The Retail Radeon HD 7870 Review: HIS 7870 IceQ Turbo & PowerColor PCS+ HD7870
by Ryan Smith on March 19, 2012 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- PowerColor
- Radeon HD 7000
- HIS
Portal 2, Battlefield 3, Starcraft II, Skyrim, & CivV
The story with the back half of our game catalog is much the same, with both the PCS+ HD7870 and IceQ Turbo 7870 performing 5-7% better than the stock 7870. In terms of absolute performance this is enough to push the average framerate above 60fps in both Portal 2 and Battlefield 3 at 1920, giving the 7870 series the jump needed to clear these hurdles.
Both cards are doing particularly well in the back half compared to the 7950; they reach parity with the larger Southern Islands card at 1920 in every game except Starcraft II. In fact the overclocked 7870s even take a surprising 10% lead over the 7950 in CivV, possibly due to the vastly higher clocked frontend (1.1GHz vs. 800MHz).
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Zebo - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
I wish they were mistaken on the price.LuxZg - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
They were actually... not that it helps much ;->Jephph - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
Don't worry, they fixed it."Numerous times before we’ve seen loud & cool cards, but it’s rare to come across a quiet and quiet card.
Now, it's not loud and quiet, It's just quiet and quiet.
doylecc - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
"but it’s rare to come across a quiet and quiet card."Perhaps we should try "cool and quiet", yes?
"In spite of the large blower on the card and the temperatures we’ve seen, the IceQ Turbo well for itself,"
Perhaps "...the IceQ Turbo does well for itself."
Thanks for a very interesting article. I would also like to see an AMD OC v. Nvidia OC article.
nitrousoxide - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
"A loud and quiet card" --> "a quiet and quiet card"Gosh I just can't help laughing...
LuxZg - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
"OCCT on the other hand finally sees every card jump up above 50C, with both cards tying or beating the reference 7870 by a fraction of a degree."Aren't you talking about noise here? And not temperature? Tsk tsk ;)
Death666Angel - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
Especially in the OC section! I don't know how many people are looking at 7970 and 7870 cards, but I for one do like to know how much extra performance that money gives me, especially compared to 7870 OC'ed.As for the cards, they are good enough, but I hate seeing these anaemic factory memory overclocks or no overclocks at all.
Two more things: Is there a chance you will add your OC results to bench in the future? And can you explain why the 7950 beats the 7970 in min. frames Crysis? Doesn't make sense to me. :-)
Ryan Smith - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
The 7950 only beats the 7970 in Crysis when you use the launch numbers for the 7970. It's been taken care of.Creig - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
"Idle noise levels are consistent. Both cards are ever so marginally quitter than the reference 7870 at idle."Nobody likes a video card that's a quitter. But I'm sure they'd love one that's quieter.
Roland00Address - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
I am curious how crossfire 7800 series cards compare to the 7900 series cards