Factory overclocked and super cooled, the MSI R7870 Hawk swoops in for the kill. See how it fairs against the competition in our latest in-depth review…
Product on Review: R7870 HAWK 2GD5/OC
Manufacturer and Sponsor: MSI
Street Price: £239.95
MSI don’t do things by halves, in fact they could be accused of offering every possible alternative. Take for example the HD7000 series. Not content with providing the enthusiast with a faster than reference HD7870, they have pushed the envelope once again and set free the R7870 HAWK. The HAWK is an evolution of the hugely popular HD7870 Twin Frozr III OC design, pushing the overclocks higher still to 1100MHz on the core from and already overclocked 1050MHz. Coupled with a re-designed custom cooler and enhanced voltage regulation, the HAWK represents extremely good value for money in that the price is only £10 more than the OC edition. To make the product even more tempting, AMD have recently dropped the price of the HD7000 series so the example we have for review today can be had for around the £240 mark.
The small 50MHz increase is not the prime attraction of the HAWK though, the internals have been re-jigged to allow for some serious overclocking potential. As we will see, the HD7870, which is already a very powerful graphics card, has the potential to trade blows with the ultra high end cards when this extra cooling and voltage regulation is utilised. With the price of the 7900 also receiving price cuts, we will be investigating to see if the R7870 Hawk represents a tantalising proposition to the overclocker who is not only looking for bang per buck but also giant killing performance.
About MSI (In their own words)
MSI is proud of its more than 20 years experience in designing and manufacturing high performance IT products. The product lines of MSI are mainboards, graphic cards, notebooks, consumer electronics, barebones, networking and server products, and fully integrated add-on peripherals. With its ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 qualified facilities, MSI products provide the best performance, reliability and value-increasing productivity.
We distribute our products through offices located in The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, China, Korea, India and Australia. MSI markets its products to distributors, computer system manufacturers, and system integrators. For more information about the company go to Specification
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…
R7870 HAWK Specific Features:
– Unlocked BIOS for higher overclocking potential
– Digital PWM Controller
– Enhanced Power Design
– GPU Reactor, enhancing overclock stability
– Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design
– Military Class III Components
– Triple Voltage Read Points
– Triple Overvoltage
– Triple Temp Monitors
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.
The front of the package features the F-117 ‘Nighthawk’ of USAF fame with the product title ‘R7870 HAWK’ directly beneath. The features of the graphics card are displayed uppermost with an additional ‘GPU Reactor’ also in-situ.
Like most premium products, the R7870 has a flip up lid which displays in great detail the man features of the GPU. Digital Power, military III components, 3×3 OC kit and dust removal technology are all described in plain English so you will be fully aware of what you are buying.
Flipping the box over we find the standard features set is displayed along with the minimum requirements which for reference are a PCI-e port capable of 16X, a 550W PSU with 2x6pin PCI-e connectors, 1GB of system memory and of course a CD rom drive for the driver/utility disc.
The card itself is held fast in a stiff foam brace which will ensure there is no movement inside the box that can damage the GPU in transit. For handling, the card comes safely wrapped in an anti-static bag with the accessories stored separately behind the foam brace and inside a separate cardboard compartment.
Like all MSI products, the R7870 Hawk comes equipped with a good supply of accessories which include: 2x twin MOLEX-6pin PCI-e adaptors, a couple of user guides, utility CD, 3 voltage read adaptors (for use with a multimeter), DP to mini DP adaptor, a a certificate of quality.
Let’s move on to the graphics card itself…
Immediately noticeable is the refreshed Twin Frozr design. Now in it’s 4th evolution, the Twin Frozr cooler utilises propeller blade technology which enlarges the angle of airflow. When cool, upon start these 8cm fans will also spin 30 seconds in reverse to remove an accumulated dust from the heatsink. Great if you like a clean GPU, not so good if you want to keep your case clean too!
The rear of the card features a backplate which almost stretches to the I/O area. The centrepiece of the backplate is the ‘GPU Reactor’, or rather a plastic blue and silver shield protecting the reactor. We will cover what lays beneath overleaf. The shield will glow blue when powered via four SMD’s which light up the MSI moniker very well. Caution should be added to the fact that the GPU reactor shield protrudes by 1cm so you may have difficulty placing this card in close proximity to other expansion cards.
