AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5 Review

We’ve seen the flagship and entry level examples of AMD’s latest range. Today we examine the performance of the mid range HD7870…

Product on Review: AMD HD7870
Manufacturer and Sponsor: AMD
Street Price: £275

The HD7970 set new standards in GPU processing but sadly it also has a price tag to match. The lesser HD77XX series of GPU’s, while adequate for a low-end setup struggle to provide the frames per second at today’s most popular resolutions. The card many enthusiasts have been waiting for is the mid-range HD7800 series of GPU’s. Today we will be looking at the HD7870 which is the more powerful sister card of the HD7850.

With the flagship HD7970 costing well over the £400 mark and the HD7950 a little under that, many people baulked at the cost of upgrading their previous generation card. The 7870 hopes to fill that gap with a street price of around £275. Still expensive but within reach of those who are looking for good bang per buck. NVIDIA however have other plans and have made some aggressive price cuts on their last generation GTX580 and GTX570 cards with the HD7870 sitting squarely between the two so it will be interesting if the performance of the HD7870 relates to the cost of both itself and by comparison, its competition.

The HD7870 comes with 2GB of GDDR5 which is more than enough for the today’s latest games and has AMD’s latest GCN enabled architecture codenamed ‘Pitcairn XT’. We will go into the details of this new core on the next page but as you would expect it is slightly less powerful than the Tahiti XT while having much more grunt than the 77XX Cape Verde. Don’t be fooled into thinking the HD7870 is a go between card though as going by the specifications, it is not far behind the HD7950 GPU which has been a massive hit here at Vortez. Hopefully we will see performance to equal the impressive specifications of the AMD HD7870 because if it doesn’t, I fear the green team will be mopping up the mid-range market with their last gen GPU’s.

Here’s what AMD had to say about their latest product:

-The gigahertz barrier has been broken. Armed with a stunning 1GHz GPU based on the revolutionary GCN Architecture, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 GHz Edition is quite simply engineered to reign supreme.

-The next generation of AMD Eyefinity technology is here, featuring all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation and brand new display configurations. Face it: the best just got better.

-PCI Express 3.0 has arrived, and the AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 GHz Edition is ready. Get superior performance in multi-GPU configurations thanks to unprecedented bandwidth and AMD CrossFire™ technology.

-Leave no performance behind. Get higher clocks and faster gaming with AMD PowerTune technology on the AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 GHz Edition.

-AMD ZeroCore Power technology allows your AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 GHz Edition to consume virtually no power in its idle state. It even shuts down secondary GPUs in AMD CrossFire™ technology mode to save power when they’re unneeded.

-The market isn’t ready for 4k video, but Radeon™ is. With full support for HDMI® (with 4k) and DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 GHz Edition is set for quad HD.

