PC games of today are demanding more and more graphics grunt to power their pixels , so does the Powercolor HD6870 1Gb stand up to the task , or does it fail to impress.
Powercolor are not a company i have ever used before to power the graphics of my system as i have long relied and trusted on Sapphire and their VaporX variants for such tasks. But i was open and willing to try another graphics manufacturer, and so i took the plunge an ordered one.
First thing to notice on arrival is the box is rather small, enough to hold the card and accompanying extras and nothing more. Something i have noticed with other card manufacturers is that they like to use huge box's for relatively small cards, so Powercolors sensible use of cardboard is a refreshing change, and saves a few trees in the process no doubt.
The HD6870 uses the Barts XT 40nm GPU core with 1Gb of GDDR5 memory on a 256bit bus ( 134.4Gbps bandwidth ) which gives it ample grunt for a mid range card. All the usual Ati ( sry AMD ) features are present, like the ability to use upto 4 displays straight out of the box, featuring 2 x DVI 1 x HDMI and 2 x Mini display port. The GPU on this Powercolor model is set at 900Mhz which is quite nippy when compared to other mid range cards and the memory is at 4200mhz effective at stock. The cooler is the standard generic blower style cooler, although not as exciting as some coolers ( Twin Frozer for example ) it does perform reasonably well if a little on the noisy side. Direct X 11 is the standard with this card so all top modern tittles can be shown in full glory.
For alot of gamers the need for higher and higher FPS is becoming greater and greater, thankfully the HD6870 doesn't disappoint and in my system at least has proven to play along side cards of higher spec in most of today's modern tittles. Playing through Battlefield Bad Company 2 my eyes lit up to see frame rates at a steady 50-70 with all the eye candy on ! I personally don't play with AA on at all as i use a 1920x1080 22" monitor any AA i use would be pointless and make my card work harder with no distinguishable result. So with AA off i save the card some work which it can better be put back to work on effects and DX11 glory that i have come to enjoy. The new Tessellation and DX 11 features are definitely worth upgrading for as detail is everything and the HD6870 can certainly provide.
The HD6870 is a very competent card that can put some higher cards to shame, so if you are on a tighter budget then this card certainly wont disappoint. The DX11 features and new Tessellation provide a new level of realism to modern tittles and old ones alike, playing through Crysis 2 and the BF3 open Beta were an absolute treat with every shadow and terrain detail bursting through the screen. In the time Ive had the card it has proven itself a worthy contender amongst the array of cards on offer today. The frame rates on this card in every game i have played have been reasonable and stutter free which is something of a surprise as i didn't expect the card to perform quite so well. So if your on a budget and wondering if this card is a worthy contender for your next system upgrade then the answer is a thorough yes !
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