MSI perhaps chose the wrong side of the card to be displayed as in my humble opinion, I would have preferred to have seen the nickel plated heatpipes instead. Regardless, the side of the card is good looking and shows off both the outer cowl,, mid-plate and the aluminium heatsink.
The R7870 has a single Crossfire tab so while it can be used in a dual card setup, any more than this would be impossible so their will be no triple CrossfireX capability I’m afraid.
Three connectors found at the end of the card can be used for reading the voltage of the memory, auxiliary and of course the GPU core rather than relying on inaccurate software. You will of course have to provide your own Multi-meter device for this purpose but most extreme coolers for which this feature was intended will no doubt have one or two in their possession.
Thankfully, MSI have kept the power ports of the reference design despite the powerful voltage regulation of the card. Just a couple of 6pin PCIe power ports capable of delivering 75w each are all that is required along with the 75W from the PCIe port makes a maximum TDP of 225W although in reality the card will use less than this theoretical maximum.
The heatpipes of the MSI R7870 Hawk are hidden away on the same side of the gold fingers which is a shame as I see little point in coating them in nickel if you are not going to have them on display. Regardless, the 5 heatpipes certainly look to have the heat dissipation of the card fully under control so let’s move on to the cards disassembly and take a closer look at what lays beneath…
As stated earlier, perhaps the most attractive feature of the MSI R7870 Hawk is the GPU reactor. This neat little device filters the voltage of the GPU, hence why it is positioned so close the core to maximise the effect. By filtering the voltage, the ripple is less so overclocks and stability are enhanced.
The card features a huge heatsink which stretches the full lenth of the card. The only area it actively cools though is the GPU core which has direct contact to the base of the cooler. 3x6mm Heatpipes are joined by 2x 8mm ‘SuperPipes’ which draw heat away from the base plate and distribute it evenly across the array of aluminium fins.
Memory and the VRM area are cooled via means of a mid-plate which is secured in place by six screws and makes contact via thermal pads. As a secondary plus point, the mid-plate also acts as a brace preventing the card from bowing under the sheer weight of the heatsink.
With all of the cooling removed we get to see the card as ‘nature’ intended. Your gaze is immidiately attracted to the Gold chokes which look fantastic against the backdrop of the black PCB. So much so it is a crime to hide them out of sight! Everything is where you would expect it to be on a midrange card with the VRM positioned towards the IO area rather than the power ports on higher end cards.
Here we see that MSI have also included the Dual BIOS switch seen in other AMD examples. This switch is used to toggle between regular and LN2 BIOS revisions, the latter giving more freedom to voltage ranges but potentially unsafe for air cooling. The switch also serves as a back-up device should a future BIOS flash be corrupt.
Back to the Military III components and we see that the VRM module for the R7870 Hawk is made up of an 8+2+1 phase design with solid state chokes used for the Core and memory and a single ferrite choke for the PLL. The VRM also makes use of Copper MOSFETs which allow for a 100% increase in current capability according to MSI.
Controlling the voltage is the same CHiL 8225G controller found on the AMD reference design which should allow the use of most GPU overclocking software applications.
The Hynix memory used on the R7870 comes courtesy of Hynix and is specified to run at 1250MHz (5000MHz effective) but I’m sure we can squeeze a little more than that from it considering the success we have had with this memory type in other graphics cards.
Finally we reach the Pitcairn XT core. BAsed on 28nm technology it has a transistor count of 2.8 billion and is a trimmed down version of the range topping Tahiti core found on flagship HD7900 series cards.
Let’s see if all of this technology translates to superior 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:
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce
NVIDIA GTX670
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
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
Motherboard: MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
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 – Kingston HyperX 240GB
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):
Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…
At stock clocks the card weighs in at a factory overclock of 1100MHz on the core. This is 50MHz higher than the Twin Frozr III equiped card and 100MHz higher than the ‘GHz edition’ reference design.
