PowerColor HD6870X2 Review
Up Close
Published: 6th July 2011 | Source: PowerColor | Price: £300 |
Up Close
There is no denying that the X2 part of the HD6870X2 is the key element and the box art reflects this. It's a nice change from the standard fantasy artwork most packaging has. The reverse highlights both the potential power of the PowerColor HD6870X2 and how much more efficient the cooler is. Considering how hot and loud the others in the HD6 series from AMD have been we're definitely interested in this. As you can see from the sticker on the box this also comes bundled with a free copy of Codemasters Dirt 3. Epic Bro, post that to Youtube (which will make sense to those who've played it).
Packaging is nothing short of excellent with a seriously robust box keeping everything well protected. The accessories are the standard manual and driver disk, along with some display converters and 6pin to 8pin PCIe cables.
Finally here the card is. Compared to the default "tiny fan up one end" cooler it's great to see PowerColor supply the HD6870X2 with a cooler that looks like it'll do the job, with plenty of heatpipes and fins to hopefully keep everything cool.
Most Recent Comments
yay and amd card thats cheaper than a 580 and beats it
Performance is good, but the card is just fugly
I would agree its looks abit horrible ^^
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.
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.
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.
£130-40 x2 + the lucid on board chip.
totally forgot about this card in the mist of buying a new one.
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..
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Originally Posted by ruthless_villain
yay and amd card thats cheaper than a 580 and beats it |
Looks poor, performs great
Good performance there. Price seems spot on IMO. Shame it just looks so cheap as most AMD cards do!
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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.
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 $519
btw newegg has it for $519
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!
Was it the GTX560 or GTX560ti in SLI that was used in the charts?
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!
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!
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Originally Posted by Relayer
Was it the GTX560 or GTX560ti in SLI that was used in the charts? |
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 Dick.
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 Dick.
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
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
Ti. 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.
could you please ad F1 2010 to your reviews in the future.
Nice card and nice review
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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.
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.
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 2005
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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