Graphics Cards Review: AMD Radeon HD 7870

AMD has a long history of providing top-notch graphics cards, and the Radeon HD 7870 is no exception. This high-end video card boasts a base clock speed starting at 1GHz, processing and rendering graphics faster than you can say, "Fus Roh Dah!"


Graphics Cards Review: AMD Radeon HD 7870




The HD 7870 utilizes 1280 stream processors with AMD's Graphics Core Next processor architecture, more commonly known as GCN, and it has memory bandwidth of 153.6GB per second, providing blazing fast speed and steady high frame rates that are optimal for playing graphic intensive games, especially first person shooters. With the HD 7870 giving you high frame rates while running your game on the high or ultra settings, you have a better chance of surviving your next deadly encounter.

Like most high-end video cards, the HD 7870 has a longer board and is doublewide. This means that the card takes up two slots of room on your motherboard. At 10.16 inches long, you will need to have a case with plenty of room to accommodate this graphics card and give it enough space to cool properly. The HD 7870 is Windows 8 ready and supports DirectX 9, 10 and 11. It also handles all modern formats of HD video, including H.264, without any problems, thanks to the Unified Video Decoder support.

One of the best features of the HD 7870 is the incorporation of Power Tune, a technology that automatically monitors the power draw of the video card and overclocks depending on how much power the HD 7870 is currently using. For example, the HD 7870 can use a maximum of 250 watts of power, but if it is only using 130 watts, then Power Tune will boost the clock speed as much as it can up to the 250-watt maximum. This intuitive control lets you enjoy enhanced performance and graphics without having to exit your program and manually adjust the overclocking settings.

You will need to have at least two six-pin connectors and a 500-watt power supply to run the HD 7870. AMD recommends you have four six-pin connectors available and a 600-watt power supply if you want to use a CrossFireX setup with two HD 7870 cards. AMD's Zero Core technology is one of the outstanding features of the HD 7870. When your computer goes into idle or sleep mode, hardware, such as graphics cards, may still run at full capacity. Zero Core drops the power usage of the HD 7870 to a mere 3 watts when your monitor sleeps and shuts down extra cards if you are running a CrossFireX setup. This saves power and reduces heat output and wear on your video card.



Basic Specifications
Part CodeHD 7870
InterfacePCI Express x16
Crossfire/SLICrossFire
Slots taken up2
BrandAMD
Graphics ProcessorAMD Radeon HD 7870
Memory22GB GDDR5
Memory interface256-bit
GPU clock speed1.00GHz
Memory speed1.20GHz
Card length242mm

2 comments

Click here for comments
Anonymous
admin
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 ×

Love it, Almost perfect, my only problem with this is that it didnt have a VGA port, but thats no problem, it has DVI and HDMI

Reply
avatar
Graham Phil
admin
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 ×

At first I had trouble with this product but everything worked out fine. The nice thing about it is that AMD gives you two free games just for purchasing it.

Reply
avatar