To overclock the MSI card we used MSI’s latest version of the fantastic Afterburner utility. This allows us to adjust not only the core and memory freqencies but also make fine adjustments to three voltages, core, memory and auxiliary.
With the voltages and fan speeds ramped up we managed to max out the memory frequency to 1450MHz (5800 effective) and the core to a crazy fast 1270MHz! This allowed the card to break the 100 GTexels/s mark which should give us some very impressive results in our suite of benchmarks.
To test for power consumption we do not use anything too technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.
Power consumption was nothing to write home about with the MSI card being placed exactly where we expected it to be. With the additional voltages maximised, the card consumed more than a reference clocked HD7970 which just goes to show how much power the Hawk has in reserve should you wish to make use of it.
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 temps of the card were good but not great. I expected the Twin Frozr design to perform better in all honesty. It is however worth remembering that the MSI card is pre-overclocked and many of the cards above are reference clockspeeds so credit should be given to the Twin Frozr design because the cards temperature only rose 4c when a huge amount of voltage and overclocks were applied.
Acoustics
Under normal operating conditions, the Twin Frozr IV cooler is very quiet. It cannot be hard above the system fans when idle and barely reaches a murmur under normal gaming conditions. With the fan speed increased to cope with our overclock, the silence was soon broken by a whining noise which I certainly couldn’t tolerate on a 24/7 basis. That said it is unlikely you will need to manually increase the fans save for benchmarking so it is no major issue.
Let’s move on to our suite of benchmarks…
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.
To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.
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.
The results below were obtained from the built-in benchmark utility from the game.
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.
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.
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.
Had we sampled this card a few months back upon the R7870’s release we would have primarily dismissed it as an expensive white elephant because for a similar price, competing NVIDIA examples offered better value. However, with the recent AMD price drops, the R7870 HAWK now poses a radically different proposition because at £240, this is a card that offers HD7970 performance (when overclocked) and is equal to the NVIDIA GTX580 at factory overclocked clockspeeds. It can hold its own against reference flagship models yet cost a fair bit cheaper. It is however still one of the most expensive HD7870 cards currently available so whether this card represents value for money or still too expensive will depend a lot on your requirements. From one perspective it offers superior performance and quite possibly it’s the fastest mid-range card currently available. On the other hand at £240 it is still cannot be classed as cheap.
The HD7850/70 models are rapidly gaining a reputation for being overclocking monsters and with the additional tools the MSI R7870 Hawk provides, overclocking just became easier, safer and most importantly for the extreme overclockers out there the overclocks attainable must surely be the best available on a Pitcairn based graphics card. That isn’t to see this card is only for the extreme end of the spectrum, it clearly isn’t because with the Twin Frozr IV cooling design you can be assured of excellent air cooling properties.
I find it hard to pick any major faults with the R7870 Hawk. It looks the business, has good, if somewhat noisy (under heavy load) cooling yet best of all, it overclocks magnificently. While some may claim it is still too expensive despite the recent aggressive AMD price cuts, you may want to consider what the competition offer because for £240, there is no other AMD 7870 which has the features of the MSI R7870 Hawk or overclocks as high. Couple this with it being £60 cheaper than NVIDIA’s similarly performing card, the GTX580, the MSI R7870 HAWK begins to make much more sense.
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to MSI for providing today’s review sample.
