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PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 |
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Synthetic Benchmarks, Heat and Noise, Conclusions
Synthetic Benchmarks:
Benchmark: 3DMark Vantage 1.0.2 (Advanced)
Score: GPU Points - Higher is Better.
Download Link: here
Benchmark: Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
Score: Average Frames per Second (FPS) - Higher is Better.
Download Link: here
Noise and Temperature Results:
Noise measurements were taken with a digital sound meter approximately 3cm away from the video card fan. This reduced the chance of other components such as the CPU or PSU fans to interfering with the final results. Software used for stressing-testing was 3DMark Vantage, looped until the sound level was stable and stopped rising.
The PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 retains a reference cooling design, exhausting hot air via the rear slot cover as well as the side of the heatsink. While heat being dumped back into the case isn't an ideal situation, due to the amount of display connectivity, the exhaust side has been cut in half.
Temperature readings were taken at an ambient temperature of 22 degrees Celsius, on a open test bench and with the fan set to auto. Load and idle temperatures were monitored by MSI's Afterburner. Software used for stress-testing was 3DMark Vantage, looped until the temperate was stable and stopped rising.
With the introduction of the HD 6870 and 6850 consumers have found the existing HD 5870 and 5850 cards dropping in price significantly, but do these cards still represent good value? Based on our tests the HD 6870, while a tad more expensive than a HD 5850 (since its price drop), offered better performance and more features for a fraction more in price. Overclocking the card, without the need for voltage adjustment, allowed it to come very close and sometimes beat the more expensive HD 5870 which can be found for over $100~ more than the HD 6870 at the time of this review, proving once more that the HD 6870 is a superior buy and great start to AMD's HD 6000-series line-up.
In the coming months AMD is set to release multiple high performance video cards, and if the competitive pricing and improvements we've seen with this card is anything to go by, NVIDIA may have some serious work to do in retaining their loyal fans if they can't return with successors to the current GTX 470 and GTX 480 at acceptable price points.
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