PowerColor HD6870X2 Review
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Published: 6th July 2011 | Source: PowerColor | Price: £300 |
Introduction
The X2 suffix has quite a lot of history with AMD cards. Anyone who remembers how amazing the HD4870X2 was will be eagerly anticipating the latest in the lineage, the HD6870X2.
PowerColor are one of those companies that are well known amongst enthusiasts and their PCS+ and PCS++ line of cards have always produced outstanding performance.
Now we have all the power of a HD6870 Crossfire setup, but on a single card. Billed as a GTX580 killer, we can't wait to see how it performs.
So let's crack on.
Technical Specifications
Normally a dual-GPU card has to make concessions in the architecture for either heat or power draw reasons. However the HD6870X2 is just two HD6870 chips on a single board. Hopefully this could really give the card a kick in the pants and lead it to great things.
| Graphics Engine | RADEON HD6870 |
|---|---|
| Video Memory | 2GB GDDR5 |
| Engine Clock | 900MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1050MHz (4.2Gbps) |
| Memory Interface | 2 X 256bit (256bit) |
| DirectX® Support | 11 |
| Bus Standard | PCIE 2.1 |
| 1120 |
| Texture Units | 56 |
| Z/Stencil ROP Units | 128 |
| Color ROP Units | 32 |
| Standard Display Connecors | DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/2* mini DisplayPort |
| OpenGL | Support |
| CrossFireX™ Technology | Support |
| ATI Stream Technology | Support |
| ATI Eyefinity Technology | Support |
| DVI Output | DL-DVI-I/ SL-DVI-D |
| DisplayPort | On Board x2 |
| HDMI | On Board |
| HDCP Support | Support |
| VGA | 2048x1536 |
| DVI | 2560x1600 |
| DisplayPort | 2560x1600 |
| HDMI | 1920x1200 |
| Board Dimensions | 292.1mm x 111.2mm x 38mm |
| Minimum System Power Rq (W) | 600W |
| Extention Power Connector | Two 8-pin PCI Express Power connectors |
But before we find out if that's the case it's time to see what the card looks like.
Most Recent Comments
yay and amd card thats cheaper than a 580 and beats itQuote
Performance is good, but the card is just fuglyQuote
I would agree its looks abit horrible ^^Quote
I was expecting it to be about £260/70 even with a better cooler £300 seems a bit steep.
Nvida might even drop the price of the 570 or maybe the 580 now in response to this, they usually drop their prices when AMD out performs them.Quote
Nvida might even drop the price of the 570 or maybe the 580 now in response to this, they usually drop their prices when AMD out performs them.Quote
the price is right tbh 
£130-40 x2 + the lucid on board chip.
totally forgot about this card in the mist of buying a new one.Quote
£130-40 x2 + the lucid on board chip.
totally forgot about this card in the mist of buying a new one.Quote
Very nice review Bryan, I agree that the heat pipes could do with a little bit of elbow greece. Do you have the poor crossfire in unigine down to drivers or poor compatibility? Seems odd that it can't compete with 6870CF when that's exactly what it is..Quote
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ruthless_villain
yay and amd card thats cheaper than a 580 and beats it |
Looks poor, performs greatQuote
Good performance there. Price seems spot on IMO. Shame it just looks so cheap as most AMD cards do!Quote
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mr Moose
Very nice review Bryan, I agree that the heat pipes could do with a little bit of elbow greece. Do you have the poor crossfire in unigine down to drivers or poor compatibility? Seems odd that it can't compete with 6870CF when that's exactly what it is.. |
So I think it's probably a driver issue, but it's equally possible that only in very extreme loadings (and Unigine is fearsome) does the limitations of the dual-GPU single-card solution become apparent.Quote
both gpu manufactures have low"er" cost dual gpu solutions out now....what i would have like to see would have been this 6870 VS. GTX460 2WIN.......any takers???
btw newegg has it for $519Quote
btw newegg has it for $519Quote
Why oh why do power color think that if it's radeon, it needs red pcb... Those days are long gone. WAKE UP, DAMN IT!Quote
Was it the GTX560 or GTX560ti in SLI that was used in the charts?Quote
Very good review as usual.
