Review Gigabyte GV-R685D5-1GD: A Cooler Alternative to the Standard HD 6850

Sales Package and Contents

This is the package box of the Gigabyte GV-R685D5-1GD. The yellow sticker on the lower right-side of the box indicates that the product is covered by a 3-years warranty.

Here are the accessories we found inside. Nothing extraordinary, but all the essentials are included.

Graphics Card

This is the card itself, Gigabyte GV-R685D5-1GD, based on the AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics chip.

A pair of heatpipes transfer the heat from the heatsink base to the aluminum fins on top of it. From there, the heat is dissipated by two fans that are slightly inclined downwards on one side in opposite directions. The design turned out to be quite effective. We recorded a maximum temperature of 64 degree Celcius (fan speed at 80%) during full load conditions and 34 degree Celsius when idle (fan speed at 72%). Radeon HD 6850’s standard HSF yielded slightly higher temps of 82 degree Celsius (load) and 53 degree Celsius (idle).