We distribute our products through offices located in The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, China, Korea, India and Australia. MSI markets its products to distributors, computer system manufacturers, and system integrators. For more information about the company go to Specification
MSI R7870 HAWK
Graphics Engine: ATI Radeon HD 7870
Bus Standard: PCI Express x16 3.0
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Size(MB): 2048
Memory Interface: 256 bits
Core Clock Speed(MHz): 1100
Memory Clock Speed(MHz): 4800
Memory Bandwidth(GB/sec) 153.6
Texture Fill Rate(GTexels/sec) 88
DVI Output 1
HDMI-Output 1
Mini DisplayPort 2
HDCP Support Y
HDMI Support Y
Dual-link DVI Y
Display Output (Max Resolution) 2560×1600
RAMDACs 400
DirectX Version Support 11
OpenGL Version Support 4.2
CrossFire Support Y
Card Dimension(mm) 277 x 120 x 40.5mm
Graphics Engine: ATI Radeon HD 7870
Bus Standard: PCI Express x16 3.0
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Size(MB): 2048
Memory Interface: 256 bits
Core Clock Speed(MHz): 1100
Memory Clock Speed(MHz): 4800
Memory Bandwidth(GB/sec) 153.6
Texture Fill Rate(GTexels/sec) 88
DVI Output 1
HDMI-Output 1
Mini DisplayPort 2
HDCP Support Y
HDMI Support Y
Dual-link DVI Y
Display Output (Max Resolution) 2560×1600
RAMDACs 400
DirectX Version Support 11
OpenGL Version Support 4.2
CrossFire Support Y
Card Dimension(mm) 277 x 120 x 40.5mm
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
R7870 HAWK Specific Features:
– Unlocked BIOS for higher overclocking potential
– Digital PWM Controller
– Enhanced Power Design
– GPU Reactor, enhancing overclock stability
– Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design
– Military Class III Components
– Triple Voltage Read Points
– Triple Overvoltage
– Triple Temp Monitors
Afterburner
Afterburner co-development by MSI and Rivatuner, MSI releases the ultimate graphics card utility “Afterburner”. This utility enables all MSI graphics cards users to boost performance and to monitor all kinds of critical information in real-time. Afterburner is a completely free utility which is compatible with almost all MSI graphics cards.
MSI Solid Capacitor Graphic Cards
MSI Solid Capacitor Graphic Card MSI Graphics Card products utilities high quality solid capacitor. For the gamers and high-end users, this feature not only means that product has better quality components within, but also provide much stronger support while users want to engage in hard-core tuning.
Live Update 5
MSI Live Update 5 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.
HDMI + DVI Output
HDMI + DVI Output HDMI and DVI are the most comprehensive used interfaces for high definition video display. MSI adopts two interfaces to provide a complete output solution for users to enjoy the latest HD video such as blu-ray movie.
DirectX 11
The first fully Microsoft DirectX® 11-compatible GPUs in their class, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series are designed to deliver unbelievable HD gaming performance for the latest games and DirectX® 11 applications so you can dominate the competition.
HDMI convertible output
Dual-link DVI convertible output supports Video/Audio signal integration through DVI to HDMI interface, which drivers resolution of a digital display up to 1920×1200 or higher.
Blu-ray and HD DVD Support
Both support the latest specifications of Blu-ray and HD DVD(High Definition DVD). It comes with the latest GPU and DDRIII superior processing performance in which users can easily enjoy the high-definition video of 1920×1080(1080p/i).
HDMI Support
MSI graphics cards offer the HDMI functionality to provide access to premium digital content. HDMI enables gaming enthusiasts to seamlessly connect to their LCD monitor to bring the ultimate multimedia experience. (Only 1 single HDMI cable is required while streaming audio/video data to flat-panel display devices, such as Plasma/LCD TVs, or projector.)
Meet RoHS regulations
MSI products are the first to be in conformity of the EU’s RoHS(Restriction of Hazardous Substances) regulations, reducing heavy metals and toxic materials in the products. This is an effort made for the Earth, and essentially for a clean future.
HDCP Support
The HDCP provides a robust, cost-effective and transparent method for transmitting and receiving digital entertainment similar to DVI/HDMI-compliant digital displays. HDCP encrypts the date transmitted between the DVI/HDMI connector on the graphics adapter and the display.
Afterburner co-development by MSI and Rivatuner, MSI releases the ultimate graphics card utility “Afterburner”. This utility enables all MSI graphics cards users to boost performance and to monitor all kinds of critical information in real-time. Afterburner is a completely free utility which is compatible with almost all MSI graphics cards.
MSI Solid Capacitor Graphic Cards
MSI Solid Capacitor Graphic Card MSI Graphics Card products utilities high quality solid capacitor. For the gamers and high-end users, this feature not only means that product has better quality components within, but also provide much stronger support while users want to engage in hard-core tuning.