Nice card with good perfomance.
I was hoping a better price, maybe cheaper than two 6870's, was it too much to ask?
I was waiting for a 6870x2 review, this is the first I see on the net, thanks oc3d!Quote
Nice card with good perfomance.
I was hoping a better price, maybe cheaper than two 6870's, was it too much to ask?
I was waiting for a 6870x2 review, this is the first I see on the net, thanks oc3d!Quote
doesnt really hammer the 580 does it :/ i mean yea it has much higher max fps and the avg is higher too but as a gamer you dont see your max fps, its the min fps that you live and die by and those bars are much closer together in all the games than i was expecting. throw in how much better nv drivers are today than last november and where it matters they could be the same.
that being said if they are £300 its going to be hard to ignore these when they hit the shelves.
oh yea xD
Okay. Um... Had wooden teeth, chased Moby .Quote
that being said if they are £300 its going to be hard to ignore these when they hit the shelves.
oh yea xD
Okay. Um... Had wooden teeth, chased Moby .Quote
Really enjoyable this review. Thanks Von.
Wish the PCB was a different caller though.
Would have seriously considered this with a Z68 sniper but you know what they say about red and green
Quote
Wish the PCB was a different caller though.
Would have seriously considered this with a Z68 sniper but you know what they say about red and green
QuoteTi. That's the only SLI GTX560s we've reviewed and at the time the non-Ti version wasn't around. They are the MSI ones.
Thanks, Bryan. I asked because I would have been surprised if it was the "non TI" performing that well. It could cause confusion and make some think that the 560 was that fast.Quote
could you please ad F1 2010 to your reviews in the future.Quote
Nice card and nice reviewQuote
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Originally Posted by VonBlade
To be honest I am unsure. The Crossfire performance in a title such as Warhead or Metro was good enough to believe that it's working okay. 3DM11 is akin to Unigine in that it's very shader heavy, but that did well too. So I think it's probably a driver issue, but it's equally possible that only in very extreme loadings (and Unigine is fearsome) does the limitations of the dual-GPU single-card solution become apparent. |
Hi there,
I had the 4870x2 and it was a room heater, big and ugly. Until i water cooled it. Now I have the nVidia GTX470 and I am happy with it. I liked the review, especially graphs and I like the card to be honest. I don't like the temps and would like to se better designed cooling like Asus does it. End. Cya.Quote
I had the 4870x2 and it was a room heater, big and ugly. Until i water cooled it. Now I have the nVidia GTX470 and I am happy with it. I liked the review, especially graphs and I like the card to be honest. I don't like the temps and would like to se better designed cooling like Asus does it. End. Cya.Quote
I had issues with my 5770 xfire in Unigene. I mean, my 470 peed on them. The max FPS was always miles high, but due to the terrible micro stuttering dropping me to 2fps my scores were always screwy at the end.
It was going to my 470 that made me realise you are always better off with a single powerful gpu. I would never rely on the incoming 295 but I have heard that the 590 has no micro stutter issues at all so I am quite hopeful about it. In DX10.1 it hit both Tropics and Heaven out of the park, breezing past a 480 so I would assume it was due to the drivers..
Radeon issues are always the drivers man. I really hoped with the massive success of the 5 series Rads they would have improved, but it was like stepping back to 2005Quote
It was going to my 470 that made me realise you are always better off with a single powerful gpu. I would never rely on the incoming 295 but I have heard that the 590 has no micro stutter issues at all so I am quite hopeful about it. In DX10.1 it hit both Tropics and Heaven out of the park, breezing past a 480 so I would assume it was due to the drivers..
Radeon issues are always the drivers man. I really hoped with the massive success of the 5 series Rads they would have improved, but it was like stepping back to 2005
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