Specification

-1000MHz Engine Clock
-2GB GDDR5 Memory
-1200MHz Memory Clock (4.8 Gbps GDDR5)
-153.6GB/s memory bandwidth (maximum)
-2.56 TFLOPS Single Precision compute power
-GCN Architecture
-20 Compute Units (1280 Stream Processors)
-80 Texture Units
-128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
-32 Color ROP Units
-Dual Geometry Engines
-Dual Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE)
-256-bit GDDR5 memory interface
-PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface
-DirectX® 11.1-capable graphics
-OpenGL 4.2 support
-Partially Resident Textures (PRT)
-Ultra-high resolution texture streaming technology
-Image quality enhancement technology
-Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing
-Adaptive anti-aliasing
-Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA)
-Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing (EQAA)
-DirectX® 9/10/11 Supersample Anti-Aliasing (SSAA)
-Requires AMD Catalyst™ 12.2 or later
-16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
-AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology2
-Up to 6 displays supported
-Independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays
-Display grouping
-Combine multiple displays to behave like a single large display
-Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio (DDMA)
-AMD App Acceleration3
-Supports OpenCL™ 1.2, DirectCompute 11 & Microsoft C++ AMP
-Double Precision Floating Point
-AMD HD Media Accelerator
-Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
-H.264
-VC-1
-MPEG-2 (SD & HD)
-MVC (Blu-ray 3D)
-MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX/Xvid)
-Adobe Flash
-DXVA 1.0 & 2.0 support
-WMV HD
-Video Codec Engine (VCE)
-Multi-stream hardware H.264 encoder
-Full-fixed mode: 1080p @ 60 FPS encoding
-Hybrid mode: Stream Processor-assisted encoding
-Enhanced Video Quality features
-Advanced post-processing and scaling
-Deblocking
-Denoising
-Automatic deinterlacing
-Mosquito noise reduction
-Edge enhancement
-3:2 pulldown detection
-Advanced video color correction
-Brighter whites processing (Blue Stretch)
-Independent video gamma control
-Flesh tone correction
-Color vibrance control
-Dynamic contrast
-Dynamic video range control
-AMD HD3D technology5
-Stereoscopic 3D display/glasses support
-Blu-ray 3D support
-Stereoscopic 3D gaming
-3rd party Stereoscopic 3D middleware software support
-AMD CrossFire™ multi-GPU technology6
-Supports dual-GPU performance scaling
-Cutting-edge integrated display support
-DisplayPort 1.2
-Max resolution: 4096×2160 per display
-Multi-Stream Transport
-21.6 Gbps bandwidth
-High bit-rate audio
-Quad HD/4k video support
-1080p60 Stereoscopic 3D
-HDMI® (With 4k, 3D, 3GHz, Deep Color and x.v.Color™)
-Max resolution: 4096×2160
-1600p60 Stereoscopic 3D
-Quad HD/4k video support
-Dual-link DVI with HDCP
-Max resolution: 2560×1600
-VGA
-Max resolution: 2048×1536
-Integrated HD audio controller
-Output protected high bit rate 7.1 channel surround sound over HDMI with no additional cables required
-Supports AC-3, AAC, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats
-AMD PowerPlay™ power management technology4
-Automatic power management with low power idle states
-AMD PowerTune technology4
-Intelligent TDP management technology
-Dynamic clockspeed/performance enhancement for games
-AMD ZeroCore Power technology4
-Ultra-low idle power when the connected display is in power saving mode
-Efficient low power mode for desktop work
-Secondary GPUs in an AMD CrossFire™ technology configuration power down when unneeded
-AMD Catalyst™ graphics and HD video configuration software
-Software support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista
-AMD Catalyst™ Control Center – AMD Catalyst™ software application and user interface for setup, configuration, and accessing features of AMD Radeon products.
-Unified Graphics display driver – AMD Catalyst™ software enabling other PC programs and devices to use advanced graphics, video, and features of AMD Radeon™ products.

While the HD79XX series and HD78XX series of GPU’s have different core names, the two cores are very, very similar in design. Similar to the way NVIDIA graphics card compute, the new AMD GCN archetecture has tiny ‘cores within a core’ – stream processors with each processor working on an instruction set until that work has been completed. This is the make up of AMD’s GCN (Graphics Core Next) archetecture which is based on the same 28nm process as the Tahiti cores. There are 20 of these compute units on-board the HD7870 core equalling 1280 stream processors, 160 more than the HD6870 but quite a lot less than the 1536 the HD6970 possessed. Comparing the the HD7870 against the previous gen though is pointless thanks to the new GCN archetecture as even the mighty HD7950 had few more at 1752 and comparing the HD7950 against the HD6970 is like chalk and cheese.

Using the new Pitcairn core, the HD7870 comprises of 20 Graphics Core Next Compute Units (1280 stream processors) which is slightly trimmed down from the higher end 7900 series which has 32 CU’s. With 32 ROPs and a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface (equalling 153.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth), the specifications are twice that of the HD7770 GPU we reviewed earlier. The card also features a 9th generation tessellator which equates to the HD7870 being 425% faster than the HD6970 so programmes that require tessellation should so a big improvement over last generation GPU’s.

