PowerColor PCS+ HD6850 1GB GDDR5 Pro Reviews

PowerColor HD 6850 PCS+ is a factory overclocked card that comes with special cooling. The card is currently priced at €162 in the EU, which is about €15 more than PowerColor’s reference HD 6850. PowerColor HD 6850 PCS+ performance is good and will definitely satisfy most gamers who prefer 1920x1080. The factory overclock will provide up to 5% better results compared to the reference card. The cooler is efficient and very quiet in idle mode, but the same goes when the card is in intensive operation. Quiet cooling and boosted performance with only €15 higher price are reason enough for us to dub the PowerColor HD 6850 PCS+ card a Fudzilla Top Value product.

The Sapphire-frequency-matching PCS+ looks rather tame sat next to the TOXIC. Appearances can be deceiving, however. Much quieter when gaming and overclocking nearly as far, the 8.5in card's lack of voltage adjustment hampers its appeal to the die-hard enthusiast. Temps are good given the way the hot air remains largely in the chassis and the overall package is a decent bet at around £160.

Overall, the performance of the cards were pretty much in line with our expectations. The PowerColor PCS+ HD 6850 might be considerably factory overclocked, but like we’ve said, in real world gaming applications, it was only slightly quicker than a reference card. Also, it’s custom PCS+ cooler wasn’t really that effective as the card was the warmest card to run of the bunch.

The PowerColor HD 6850 PCS+ is a true contender in an already crowded market. Offering a substantial overclock right out of the box, this card does not by any means let its other PCS+ brethren down. When pushed to its absolute limits without voltage tweaking, the card performs right up next to the 6870 on some benchmarks.

Sapphire and PowerColor have the best-performing graphics cards, but who has the best performance-value? If I were building for someone else, I would probably choose the PowerColor PCS+ AX6850 for its high speed, moderately-low noise, and free game.

The HD 6850 PCS+ is a solid implementation of a custom HD 6850 design that leads the reference implementation with a performance increase of around 6%. Whether this is enough for you to justify the increased cost of $10 to $15 depends mostly on whether you are willing to do some overclocking on your own or if you just want to get going with gaming. The included Call of Duty 2 Modern Warfare could help tip the balance in favour of the PCS+. Hardcore overclockers should stay away from this card though because of the missing GPU voltage control. Personally I find the price a bit too high for what is offered. If the card was priced at $179 - the reference design price - then PowerColor could certainly gain some momentum from non-overclockers who simply want a fast and robust card without going too much into tweaking.