Live Update 5
MSI Live Update 5 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.
HDMI + DVI Output
HDMI + DVI Output HDMI and DVI are the most comprehensive used interfaces for high definition video display. MSI adopts two interfaces to provide a complete output solution for users to enjoy the latest HD video such as blu-ray movie.
DirectX 11
The first fully Microsoft DirectX® 11-compatible GPUs in their class, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series are designed to deliver unbelievable HD gaming performance for the latest games and DirectX® 11 applications so you can dominate the competition.
HDMI convertible output
Dual-link DVI convertible output supports Video/Audio signal integration through DVI to HDMI interface, which drivers resolution of a digital display up to 1920×1200 or higher.
Blu-ray and HD DVD Support
Both support the latest specifications of Blu-ray and HD DVD(High Definition DVD). It comes with the latest GPU and DDRIII superior processing performance in which users can easily enjoy the high-definition video of 1920×1080(1080p/i).
HDMI Support
MSI graphics cards offer the HDMI functionality to provide access to premium digital content. HDMI enables gaming enthusiasts to seamlessly connect to their LCD monitor to bring the ultimate multimedia experience. (Only 1 single HDMI cable is required while streaming audio/video data to flat-panel display devices, such as Plasma/LCD TVs, or projector.)
Meet RoHS regulations
MSI products are the first to be in conformity of the EU’s RoHS(Restriction of Hazardous Substances) regulations, reducing heavy metals and toxic materials in the products. This is an effort made for the Earth, and essentially for a clean future.
HDCP Support
The HDCP provides a robust, cost-effective and transparent method for transmitting and receiving digital entertainment similar to DVI/HDMI-compliant digital displays. HDCP encrypts the date transmitted between the DVI/HDMI connector on the graphics adapter and the display.
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.
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.
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.
Packaging & Accessories
Box Front
The front of the package features the F-117 ‘Nighthawk’ of USAF fame with the product title ‘R7870 HAWK’ directly beneath. The features of the graphics card are displayed uppermost with an additional ‘GPU Reactor’ also in-situ.
Box Lid
Like most premium products, the R7870 has a flip up lid which displays in great detail the man features of the GPU. Digital Power, military III components, 3×3 OC kit and dust removal technology are all described in plain English so you will be fully aware of what you are buying.
Box Rear
Flipping the box over we find the standard features set is displayed along with the minimum requirements which for reference are a PCI-e port capable of 16X, a 550W PSU with 2x6pin PCI-e connectors, 1GB of system memory and of course a CD rom drive for the driver/utility disc.
Inner Packaging
The card itself is held fast in a stiff foam brace which will ensure there is no movement inside the box that can damage the GPU in transit. For handling, the card comes safely wrapped in an anti-static bag with the accessories stored separately behind the foam brace and inside a separate cardboard compartment.
Accessories
Like all MSI products, the R7870 Hawk comes equipped with a good supply of accessories which include: 2x twin MOLEX-6pin PCI-e adaptors, a couple of user guides, utility CD, 3 voltage read adaptors (for use with a multimeter), DP to mini DP adaptor, a a certificate of quality.
Let’s move on to the graphics card itself…
First Look
R7870 Top
Immediately noticeable is the refreshed Twin Frozr design. Now in it’s 4th evolution, the Twin Frozr cooler utilises propeller blade technology which enlarges the angle of airflow. When cool, upon start these 8cm fans will also spin 30 seconds in reverse to remove an accumulated dust from the heatsink. Great if you like a clean GPU, not so good if you want to keep your case clean too!
R7870 Backplate
The rear of the card features a backplate which almost stretches to the I/O area. The centrepiece of the backplate is the ‘GPU Reactor’, or rather a plastic blue and silver shield protecting the reactor. We will cover what lays beneath overleaf. The shield will glow blue when powered via four SMD’s which light up the MSI moniker very well. Caution should be added to the fact that the GPU reactor shield protrudes by 1cm so you may have difficulty placing this card in close proximity to other expansion cards.