AMD suggests that the HD7870’s performance is expected to sit between NVIDIA’s GTX580 and GTX570 cards which makes sense as this where the GPU’s price point lies. As you can see from the slide above, the HD7870 has many advantages over its smaller sister card, the HD7850, namely the extra clockspeed and 16 TU’s which enhances the remainder of the specifications by a fair margin. Both cards have the same 2GB of GDDR5 and 256-bit memory interface.

Let’s take a look at the features of today’s review sample…

Features

AMD CrossFire™ Technology
The AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 GPU supports AMD CrossFire™ Technology and provides excellent multi GPU scaling. With the introduction of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series Graphics, AMD began delivering improved AMD CrossFire™ Technology scaling when using two GPUs. AMD is proud to continue to offer that amazing performance with its newest AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 series graphics products.

AMD Eyefinity Technology
AMD Eyefinity Technology provides advanced multiple monitor technology enabling an incredibly immersive graphic and computing experience with innovative display capabilities, supporting massive desktop workspaces and super-high resolution gaming environments. AMD Eyefinity technology with DisplayPort connectivity enables a single GPU to support up to six independent display outputs simultaneously, depending on the OEM implementation.
AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, one of two cases must be satisfied:

1) Additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors are used;
2) Certified DisplayPort™ adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards

DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s) are used.
With the introduction and wide availability of DisplayPort™ to single-link DVI dongles, option 2 above is a low cost way to convert a set of already-owned monitors into an AMD Eyefinity technology ready display configuration.

Unlike a similar multi monitor gaming solution offered by NVIDIA, AMD Eyefinity technology does not require two graphics cards to work. Therefore, AMD offers a multi monitor gaming solution with potential for a lower setup cost. A single AMD Radeon™ 7970 GPUs can employ AMD Eyefinity technology and AMD CrossFire™ technology to provide an outstanding multi monitor gaming experience. The following chart shows the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 graphics in a dual AMD CrossFire™ configuration versus the NVIDIA SLI GTX 580 in three monitor gaming scenario’s.

Improved Tessellation
The latest iteration of architecture in the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GPU features a brand new Generation of Tesselator (Gen 9) in its Geometry Engine. This features optimizations such as; Increased vertex re-use, Off-chip buffering improvements and larger parameter caches. This helps Improve performance at all tessellation factors at up to 4x the throughput of AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics (Gen 8 ).

AMD HD3D Technology
AMD HD3D Technology is supported by an advanced and open ecosystem that, in conjunction with specific AMD hardware and software technologies, enables 3D display capabilities for many PC applications and experiences.

Your PC has evolved, offering unprecedented amount of games, photos and movies for you to play, watch, design, create, share and download in 3D. With the arrival of the latest in 3D technology you can now enjoy an enhanced visual experience on Stereo 3D-capable desktops and notebooks powered by AMD HD3D Technology.

HDMI 1.4a
More bandwith than standard HDMI allows full implementation of 60Hz Stereo 3D. Standard HDMI ports do not have adequate bandwidth for more than 3D 1080p at 24fps.

Ultra-high resolution (4k Panels)
– Current implementations currently use 4*DVI or 2*DP 1.1, which is expensive and unwieldy.
– AMD will move to a single-connector output for 4k via DP 1.2 HBR2 and HDMI 1.4a 3GHz mode.

AMD Quad Buffer SDK
– Native 3D support for Developers.
– functions with Dx9, 10 and 11
– Native support scheduled for Windows 8
Nearly 600 games support AMD’s implementation of 3D either natively or through middleware partners. Also support for many 3D displays already on the market including Samsung and LG’s proprietry implementation.

