Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Review - PAGE 14

There is no substantial performance increase of HD6870 over HD5870. The same, I believe, relates to HD6850 and HD5850. What we see is nothing more than a new core name, implemented "new technologies" which are effective on marketing paper, not on practice, less power consumption (the main achievement) and AMD urge to retire ATI brand.
Sapphire HD6870 is the very same to the Diamond one, which are both nothing else, but the reference cards with different company stickers on card case.
Nothing impressive...

quote tolerance

There is no substantial performance increase of HD6870 over HD5870. The same, I believe, relates to HD6850 and HD5850. What we see is nothing more than a new core name, implemented "new technologies" which are effective on marketing paper, not on practice, less power consumption (the main achievement) and AMD urge to retire ATI brand.
Sapphire HD6870 is the very same to the Diamond one, which are both nothing else, but the reference cards with different company stickers on card case.
Nothing impressive...

6850<5850<6870<5870

What we have is a core architecture overhaul, uncore enhancements, better crossfire scaling, lower power consumption, and a smaller die size.

For a mid range part this is very impressive, but nothing groundbraking like the 6950/70 will hopefully be. You're expecting a bit much from a mid range part.

If it weren't for fusion AMD likely wouldn't ever retire the brand as it's so recognizable. But if they say "Hey, new AMD processor with ATI graphics integrated" It doesn't make AMD sound like as strong of a brand to the regular joe schmoe as "AMD APU with an AMD cpu and AMD graphics processor". I'm unhappy about the name change but it's completely understandable from a marketing perspective, especially when they're so far behind intel in sales and market share.

As compared to the diamond you're right that it's nothing impressive but it does reaffirm that diamond still makes shittier products than most other ati partners.

I read so many forum posts across the internet telling people they were idiots for buying 5850 and 5870s because the 6xxx series would blow them out of the water performance wise. WOOPS!

For their prices they look very tasty though. Some people severely under estimate the joy in low power consumption.

quote tolerance

There is no substantial performance increase of HD6870 over HD5870. The same, I believe, relates to HD6850 and HD5850. What we see is nothing more than a new core name, implemented "new technologies" which are effective on marketing paper, not on practice, less power consumption (the main achievement) and AMD urge to retire ATI brand.
Sapphire HD6870 is the very same to the Diamond one, which are both nothing else, but the reference cards with different company stickers on card case.
Nothing impressive...

I thought it was common knowledge by now, but maybe not - HD 68x0 is the successor to HD 57x0, and it is quite a bit faster. It is also faster than nVidia's GTX 460, which is it's main target. The successor to to HD 58x0 will be HD 69x0.

Just a heads up, we're giving away a PowerColor 6870 on the site this week to the best costume.

http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/2/t1588957-powercolor-radeon-hd-6870-costume-photo-contest/

I'm not sure if it'll be a sitewide announcement or not yet.

Nice Review! wonder whats headed our way with the new HD3D features, Can't wait to see, and thanks for the contest, got my fingers crossed could use some awesome news !