« 1. Index 2. Package and Accessories 3. Features and Specifications 4. The HIS 6850 IceQ X 5. Installation, Overclocking and Test Setup 6. Synthetic Benchmarks 7. Games 8. Conclusion »

The IceQ X cooler is a two slot design but should cause no clearance issues as long as you have the two available slots.

After getting the card installed it was time to get down to some overclocking. Now we know the HD 6850 IceQ X Turbo comes overclocked from the factory, but we always tend to want just a bit more right? The first thing I like to do is grab MSI’s Afterburner program, a great utility for overclocking and tweaking video cards.

I started out at the factory overclocked settings and worked my way to the max value MSI’s tool allowed for the core at 900 MHz without any issues. While the maximum value allowed for the memory was 1250 MHz, I could not go above 1235 MHz without getting artifacts. On an already factory overclocked card I think these numbers are pretty good.

During my overclocking adventures I manually turned the fan up to 100% to ensure temperatures weren’t preventing the maximum overclock. While I don’t have the tools to measure it, this was the first moment that I noticed the difference in noise from reference coolers I have heard. I’m not saying it is quiet at full speed but it is noticeably less irritating at this speed. However to measure temperatures I returned the fan to the auto setting. The Furmark stability test was used to achieve load temperatures.

Fan settings went back to auto for testing, maximum temps under load only increased by 2 degrees over the factory overclocked settings. Idle temperatures did not change with the additional overclocking.

Now that we have seen how far we can push the HIS HD 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1Gb card, we are going to throw it through some benchmarks. Below are the system specifications that will be used for testing.

• Control

• CPU: Intel i5 760 @ 3.9GHz
• MB: MSI P55-GD65
• RAM: Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT25664FN1869
• PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
• HD: WD 250GB SATA
• DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
• Case: Cooler Master HAF932
• OS: Microsoft Windows 7
• Ambient Temperature: 25-26C

• Comparison Cards:

• HIS HD6850 IceQ X Turbo 1GB (Catalyst 11.2)
• HIS HD 5870 iCooler V Turbo 1GB (Catalyst 11.2)
• PowerColor HD6850 1GB (Catalyst 11.2)

All benchmarks were run a minimum of three times with scores being the average of those three runs.

« 1. Index 2. Package and Accessories 3. Features and Specifications 4. The HIS 6850 IceQ X 5. Installation, Overclocking and Test Setup 6. Synthetic Benchmarks 7. Games 8. Conclusion »

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