Video Codec Engine (VCE)
– H.264 HD Encoder
– Power efficient
– faster than realtime 1080p @ 60 FPS
– Variable Compression Quality
– Multiple Input Options:- (1) Frame Buffer, (2) GPU Display. (2) is useful for wireless displays.

AMD ZeroCore power

When a discrete GPU is in a static screen state it works to minimize idle power by enabling a host of active power saving functions including (but not limited to); clock gating, power gating, memory compression, and a host of other features. However, GPUs with AMD’s exclusive ZeroCore Power technology can take energy savings to entirely new heights by completely powering down the core GPU while the rest of the system remains active.

Nearly all PCs can be configured to turn off their displays after a long period of inactivity. This is known as the long idle state; where the screen is blanked but the rest of the system remains in an active and working power state (ACPI G0/S0). As soon as the system goes into long idle state and applications are not actively changing the screen contents, the GPU enters the ZeroCore power state. In the ZeroCore power state, the GPU core (including the 3D engine / compute units, multimedia and audio engines, displays, memory interfaces, etc.) is completely powered down.

However, one cannot simply remove the GPU and its associated device context completely; particularly when it is the only GPU in the system as is the case in many enthusiast platforms. The operating system and SBIOS must still be aware that a GPU is still present in the system. For this reason, the ZeroCore Power state maintains a very small bus control block to ensure that GPU context is still visible to the operating system and SBIOS. The ZeroCore power state also manages the power sequencing of the GPU to ensure that the power up/down mechanism is self-contained and independent of the rest of the system.

The enablement of the ZeroCore Power feature is controlled by the driver. The driver monitors the display contents and allows the GPU to enter the ZeroCore Power in the condition that the GPU enters long idle and subsequent work requests are no longer being submitted to the engine. If any applications update the screen contents, ZeroCore Power technology can periodically wake the GPU to update the framebuffer contents and put the GPU back into the ZeroCore Power state. Furthermore, applications such as Windows 7 desktop gadgets are architected to minimize activity and save power in the long idle state. These applications are active during screen-on mode to display dynamic content such as weather, RSS feeds, stock symbols, system status, etc. but also have the intelligence to suspend any updates and activity when the system enters long idle. These applications will not wake the GPU from the ZeroCore Power state in long idle.

AMD ZeroCore Power technology delivers tremendous energy savings. Many PCs remain in the long idle state for a variety of use cases that are highly relevant to everyday consumers, enthusiasts and professionals. In ZeroCore Power mode, users can still enjoy non-graphics activities such as file serving/streaming, motherboard audio and music, and remote access while the GPU core is essentially powered off.

ZeroCore Power technology also scales with AMD CrossFire™ technology. With an AMD CrossFire platform, all non-primary GPUs are in the ZeroCore Power state when not in use. For AMD CrossFire workloads, the driver will engage the non-primary GPUs to deliver full performance on-demand. The primary GPU can also enter the ZeroCore Power state during long idle as well. This delivers scalable benefits for the enthusiast. First, it effectively removes the power increase for users of AMD CrossFire under idle and light (single GPU) workloads. Second, it removes the noise penalty multiGPU users have always had to endure since the GPU fans are off in ZeroCore Power mode.

GCN Architecture

Available on select, high-performance AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series graphics products, the Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture is a radically new approach to the design of a consumer GPU.

Most importantly, it is the world’s first 28nm GPU architecture, which enables AMD to fit up to 4.3 billion transistors-the most basic building blocks of a GPU-into approximately the same space once needed to fit 2.6 billion. Increasing transistor density by greater than 60% is more than just a feat of engineering-it’s responsible for the world’s most powerful and advanced GPU.1

Designed to push not only the boundaries of DirectX® 11 gaming, the GCN Architecture is also AMD’s first design specifically engineered for general computing. Equipped with up to 32 compute units (2048 stream processors), each containing a scalar coprocessor, AMD’s 28nm GPUs are more than capable of handling workloads-and programming languages-traditionally exclusive to the processor. Coupled with the dramatic rise of GPU-aware programming languages like C++ AMP and OpenCL™, the GCN Architecture is truly the right architecture for the right time.

