to stay away from it. I'll be getting a 500w PSU so I don't have much of a buffer to overclock either.

Thanks for the information though!

One last question, how much did you get it for? Any deals out there for it right now?

Realistically I don't think there's a clear cut "Wrong" choice here. Every card is pretty much the same specwise, so it's just the cooler and a fancy sticker.

I've always used Sapphire cards and I only had one that started giving artifacts later in life, every other one was golden.

Well then, which has the better cooler? xD

Wait a second, this GPU comes with a free copy of Shogun 2? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Where does it say this?

I waited specifically for the Gigabyte to come back in stock and it has gone out of stock in less than a week. They had an open box for $134 the other day   but I payed $175 plus tax   although I received it in two days.

I would recommend this Sapphire if you don't feel like waiting for a restock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...


Edit- As for the best cooling..Gigabyte's windforce technology has gotten a lot of good reviews and I can say that my card runs ice cold.

The way I do it is

1. Gigabyte
1. Sapphire
3. Asus

You cannot go wrong with any of those.

to be honest, the reviews for sapphire do not look good at all

scroll down to the bottom , it says "buy together and SAVE" which is really misleading, since you're getting the game for free.

and i'm not sure how the sapphire has horrible reviews, it has four. . . eggs. just like the rest of them.

well the powercolor has far less negative reviews lol


how about, if i were to get a 6870, then what would the best card be?

Gigabyte...or Sapphire or Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Best answer selected by bazicdude.

This topic has been closed by Maziar