PowerColor HD7870 PCS+ Review
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Published: 11th April 2012 | Source: PowerColor | Price: £280 |
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The packaging is certainly eye-catching. We're no petrolheads here but we'd wager that's the prototype GT by Citroën resplendent on the box in full-on Burnout mode. Okay maybe we know a little about cars too. As always with PowerColor the box is a combination of flashy logos and clear information.
The box contains the usual selection of accessories. The card itself is 240mm long, about the same length as a GTX570 and has some subtle touches. The chrome HD7870 logo makes a big difference to the sticker type, and a nice change from the red stripes that seem to dominate current cards.
As well as the big 90mm fan in the centre of the card it has some big heatpipes to help keep everything cool. In keeping with the move to more energy efficient cards even this PCS+ model only requires two 6pin PCIe power inputs.
Round the business end we have two mini DisplayPorts, an HDMI and two DVI-Ds for all your connectivity needs. As the HD7870 supports four displays it's nice to have so many options.
Most Recent Comments
The 7870 is the only next gen card that is worth the price to performance ratio in my opinion, especially given the overclockabillity to the level of a stock 7950, still more than they should be but definitely good cards.
Great review, and what an impressive card!
Firstly we know only too well how many of you don't want to faff about with overclocking your card and will always look for one that comes out of the box with a blazing speed attached to it.
I'd hope that's not too true.
Great review 
Nice looking card............and it performs ! 
Nice card, seems like a good purchase. Also the fact it is really quiet is quite nice I must say. If I do a secondary rig it will probably get this card, since I would want it to be compleatly silent
I would love to see it in Crossfire, if not this exact card but just a pair of 7870's. Also I would have like to see more detail about how it compares to the card it's replacing. I'm running a pair of 6870 and would like to know if the upgrade would be worth the extreme cost involved. 6870's in crossfire is a sweet spot in performance vs cost. I get a Heaven score of 1900 with avg fps of 74 with my AMD/crossfire rig.
I would be looking to buy one card then at a later date pick up another. Looking at these numbers there would be a significant drop in performance running one of these before I could save up for a second card. Might just be better off ditching my pair of 6870's for a single 7970, then at a much later date once prices come down pick up a second...
I would be looking to buy one card then at a later date pick up another. Looking at these numbers there would be a significant drop in performance running one of these before I could save up for a second card. Might just be better off ditching my pair of 6870's for a single 7970, then at a much later date once prices come down pick up a second...
In 0xAA Unigine it scored 1586, and with the 8xAA it scored 1114.
For sheer size reasons we cannot keep every possible setup in our graphs. They're already very large. If anyone doesn't mind losing the maximum frame rate graphs we could move the OC ones to a separate graph which would allow us to retain more models. However, in your particular case you'll find we still have the 6950CF results in the graph, and the HD7870 comes in just beneath it in most games. A few FPS at most.
Personally I'd say get a HD7950 and OC it, which is nearly a HD7970, much cheaper, and the likelihood of affording another would come sooner.
For sheer size reasons we cannot keep every possible setup in our graphs. They're already very large. If anyone doesn't mind losing the maximum frame rate graphs we could move the OC ones to a separate graph which would allow us to retain more models. However, in your particular case you'll find we still have the 6950CF results in the graph, and the HD7870 comes in just beneath it in most games. A few FPS at most.
Personally I'd say get a HD7950 and OC it, which is nearly a HD7970, much cheaper, and the likelihood of affording another would come sooner.
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Originally Posted by VonBlade
In 0xAA Unigine it scored 1586, and with the 8xAA it scored 1114. For sheer size reasons we cannot keep every possible setup in our graphs. They're already very large. If anyone doesn't mind losing the maximum frame rate graphs we could move the OC ones to a separate graph which would allow us to retain more models. However, in your particular case you'll find we still have the 6950CF results in the graph, and the HD7870 comes in just beneath it in most games. A few FPS at most. Personally I'd say get a HD7950 and OC it, which is nearly a HD7970, much cheaper, and the likelihood of affording another would come sooner. |
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Originally Posted by Rastalovich
I'd hope that's not too true. |
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Originally Posted by VonBlade
In 0xAA Unigine it scored 1586, and with the 8xAA it scored 1114. For sheer size reasons we cannot keep every possible setup in our graphs. They're already very large. If anyone doesn't mind losing the maximum frame rate graphs we could move the OC ones to a separate graph which would allow us to retain more models. However, in your particular case you'll find we still have the 6950CF results in the graph, and the HD7870 comes in just beneath it in most games. A few FPS at most. Personally I'd say get a HD7950 and OC it, which is nearly a HD7970, much cheaper, and the likelihood of affording another would come sooner. |
Totally agree with you about the 7950. The 78xx have great processors but I think the 2gb might become limiting so I'm not willing to fork out for anything less than 2.5gb.
I'm not sure this card offers much to the party. When OC'd it's biting the heels of a GTX 580. But you can pick up a 580 for £294 now and you can then overclock that further. I'm also not sure this card deserves the gold award. That should be reserved for greatness, and seeing this card runs hot, although quiet, doesn't quite cut gold for me.
Great card
splendid review T like the core clock speed
this little beast will roar more if you put it on Crossfire.
like the core clock speed this little beast will roar more if you put it on Crossfire.
I
It cuts the cheese. I agree hot vs quite is a matter of opinion, the price and performance are a fact though, and and the 580 trumps this one.
Solid review nontheless.
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Originally Posted by Hackedoff
I'm not sure this card offers much to the party. When OC'd it's biting the heels of a GTX 580. But you can pick up a 580 for £294 now and you can then overclock that further. I'm also not sure this card deserves the gold award. That should be reserved for greatness, and seeing this card runs hot, although quiet, doesn't quite cut gold for me. |
Solid review nontheless.
Nice review fella!
Nice review
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Time to take a look at a HD7870 on steroids, courtesy of the fine folks at PowerColor.
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