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
Crysis, Metro, DiRT 3, Shogun 2, & Batman
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.3GHz |
| Motherboard: | EVGA X79 SLI |
| Chipset Drivers: | Intel 9.2.3.1022 |
| Power Supply: | Antec True Power Quattro 1200 |
| Hard Disk: | Samsung 470 (256GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1867 4 x 4GB (8-10-9-26) |
| Case: | Thermaltake Spedo Advance |
| Video Cards: |
AMD Radeon HD 7970 AMD Radeon HD 7950 AMD Radeon HD 7870 AMD Radeon HD 7850 AMD Radeon HD 7770 AMD Radeon HD 6970 AMD Radeon HD 6950 AMD Radeon HD 6870 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB |
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA ForceWare 295.73 AMD Catalyst Beta 8.95.5 |
| OS: | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
As both the PCS+ HD7870 and the IceQ Turbo 7870 ship with an identical core overclock and similar memory clocks, the performance of the two will be nearly identical. The PCS+ has an edge (however slim) in all situations, but as we’ll see there’s very little separating the two cards when it comes to performance.
Overall the factory overclocks on the PCS+ HD7870 and IceQ Turbo 7870 net about a 5% to 7% increase in game performance compared to the stock 7870. The lack of a significant memory overclock on either card appears to be holding back performance some, keeping game performance gains from reaching parity with the core overclocks.
Interestingly, because of the same frontend & ROP reasons we saw the 7870 do so well relative to the 7950 in our initial review, these factory overclocked cards do one better. Both cards overtake the 7950 at times, such as under DiRT 3 and Total War. More interestingly perhaps is that with the 7870 already nipping at the GTX 580’s heels in these games, the overclocked cards also regularly surpass the GTX 580 in 3 out of the 5 games so far.
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Tator Tot - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
On the first page, you make an error in the table saying the PCS+ is Triple Slot while the IceQ Turbo is Dual Slot; obviously this is backwards based on the photos.CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
How about the biggest error of all... no mention of the near paper launch - we get a pretend scenario that the 7870 and 7850 are somehow populating retail channels... no mention in the entire article of the terrible near non supply.Instead we get the reviewers wined and dined at Cebit and or GDC, where they are treated to the "unveiling", then handed special overclocked models, then we all get to pretend you could buy it up as of yesterday...
Nope, egg had 2, one sold and the buyer commented that made 1 available (7870). Same thing earlier. 7850 wasn't any better.
So AMD gets a giant pass on their near pure paper launch.
Is that free weeks long yearly for 500 'reviewers/reporters' AMD posh Island Vacation bribe coming up soon or what - did they just get back from it ?
blanarahul - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
What is the use of scheduling? Is it only useful for compute or does it have usefulness in graphics also?warmbit - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Here is the link to an interesting overview performance 7870 and 7850 of 5 Web sites competing Nvidia cards - GTX580 and GTX570 and penalties of the previous generation AMD - 6970 and 6950.Analysis of the results of the Radeon 7870 and 7850 in 12 games and 5 resolutions:
http://translate.google.pl/translate?hl=pl&sl=...
You will know the relationship between average interest rates these cards and you will find out in which graphics card is better in the game and resolution.
LuxZg - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
You've put tripple width and 390$ for PCS, while you say otherwise in article. Tripple width and 390$ is mentioned in part about HIS card, so I believe you've mixed up the columns.. or at least part of data, as memory OC seems to be correct for both cards in table. Please review and correct as not to confuse readers..CeriseCogburn - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
I see this 7870 is virtually the same as the GTX 570, and when I check the prices a GTX570 is $260-$289 and the 7870 is $369 minimum.This card at it's current price is no value at all.
Zebo - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
For comparison sake you should throw a $309 GTX 570 Classified in there. (which will beat it) But OC to OC is only fair.medi01 - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
If 7870 is overpriced, then what is GTX 580?Zebo - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
Cheaper than these cards and faster!http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
nevertell - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
On the 4th page:Numerous times before we’ve seen loud & cool cards, but it’s rare to come across a loud and quiet card.
You should give the article to other editors before you publish it. Happens to myself all the time.