PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 SCS3 1GB GDDR5 PCIe AX6850-1GBD5-S3DHG

Overview

No Metascore yet

Browse 7 expert reviews so far

Excellent:

1
Good:

1
Average:

0
Bad:

0

Pros:

Excellent cooling performance with low noise (assuming adequate case ventilation), Excellent overclockability and game performance (assuming adequate ventilation), Silent operation, Dramatic appearance.
Passive cooling no fan noise!, Good overclocking potential, Native fullsize HDMI & DisplayPort output, Dirt 3 coupon included, Support for DirectX 11

Cons:

Tripleor quadslot cooler, probably too large for most HTPC cases, Requires careful system design to ensure adequate ventilation, Significantly higher price than other HD6850based cards, Unsuitable for CrossFireX setups
Triple slot cooler, Requires some case airflow to stay cool, Overdrive limits too low, Runs at reference design clocks only, No support for CUDA / PhysX

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Last revision on August 11, 2011

Reviewers Liked

Excellent cooling performance with low noise (assuming adequate case ventilation), Excellent overclockability and game performance (assuming adequate ventilation), Silent operation, Dramatic appearance
Passive cooling no fan noise!, Good overclocking potential, Native fullsize HDMI & DisplayPort output, Dirt 3 coupon included, Support for DirectX 11

Reviewers Didn't Like

Tripleor quadslot cooler, probably too large for most HTPC cases, Requires careful system design to ensure adequate ventilation, Significantly higher price than other HD6850based cards, Unsuitable for CrossFireX setups
Triple slot cooler, Requires some case airflow to stay cool, Overdrive limits too low, Runs at reference design clocks only, No support for CUDA / PhysX

Expert reviews and ratings

IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to...

By Benchmark Reviews on July 05, 2011

PowerColor's HD 6850 SCS 3 successfully establishes itself as the fastest passively cooled graphics card on the market. If you are on the never-ending quest for a low-noise PC and you won't accept a low-noise graphics card, then the PowerColor...

By techPowerUp! on June 17, 2011

It takes guts to try passively cooling a 127 W graphics processor. PowerColor sells the first Radeon HD 6850 we've seen topped only with a heatsink. Does the triple-slot cooler do its job, or is Barts simply too complex of a GPU to cool like this?...

By Tom's Hardware UK on August 09, 2011

There are only a handful of graphics cards on the market that can play all the latest DirectX 11 games, but there are even fewer available that can do so with minimal noise levels. The PowerColor HD 6850 SCS 3 can not only play many games with ease,...

By Neoseeker on July 06, 2011

Sometimes, reviewing graphics cards becomes a bit monotonous. No, I really am serious. There?s only so many ways to describe the long list of custom cooled, moderately overclocked cards until one gets the ?been there, seen that?...

By Hardware Canucks on July 04, 2011

Unsere nachfolgende Gesamtwertung bezieht sich ausschließlich auf den aktuellen Status Quo und das aktuelle Testfeld und spiegelt in der Zusammenfassung unsere Erfahrungen im Test wieder. Man gelangt mittels Klick auf die einzelne Wertungskategorie...

By HardTecs4U on July 05, 2011

Es erfordert schon Mut, Verlustleistungen deutlich jenseits der 120 Watt noch passiv kühlen zu wollen. Powercolor hat als eine der ersten diesen Schritt gewagt und sogar eine fertige Karte am Markt platziert. Aber ist diese Kühlung wirklich...

By Tom's Hardware on July 02, 2011