Performance

In simple terms, increasing the number of transistors in a GPU has a big impact on the potential performance of a graphics card-but transistors alone are not enough. It takes a truly great design, like the GCN Architecture, to effectively utilize that potential for real-world performance.

Below you will find just a few examples of how this truly next-generation architecture delivers on one very simple design goal: enable the world’s most powerful graphics cards.1

Starting with GPU utilization, AMD has taken great strides to ensure that the GCN Architecture is capable of efficiently using its hardware resources. This seems like such a simple idea, but designing a GPU to frequently approach its peak theoretical performance is a challenge the GCN Architecture tackles with ease.

The GCN Architecture is designed for improved utilization, which ensures that the GPU is making optimal use of its resources for maximum performance.

DirectX® 11 tessellation has also seen incredible improvement from previous AMD Radeon™ products. On the left in the image below, a chart plots the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970’s performance across 32 levels of tessellation, and the results are stunning: a 350% boost at the highest factors.2 And on the right, the GCN Architecture’s ability to effectively utilize its potential again shines through: highly-tessellated games are decisively faster by an average of 79%!

The GCN Architecture also benefits from dramatically improved tessellation performance. Games featuring this DirectX® 11 technology are considerably faster than they were on the previous generation of AMD Radeon™ products.

Every gamer knows that the GPU’s clockspeed also has a big impact on the performance of a graphics card, and the GCN Architecture keeps that in mind.

But what many don’t know is that every graphics card is designed to draw only a certain amount of power from your PC’s power supply. This is called the Thermal Design Profile, or TDP, and it’s critical that the GPU architecture is capable of making the most of every watt. The GCN Architecture can do that thanks to a technology called AMD PowerTune technology.

AMD PowerTune is an intelligent system that performs real-time analysis of the games and applications that utilize a GPU. Examples of such software might include Battlefield 3 or Furmark. In the event that an application is not making the most of the power available to the GPU, AMD PowerTune can improve that application’s performance by raising the GPU’s clockspeed by up to 30%! Best of all, this technology is completely automatic and is designed specifically to improve gaming performance.

Available on all 28nm AMD Radeon™ products, AMD PowerTune is designed to enable significantly higher clockspeeds in your favorite games-automatically!

Image Quality

But performance is not enough for today’s demanding gamers. Image quality, or the clarity and accuracy of textures and effects, is equally important. The GCN Architecture is equipped with three key technologies that dramatically raise the bar in this regard.

Partially Resident Textures (PRT)
Even in the latest titles, gamers may have noticed that games often re-use or repeat textures, particularly on the ground or in background scenery such as mountains or trees. This is because increasing the physical size or number of textures in a game can have a negative impact on the performance of a GPU. PRT is a radical new technology that hopes to break this cycle.

PRT can utilize absolutely enormous texture files, up to 32 terabytes large, with minimal performance impact. PRT accomplishes this by streaming small bits of these massive textures into the GPU as needed, giving compatible games a virtually endless supply of unique texture data it can apply to the game world. The GCN Architecture in 28nm AMD Radeon™ products is the first GPU design to feature a hardware implementation of this technology.

Partially Resident Textures (PRT) enables future games to utilize ultra-high resolution textures with the same performance as today’s small and often repetitive textures.

Improved Anisotropic Filtering (AF)

Available on every modern GPU, anisotropic filtering is a technique that assists the GPU in making sure textures in your favorite games remain razor sharp, even at a distance. Most games now offer the ability to enable this feature, and the AMD Catalyst™ driver suite has long provided players with the option to force enable anisotropic filtering for all of their games.

Where every GPU design differs, however, is in the way the anisotropic filtering is actually executed. The GCN Architecture has been specifically optimized to produce superior results when AF is enabled.

Improved anisotropic filtering in products like the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series ensure gamers get sharper, better textures when this technology is enabled.

