Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Toxic

[Rob Williams]

AMD's Radeon HD 6850 is one of the more attractive mid-range offerings on the market right now, and Sapphire hopes to lure potential buyers in even closer with the help of its "Toxic" edition. It features a customized cooler that runs quiet and keeps temps low, and also cranks up reference clocks for an immediate performance boost.

You can read our full look at Sapphire's Toxic and then discuss it here!

[TheCrimsonStar]

you said it supports up to 5 graphics cards right out of the box..do you mean displays?

I noticed you used most highly overclocked geforces like 460 1GB FTW! and 470 in comparison. Why not put reference ones included too to see how they really stack? I don't get why so many tech sites are helping nvidia by using FTW class cards to compare HD6800 series that are usually run with stock clocks. GTX460 just can't compete with HD6800 series and you should say it honestly and aloud.

[TheCrimsonStar]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I noticed you used most highly overclocked geforces like 460 1GB FTW! and 470 in comparison. Why not put reference ones included too to see how they really stack? I don't get why so many tech sites are helping nvidia by using FTW class cards to compare HD6800 series that are usually run with stock clocks. GTX460 just can't compete with HD6800 series and you should say it honestly and aloud.

maybe because NVIDIA's too cheap to supply Rob with a reference card and EVGA stepped in

jk, but Rob I would like to know why you do that too. Why not reference cards?

[Optix]

Good point.

I suppose you could always use EVGA's Precision to bring the frequencies back in line with the reference cards. Let's be honest though, the performance gains between reference boards and factory overclocks are usually very small. It's not until you put the card in the hands of a mad scientist enthusiast that you see real gains.

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by TheCrimsonStar

you said it supports up to 5 graphics cards right out of the box..do you mean displays?

Ugh, I'll fix that soon, thanks for pointing it out.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I noticed you used most highly overclocked geforces like 460 1GB FTW! and 470 in comparison. Why not put reference ones included too to see how they really stack? I don't get why so many tech sites are helping nvidia by using FTW class cards to compare HD6800 series that are usually run with stock clocks. GTX460 just can't compete with HD6800 series and you should say it honestly and aloud.

I might be overlooking something, but where is an overclocked model, such as the FTW, mentioned in the article?

We don't include the results of overclocked cards in our charts. If we happen to use a card that comes pre-overclocked, which is often the case, we downclock them to reference speeds prior to benchmarking. We have no interest in including the results of overclocked cards in our charts, unless the card being reviewed at the time happens to be pre-OC'd (like this Toxic).

Here's a bit more information about how we handle things: URL

If there is any inconsistency with our results, please bring it to our attention so that we can investigate.

[TheCrimsonStar]

He might mean that for some of the NVIDIA cards you used EVGA brand, he might have had them confused with their standard and FTW models.

[Rob Williams]

If that's the case, we'll have to reconsider including the vendor names at all. I keep them there as a way to give credit where it's due, since we appreciate the support of these companies. It might be a better idea to leave all reference-clocked cards without a branding, and instead mention the respective vendors on the testing page while making it clear that we only use reference-clocked cards unless otherwise noted.

[TheCrimsonStar]

or if there's room you could just add "reference clocks" next to the brand name on the benchmark chart.

[Rob Williams]

The thing is... I don't want to add even more text because we'll end up with a cluttered and unattractive chart.

The more I think about it, the more I'm apt to just remove the vendor name, because I realized something. Unregistered (and probably others) might have looked at "Reference" and immediately thought that it referred to reference clocks, when in reality it simply refers to the fact that they are reference cards, straight from AMD or NVIDIA. In that regard, I could understand why someone would think that the non-Reference cards are indeed overclocked.

I am thinking that going forward, I'll remove all trace of vendor names (aside from AMD and NVIDIA) except for the card being reviewed. That way there just isn't going to be any confusion. Then, if we do ever introduce overclocked cards into the charts (not likely), we can include (Overclocked) at the end of the name.

[DarkStarr]

just post up all gpus are stock unless otherwise noted.

[TheCrimsonStar]

I knew reference meant straight from AMD or NVIDIA right off the bat..but I guess you're right. Other people may be thinking reference clocks...good call