Profile
MSI perhaps chose the wrong side of the card to be displayed as in my humble opinion, I would have preferred to have seen the nickel plated heatpipes instead. Regardless, the side of the card is good looking and shows off both the outer cowl,, mid-plate and the aluminium heatsink.
Crossfire
The R7870 has a single Crossfire tab so while it can be used in a dual card setup, any more than this would be impossible so their will be no triple CrossfireX capability I’m afraid.
Voltage Read Points
Three connectors found at the end of the card can be used for reading the voltage of the memory, auxiliary and of course the GPU core rather than relying on inaccurate software. You will of course have to provide your own Multi-meter device for this purpose but most extreme coolers for which this feature was intended will no doubt have one or two in their possession.
PCIe Power Ports
Thankfully, MSI have kept the power ports of the reference design despite the powerful voltage regulation of the card. Just a couple of 6pin PCIe power ports capable of delivering 75w each are all that is required along with the 75W from the PCIe port makes a maximum TDP of 225W although in reality the card will use less than this theoretical maximum.
Heatpipes
The heatpipes of the MSI R7870 Hawk are hidden away on the same side of the gold fingers which is a shame as I see little point in coating them in nickel if you are not going to have them on display. Regardless, the 5 heatpipes certainly look to have the heat dissipation of the card fully under control so let’s move on to the cards disassembly and take a closer look at what lays beneath…
Closer Look
GPU Reactor
As stated earlier, perhaps the most attractive feature of the MSI R7870 Hawk is the GPU reactor. This neat little device filters the voltage of the GPU, hence why it is positioned so close the core to maximise the effect. By filtering the voltage, the ripple is less so overclocks and stability are enhanced.
Heatsink
The card features a huge heatsink which stretches the full lenth of the card. The only area it actively cools though is the GPU core which has direct contact to the base of the cooler. 3x6mm Heatpipes are joined by 2x 8mm ‘SuperPipes’ which draw heat away from the base plate and distribute it evenly across the array of aluminium fins.
Mid-plate
Memory and the VRM area are cooled via means of a mid-plate which is secured in place by six screws and makes contact via thermal pads. As a secondary plus point, the mid-plate also acts as a brace preventing the card from bowing under the sheer weight of the heatsink.
Naked R7870 Hawk
With all of the cooling removed we get to see the card as ‘nature’ intended. Your gaze is immidiately attracted to the Gold chokes which look fantastic against the backdrop of the black PCB. So much so it is a crime to hide them out of sight! Everything is where you would expect it to be on a midrange card with the VRM positioned towards the IO area rather than the power ports on higher end cards.
Dual BIOS switch
Here we see that MSI have also included the Dual BIOS switch seen in other AMD examples. This switch is used to toggle between regular and LN2 BIOS revisions, the latter giving more freedom to voltage ranges but potentially unsafe for air cooling. The switch also serves as a back-up device should a future BIOS flash be corrupt.
Voltage Regulation
Back to the Military III components and we see that the VRM module for the R7870 Hawk is made up of an 8+2+1 phase design with solid state chokes used for the Core and memory and a single ferrite choke for the PLL. The VRM also makes use of Copper MOSFETs which allow for a 100% increase in current capability according to MSI.
Controlling the voltage is the same CHiL 8225G controller found on the AMD reference design which should allow the use of most GPU overclocking software applications.
Hynix memory
The Hynix memory used on the R7870 comes courtesy of Hynix and is specified to run at 1250MHz (5000MHz effective) but I’m sure we can squeeze a little more than that from it considering the success we have had with this memory type in other graphics cards.
Pitcairn XT Core
Finally we reach the Pitcairn XT core. BAsed on 28nm technology it has a transistor count of 2.8 billion and is a trimmed down version of the range topping Tahiti core found on flagship HD7900 series cards.
Let’s see if all of this technology translates to superior performance…
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:
MSI R7870 Hawk
MSI R7870 Hawk (OC)
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce
NVIDIA GTX670
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
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
Motherboard: MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
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 – Kingston HyperX 240GB
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
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 graphics card performed…
Overclocking
At stock clocks the card weighs in at a factory overclock of 1100MHz on the core. This is 50MHz higher than the Twin Frozr III equiped card and 100MHz higher than the ‘GHz edition’ reference design.