Improved DirectX® 11 Tessellation
As DirectX® 11 titles become more mature, game developers are naturally pushing the envelope of realism by utilizing a greater degree of special rendering effects. One such effect is tessellation, which can dynamically generate additional detail in a scene on the fly.

A wireframe scene of a rally car in DiRT 3 driving through water. On the left, notice there are no ripples. On the right, after tessellation, there is new and dynamic detail in the game.

As with anisotropic filtering, tessellation is not new to GPUs, but the manner in which tessellation is executed can have a large impact on the gaming experience. Because of this, the GCN Architecture has again been optimized to deliver up to 4x the performance of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 Series in heavily-tessellated games.

First Look

HD7870 Front

The HD7870 looks almost identical to the 7900 cards thanks to the glossy black plastic shroud complete with red insert. The fan sports a 1GHz edition sticker but for all intents and purposes, 1GHz is the reference clockspeed on the core of all HD7870 GPU’s save for special OC editions by AMD partners.

HD7870 Rear

To rear of the card we see AMD have wisely stuck with the black PCB used across the range. There is no backplate to protect the exposed components so care, as always should be taken when handling. The PCB measures 24.5cm long with a 5mm overhang by the shroud making the card 25cm long in total which is 2cm shorter than the HD7970 and almost 3cm shorter than the card it directly replaces, the HD5870.

I/O Ports

The card features the standard compliment of input/output ports with a DVI, HDMI accompanied by twin mini-DisplayPorts.

Crossfire Capability

The HD7870 is crossfire capable however, as there is only one crossfire tab, the card can only be paired up with one other 7800 series GPU.

Power Ports

Twin PCIe 6pin power ports are found on the front side of the card which is perhaps the best place to have the power ports as this allows for greater case compatibility by restricting the overall length of the graphics card. By having twin 6pin PCIe power ports and working on a PCI Express port we can determine that the theoretical maximum power consumption cannot exceed 225W however in practice the AMD claim the card to have a TDP of 175W. This of course is not taking into consideration AMD’s ZeroCore power technology which effectively nullifies any meaningful power consumption of the GPU (<5W in an idle state).

Let’s strip this bad boy to the bone…

Closer Look

HD7870 Cooler

The HD7870 cooler has a comparatively small aluminium finned cooler atop of a thick copper base. Three heat pipes shoot out from the coolers base plate to assist in equal heat dissipation. forming part of the cooling design is a bracket which serves to cool the memory directly with a cut-out to keep the VRM passively cool with air being forced over that area between the aluminium finned heatsink array.

HD7870 Naked

Removing the cooler was a tiresome affair with a multitude of screws needing to be removed from both the PCB and I/O backplate. The core bracket is still there which all ATI/AMD users will be familiar with.

The black PCB is awash with solid caps and inductors yet strangely, the VRM area is not in the usual place, instead it nestles next to the I/O area.

HD7870 Voltage Regulation Module

The VRM is controlled by the CHL9229G multi-phase digital controller capable of controlling upto 8 phase units with this example having a 5-phase design.

HD7870 Memory

The HD7870 features 2GB of GDDR5 made op of 8x256MB modules. The memory chips come courtesy of HYNIX and are labelled as H5GQ2H24MFA T2C. These chips are rated to run at 1250MHz (5GB/s effective) so we expect some good overclocking results on the memory.

HD7870 Pitcairn Core

Finally we reach the beating heart of the HD7870, the Pitcairn XT core. Based on the new 28nm manufacturing process, the Pitcairn GPU is a trimmed down version of the Tahiti core of the 7900 series. AMD have managed to cram 2.8billion transistors into a 212mm square die. Impressive indeed!

Enough of the small talk though because it’s time we got this show on the road. Let’s move on to our test setup and begin our suite of benchmark tests…

Test Setup

With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.

