HIS Radeon 6850 & 6870 Review

What’s New?

Obviously it would be very disappointing if this was like an nVidia rebrand in which the underlying architecture was identical but with a different sticker.

Thankfully ATI have at least consolidated some old features and given us one big new one.

Firstly, consolidation. According to ATI the new silicon gives improved performance over the HD5850 whilst using 25% less silicon. At the business end even the models have have on test now support Eyefinity6, rather than having specific models designated as Eyefinity6 compatible.

      

Now to the new feature.

Since nVidia first brought 3D to the masses with their earlier hardware we’ve been anticipating a response from ATI. Given that 3D is largely a monitor and glasses solution with some driver trickery there was nothing particular keeping ATI from adding it as a feature to the Catalysts but that never occured.

Now with the latest generation of Radeons they are ready to roll out 3D across their hardware range and it’s something we definitely can’t wait to sink our teeth into.

3D has been rapidly taken on board by most of the major players with the Film Industry the primary user, but also the PS3 has compatibility along with 3D Blu-Ray and of course gaming following the nVidia technological push.

With ATI finally supporting it, and therefore all desktop PCs capable of displaying 3D content, we are certain it wont be long before it is accepted in the same way High-Definition content is now.