To overclock the MSI card we used MSI’s latest version of the fantastic Afterburner utility. This allows us to adjust not only the core and memory freqencies but also make fine adjustments to three voltages, core, memory and auxiliary.
With the voltages and fan speeds ramped up we managed to max out the memory frequency to 1450MHz (5800 effective) and the core to a crazy fast 1270MHz! This allowed the card to break the 100 GTexels/s mark which should give us some very impressive results in our suite of benchmarks.
Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption
Power ConsumptionTo test for power consumption we do not use anything too technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.
Power consumption was nothing to write home about with the MSI card being placed exactly where we expected it to be. With the additional voltages maximised, the card consumed more than a reference clocked HD7970 which just goes to show how much power the Hawk has in reserve should you wish to make use of it.
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 temps of the card were good but not great. I expected the Twin Frozr design to perform better in all honesty. It is however worth remembering that the MSI card is pre-overclocked and many of the cards above are reference clockspeeds so credit should be given to the Twin Frozr design because the cards temperature only rose 4c when a huge amount of voltage and overclocks were applied.
Acoustics
Under normal operating conditions, the Twin Frozr IV cooler is very quiet. It cannot be hard above the system fans when idle and barely reaches a murmur under normal gaming conditions. With the fan speed increased to cope with our overclock, the silence was soon broken by a whining noise which I certainly couldn’t tolerate on a 24/7 basis. That said it is unlikely you will need to manually increase the fans save for benchmarking so it is no major issue.
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 2
Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.
To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.
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.
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 built-in benchmark utility from the game.
The Elder Scrolls: 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.
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.
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.
Futuremark 3DMark 11
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
Had we sampled this card a few months back upon the R7870’s release we would have primarily dismissed it as an expensive white elephant because for a similar price, competing NVIDIA examples offered better value. However, with the recent AMD price drops, the R7870 HAWK now poses a radically different proposition because at £240, this is a card that offers HD7970 performance (when overclocked) and is equal to the NVIDIA GTX580 at factory overclocked clockspeeds. It can hold its own against reference flagship models yet cost a fair bit cheaper. It is however still one of the most expensive HD7870 cards currently available so whether this card represents value for money or still too expensive will depend a lot on your requirements. From one perspective it offers superior performance and quite possibly it’s the fastest mid-range card currently available. On the other hand at £240 it is still cannot be classed as cheap.
The HD7850/70 models are rapidly gaining a reputation for being overclocking monsters and with the additional tools the MSI R7870 Hawk provides, overclocking just became easier, safer and most importantly for the extreme overclockers out there the overclocks attainable must surely be the best available on a Pitcairn based graphics card. That isn’t to see this card is only for the extreme end of the spectrum, it clearly isn’t because with the Twin Frozr IV cooling design you can be assured of excellent air cooling properties.
I find it hard to pick any major faults with the R7870 Hawk. It looks the business, has good, if somewhat noisy (under heavy load) cooling yet best of all, it overclocks magnificently. While some may claim it is still too expensive despite the recent aggressive AMD price cuts, you may want to consider what the competition offer because for £240, there is no other AMD 7870 which has the features of the MSI R7870 Hawk or overclocks as high. Couple this with it being £60 cheaper than NVIDIA’s similarly performing card, the GTX580, the MSI R7870 HAWK begins to make much more sense.
Pros:
– Fantastic Overclocking ability
– Factory Overclocked
– Cool running
– Well specified components
– ‘Extreme’ features – voltage read points etc
– Blue Lighting
Cons:
– Noisy under heavy load
– Heavy power consumption
– GPU Reactor may intrude on space
– Fantastic Overclocking ability
– Factory Overclocked
– Cool running
– Well specified components
– ‘Extreme’ features – voltage read points etc
– Blue Lighting
Cons:
– Noisy under heavy load
– Heavy power consumption
– GPU Reactor may intrude on space
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to MSI for providing today’s review sample.
