AMD Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 Overclocked Round-up
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When it comes to power consumption, the PowerColor HD 6850 has the edge over the 6870s but not by much. At full load, the 6850 utilized only 6 watts less (349 vs 355) than the HIS 6870 Turbo. Surprisingly, it even sipped more power during idle than both 6870s. And comparing those two cards, the HIS used 8 watts less than the PowerColor at load. Their idle use was almost identical.
Using Furmark's stability test, the PowerColor HD 6850 PCS+ reached 74 degrees Celsius under load, while maintaining 36 degrees at idle. Naturally, it ran cooler than the 6870s we tested. We found the reference design cooling solution on the HIS 6870 provided better results than the one found on the PowerColor PCS+.