Graphics cards on test:

AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5
Zotac GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition ‘S’ 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5

For this review we will be using the very latest CAT 11.12 drivers.

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4-M
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Hitachi SATA II 250GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
We have also updated our range of benchmarks to include the following games which will give the graphics cards a challenge and sort the wheat from the chaff. Each benchmark will be run at both stock and maximum overclock settings and utilise 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions along with AA at various levels (application dependent):

Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Let’s see how today’s cards performed…

Overclocking, Temperature & Power Consumption Analysis

The HD7870 arrives at a stock clocked corespeed of 1GHz:

As we have seen with both the 7900 and 7700 graphics card families of AMD’s range, the latest range come highly clocked but with that there has been ample overclocking headroom. Adjusting Powertune to eradicate and power consumption interference we adjusted powertune to its maximum and set about overclocking.

Impressive! An extra 190MHz was attained on the core which is great news for those who want a quick and easy boost to the power of the GPU. As expected, the memory overclock was also extremely good taking into consideration the very conservative stock speed. These two overclocks together should prove to boost the benchmark scores which we will record throughout our suite of tests.

Power Consumption
To test for power consumption we do not use anything to technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.

With no voltage adjustment available at the time of writing it came as little surprise that both stock and overclocked power consumption results were very similar. The HD7870 scored near the top of our charts in this area, beating other NVIDIA cards on test and bettered only by the HD7870’s smaller siblings, the HD7700 cards.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we ran Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained.

The HD7870 proved to be one very cool customer at stock speeds with the card never surpassing the 70c mark with a maximum recorded temperature of just 67c. Obviously this depends on your own setup but compared to other cards on test it performed very well indeed. Overclocked temperatures were however a little higher but certainly nothing to worry about with a relatively cool 75c.

Let’s move on to our suite of benchmarks…

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next instalment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Metro 2033

Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.

The results below were obtained from the builtin benchmark utility from the game. All the settings were set to

DiRT 3

As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Futuremark: 3DMark 2011

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. The benchmark was run in both Performance and Extreme presets.

Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Conclusion

The AMD HD7870 is an interesting proposition for AMD to make in an already bulging graphics card market. Throughout the majority of the benchmarks we have run today, it soundly beat the reference NVIDIA GTX570 which translates to HD6970 performance, AMD’s last gen single core flaghip model. So if you were thinking of ‘upgrading’ from the HD6950/70 platform then quite simply, you are unlikely to notice and discernible difference in raw performance between those cards and the HD7870 we have reviewed today. AMD however argue that the HD7870 is not the spiritual successor to the HD6970. You see AMD historically work on a biennial life cycle with enthusiasts at this price point expected to replace their cards every couple of years so AMD would have you believe this is the HD5870’s direct replacement which going from today’s HD7870’s performance, would certainly make the card a worthy upgrade.

The fly in the ointment of course are the recent aggressive price cuts of AMD’s direct competitor which makes the HD7870 a difficult proposition to recommend when for a little more cash, NVIDIA’s last gen flagship, the GTX580 1.5GB would make more sense. If however AMD’s support and features appeal, the HD7870 comes recommended. It does however suffer from the same Achilles heal of the HD7900 range; the inflated price and the same impairment of the HD7700 cards; same performance of the last generation. At this highly competitive segment in the GPU market, bang per buck means everything and this is where the HD7870, at least at its current price of around £275, makes recommending it over other offerings very difficult.

The HD7870 is far from being a bad card, it clearly isn’t however, like its bigger brother, it needs a price cut to be truly competitive against some very strong competition. A worthy upgrade from the HD5870 it is and it soundly beats the GTX570 on most bases but those upgrading from a high end card from the previous generation such as NVIDIA’s 5 series or AMD’s 6900 family might find the upgrade does not give them the large boost in performance they were hoping for.

Pros:
– Good Overclocking
– Feature Packed
– Very cool running
– Low Power consumption

Cons:
– Could be cheaper in comparison to performance