Roundup: Four Radeon HD 6850 1 GB Cards Compared

Sapphire Toxic 6850

Sapphire does things its own way, beginning with an oversized blow-through cooler on its part number 100315TXSR Toxic 6850.

Sapphire buyers get a surprising array of upgrades, from the card’s dual mini-DisplayPort outputs (and single full-sized adapter) to its inclusion of a six-foot HDMI cable. Sapphire even throws in two four-pin Molex to six-pin PCIe power adapter cables.

The dual power adapters make sense in light of the fact that Sapphire puts two six-pin PCIe power connectors on its card. Sapphire’s entire design is borrowed from the Radeon HD 6870, stretching the card to a 9.6” mounted length, while adding the handy feature of a card that vents out the back of the case.

Even though Sapphire’s Toxic 6850 is oversized, it uses the same 820 MHz GPU and GDDR5-4400 clocks as the smaller PowerColor competitor in today’s comparison. Rather than include software, Sapphire adds onboard features and cables to make its Toxic 6850 unique.

Sapphire recently reintroduced its TriXX overclocking software to support this card, but the information didn't get to us in time for this review.  Users who prefer getting their tuning software directly from the manufacturer can download the utility here.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • It would be nice to see overclocking results. I know the whole "results will vary" malarkey but still, it would be interesting to see things like the benefit (if any) to having two pci-e power connectors on the Sapphire card or how high you could take the ASUS card using the software that came with it. Oh, and also, can you use Afterburner with the Powercolor and Sapphire cards?
    Reply
  • Scanlia
    Oh, and also, can you use Afterburner with the Powercolor and Sapphire cards?
    I use afterburner with a Gigabyte Card, (Flashed to ASUS). Works fine.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    BillehBawbOh, and also, can you use Afterburner with the Powercolor and Sapphire cards?Yes
    Reply
  • tomskent
    last line of the article...
    "Now, here did I put that Christmas list?"
    here = where
    Reply
  • scrumworks
    Why are you using catalyst 10.6 (drivers from june) instead of latest, quite long already available 10.11 or 10.10-beta with HD6800 support?
    Reply
  • sudeshc
    love this card looking to buy it for my new build and would go for ASUS as i already own the game.
    Reply
  • karma831
    No OCing?
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    so, wheres the comparison between these cards and rival cards from nvidia??? using recent drivers?? and OC???!this doesnt really tell us anything except the performance is so close you may as well get the cheapest of the lot.
    Reply
  • ATI driver support is a complete debacle. That's why this article uses stone age drivers (10.6)
    Reply
  • Crashman
    karma831No OCing?iam2thecroweso, wheres the comparison between these cards and rival cards from nvidia??? using recent drivers?? and OC???!this doesnt really tell us anything except the performance is so close you may as well get the cheapest of the lot.Er dude...
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850-barts,2776.html
    The previous article, which answered all your questions a month ago, was linked numerous times in this article.
    Reply