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
Overclocking: Gaming Performance
Since both of our retail cards reached the same overclock, for the purpose of our graphs we’re simply listing the same number for both cards. In turn both cards are listed so that anyone flipping through the graphs without reading the accompanying text can still see both cards.
With our overclocks in hand, the core clock difference between these overclocked cards and the 7950 starts to get ridiculous. At 1200MHz for the 7870s, this is a massive 50% core clock advantage on the 7950; the overclocked 7870s have 50% more frontend and ROP performance compared to AMD’s next card up at stock, furthering the gap caused by this effect.
The end result is that more often than not, the overclocked 7870s can meet or beat the stock 7950. Even the 7970’s lead is uncomfortably narrow at times, such as in Battlefield 3 at 1920. Ultimately if you liked the 7950’s stock performance it’s possible to get something similar for upwards of $80 less if you don’t mind some overclocking, and chance is on your side.
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Cisephys - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
Any word on retail availability? Some 7850/7870 cards finally popped up on NewEgg this morning (or maybe late last night), but the PowerColor one there is not the PCS+ version, it's the stock, non-factory-overclocked one.Seems like a fairly clumsy launch... But then, I'm likely just impatient.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
Why didn't the article mention it's near barren ?Is this now 'just forgotten" ?
Is AMD favored this much ?
Really it is absolutely unbelievable the bribe must be spectacular.
( i believe it's the free Island Vacation AMD sponsors for 500 of these 'lucky reviewers" - it's an 'information and learning gathering' and 'fact finding mission', of course...
--
It's actually missing from the entire article... the phrase paper launch let alone 'availability" is washed over as we are told AMD has after 'unveiling" two weeks ago 'released to retail '...
So will this be another 2.5 months of near barren shelves ?
How is it we hear nothing on this matter in the entire article... what sorry excuse will we be given - if any at all.
There's no mention of manipulating the market with this underhanded tactic and early empty release either ...
Sorry it's just inexcusable and no you're not impatient, we've been deceived.
CeriseCogburn - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
That excuse is beyond ridiculous, as the higher the cards level, the more likely it is one has a willing and avid overclocker.It's really getting deep in here. 6970 6950 both top cards of this level a gen back were proclaimed as highly valuable for the OC bias switch.
I mean it's really, really deep in here, my chest is soaked and fear I might be drinking slop soon
Let's just tell the truth,
AMD fans love this, this time.
But when the nVidia based GTX460 EVGA OC was included to trounce the amd cards in price/perf, the outcry was nothing short of enormous.
Worse yet, we have just recently been treated to exclamation points on the 7970 20% possible on stock volt Oc'ing raves.
It's really sad, now please, I'd like to not have to brush my teeth and gargle right now.