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The competition in the mid-range graphics market has really started to heat up, and this means lower prices and better performance for all PC gamers. It was just a few months back that Nvidia dropped the GTX460 into the market and aimed it exclusively at gamers looking for the best price to performance ratio. From that point on the GTX 460 was widely accepted as one of the best mid-range graphics cards available. It didn't take long for AMD to respond, and over the weekend they introduced us to the Radeon HD 6850 and HD 6870 graphics cards. Like the GTX 460, both of these cards were designed to be competitive in the mid-range market.
Along with the exceptional price to performance ratio, the HD 6850 and HD 6870 include new technologies that enhance the overall value of the series. These consist of support for HD3D, improvements to AMD's advanced parallel processing, and a new Anti-Aliasing technology to improve the overall performance. Also, Even though AMD was not able to move the Northern Islands architecture over to a 32nm process they did managed to reduce the die size by an impressive 25%, and still include enough Stream Processors, ROPs and Texture units to rival the high-end Cypress core.
In this review we are going to be looking at a HD 6870 from Sapphire that currently has an MSRP of $239.99 USD.
| Specifications | |
| Output |
1 x Dual-Link DVI 1 x HDMI 1.4a 2 x Mini-DisplayPort 1 x Single-Link DVI-D |
| GPU |
900 MHz Core Clock 40 nm Chip 1120 x Stream Processors |
| Memory |
1024 MB Size 256 -bit GDDR5 4200 MHz Effective |
| Software |
Driver CD SAPPHIRE TriXX Utility |
| Accessory |
CrossFire™ Bridge Interconnect Cable D-Sub Adapter Mini-DP to DP Cable 6 PIN to 4 PIN Power Cable HDMI 1.4a high speed 1.8 meter cable(Full Retail SKU only) |
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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...
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.
For their prices they look very tasty though. Some people severely under estimate the joy in low power consumption.
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.