ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU/2DIS/1GD5 Pro Reviews

We’ll start with 6850 overclocking in general. While we only use a subset of our most performance-hungry games in overclocking testing, it’s clear that 6850 overclocking isn’t going to be a simple case of overclocking the core first, and getting what you can out of the memory second. Balance is usually the key to a good card, and in the mainstream market this is even more important. So among the 3 cards in our roundup it catches us off-guard to see that only 1 of the cards is really balanced: the Asus EAH6850. There’s always something to be said for the benefits of a factory overclock, but compared to the Asus card it seems like there’s a lot to give up to get there.

The ASUS offering takes the middle ground between the two other cards. The 9.5in PCB is seemingly straight off an HD 6870, albeit bereft of a second six-pin PCIe connector, while the outputs match the PowerColor's. It's clocked in at 790MHz core and 4,000MHz memory and therefore benchmarks at a lower level than the other two, but the bundled SmartDoctor application enables it to be pushed significantly higher. Relatively cool and very quiet when gaming, it's our pick of the trio based on a sub-£150 retail price and three-year warranty. We'd take it over a stock-clocked GeForce GTX 460 1GB card, too. Now if only the partners would sweeten the deal with a new-ish game.

Overall, the performance of the cards were pretty much in line with our expectations. The ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU is a competent card with an effective cooler and it also offers decent overclocking performance. However, we are a bit perplexed as to why ASUS offered the card with only a meager 15MHz increase in core clock speeds when the card is obviously capable of more. Perhaps this is to make room for a future DirectCU TOP variant?

The ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU is a video card with potential. While we do think there is an inherint weakness with the "Overclocked Edition" nature and only offering 15MHz higher GPU frequency for more money, there are some things that do make it worth the money. The cooling solution and Voltage Tweak make up for the lackluster out-of-box frequencies. The cooling solution worked well; it is 18% cooler under load than a reference one. Voltage Tweak also worked well and allowed us to achieve a very nice overclock with plenty of voltage to spare. If we hadn’t run into a thermal problem, we probably could have gotten even more performance out of this GPU.

Overall the EAH6870 is another excellent card from Asus and proof once again that AMD is capable of taking on NVIDIA in terms of both performance and value. If you are looking to spend £200 this Christmas on a new video card, this is unquestionably the best choice. Another superb GPU from AMD, showcased impeccably by the Asus EAH6870 1GB.

The EAH6850 DirectCU Overclock Edition video card is another example of ASUS's commitment to the end user to put together a complete package that can satisfy the needs of the overclocker and enthusiast. When it comes to performance, the EAH6850 DirectCU showed improved frames per second performance over the reference clocked HD 6850 as it should have.

Based solely on a comparison of price to performance, Asus wins. Yet, unlike PowerColor, Asus does not include a free game certificate with its card. If you don't already own Call of Duty and that bundled item is important to you, then the balance shifts toward PowerColor's offering.

The AMD Radeon 6850 is here and how! This new mid-range card may not seem like a replacement of the Radeon 5850, but it consumes less power and is priced lower, so we are not complaining. In addition, Asus has customized the design of their card with a custom cooler, which adds some temperature enhancements, only at a slight price premium. AMD has a winner on their hands with the Radeon 6850. Its performance is close to that of the Radeon 5850. Future driver and price revisions will make it a very strong competitor against the Nvidia GeForce GTX460. With a custom cooler and leaner looking design, Asus has added their stamp on this graphics card. However, we did wish that AMD had called this the Radeon 6750, making for a very powerful statement from their side.

ASUS has taken the HD 6850 chip and clocked it 15MHz higher than the reference clock at 790MHz. This is a small step in the right direction, but as the card is not retailing higher priced than the other 6850 cards, this makes the EAH 6850 DirectCU card an excellent choice for the gamer wanting to spend $200. The extra features like the Copper heat plate, the non-reference cooling, the dustproof fan and the bracket holding the card in a case are excellent, above and beyond the reference cooler. This card gets a Hot Product award for these reasons.

The ASUS Radeon HD 6850 shatters the DirectX 11 affordability barrier being priced at a mere $179. Never before has high-resolution full-detail gaming be available for so little money. Thanks to AMD's aggressive pricing, NVIDIA has also announced price drops on their own, and there's probably more to come.