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(More customer reviews)I was very eager to get this card in my machine, to replace a budget powercolor 5750.
I got less existed as soon as I opened the box. No cables or adapter at all. I am ok with everything but the ommision of a corssfire cable, I guess XFX does not want you to crossfire two of its card together...
Next was the general appearance of the card, which screamed "rush job" to me. THe PCB has some uneven cuts at the edges, and the fan shroud was made out of cheap, cheesy plastic.
The heat sink is also not the one they have pictured here or on newegg. Its about 1cm smaller in diameter, and has no circular copper heat pipes, just a small aluminum heat sink. The heatsink on my budget PS 5750 look twice as effective... and that card draws about 60% of the wattage that the 6850 does.
Than I fired up the card, only to find that the fan just scream at idle speeds. Apparently you need to register your card with XFX, download a new Bios, format a USB thumb stick to be boo-table(hopefully you got a free one lying around, because you need to format it), follow sketchy instructions (took me tree time to get it right), but in the end I fixed it and fan idles at the normal 40% (still kind of high for idle...).
So I load up a game, and within minutes I start hearing a shrilling sound from my PC, I isolated it to the 6850 Fan making the sound at 45% fan speed. After doing some research it appears that XFX choose a cheaper sleeve bearing fan as apposed to the more sturdy ball bearing type for their card...
So I am sending this card back for a refund and will go with a a different brand. Considering that XFX markets themselves as a premium GPU resseler, the amount of cost cutting I found on this card, and the overall quality, I am very disappointed. This was my first and last XFX product.Update:
I spoke with a representative at XFX, and he informed that there are two different card models, and that this one is equipped with a vapor chamber, and thus does not require heat pipes. He also informed that they would send out a free crossfire bridge if requested.
Now I still dislike having to flash my brand new cards bios just to get it working properly, not do I feel like I have to call in to a request a part that virtually all other brands include as standard. I did add another start for a prompt and informative response by the tech on the phone/e-mail, and will get a replacement instead of a refund to hopefully fix my fan noise issue.
Will update this when the replacement gets here.
Update: 11/14
Received replacement card yesterday. Has the same "vapor chamber" cooler as my first one, I guess thats the standard cooler now, they should update the pic on the site. The PCB seems to be better constructed than the rush job my first card was. The serial number sticker read revision C2, so I was hoping that I would not need to flash the bios of the new card, and I was right, the card works properly from the get go. No more shrilling noise at 45% so I guess that a singular problem with my previous card. Still waiting on an e-mail back from XFX regarding them sending me a crossfire bridge, but I hope that will not be a problem. Much happier now with the new card, so if you get one now, you shouldn't run in in to any problems, other than the lack of any cables or adapters >_>. Bumping it 4 stars assuming XfX mails me the crossfire bridge.
Update: 1/23/2010
Have been using the card for a while now, it works fine. I have run in to one issue. The cooling unit on this card was supposed to be an upgraded "vapor chamber" unit that was supposed to be several degrees cooler than the stock radial unit (according to the tech from XFX I spoke with). The "improved" cooler is anything but that. I recently acquired another 6850 for a friends new build, this time from a different vendor (HIS). HIS uses the stock radial unit, so was expected worse performance for that unit, but under similar conditions (and inferior case cooling in my opinion), the XFX card ran hotter. Both run similar idle temps of around 30C, but the HIS only needs to spn it's fan to 25%, XFX never goes bellow 40%. The HIS does not spin faster than 25% until the card goes over 50C, and at full load the fan is around 35% and the card is around 56C. The XFX card also reaches 56-57, but with the fan hitting the mid 50s as well, which becomes audible (I never hear the HIS fan.
So XFX might want to have a long talk with their engineers, "improved and "custom" solution should always be better than the stock unit in heat or noise (if not both), for XFX it managed to be worse at both.
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