AMD Radeon HD 7870

PROS The HD 7870 has low power
consumption and high graphical
output. It supports up to six

CONS This video card is somewhat
dated and doesn't perform as well
as newer cards.

VERDICT This fast, high-end graphics card
gives you a powerful gaming
experience and uses less power
Overall Rating
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Performance
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Summary
AMD Radeon HD 7870
AMD has a long history of providing top-notch
graphics cards for our graphics card comparison,
and the Radeon HD 7870 is no exception. This
high-end video card boasts a base clock speed of
1GHz, processing and rendering graphics faster
than you can say "Fus Roh Dah!"
The HD 7870 uses 1,280 stream processors with
AMD's Graphics Core Next processor
architecture, more commonly known as GCN,
and it has memory bandwidth of 153.6GB per
second, providing decent speed and steady high
frame rates that are optimal for playing graphic-
intensive games, especially first-person shooters.
However, compared with newer cards, 153.6GB
per second isn't a particularly large memory
bandwidth. This can affect gaming performance
negatively at higher resolutions.
Like most high-end video cards, the HD 7870 has
a long board and is double wide. This means that
the card takes up two slots of room on your
motherboard. It is 10.16 inches long, so you
need to have a case with plenty of room to
accommodate this graphics card and give it
enough space to cool properly. The HD 7870 is
Windows 8 ready and supports DirectX 9, 10 and
11. It also handles all modern formats of HD
video, including H.264, without any problems,
thanks to the Unified Video Decoder support.
One of the best features of the HD 7870 is the
incorporation of PowerTune, a technology that
automatically monitors the power draw of the
video card and overclocks depending on how
much power the HD 7870 is currently using. For
example, the HD 7870 can use a maximum of
250 watts of power, but if it is only using 130
watts, then PowerTune boosts the clock speed
up to the maximum. This intuitive control lets
you enjoy enhanced performance and graphics
without having to exit your program and manually
adjust the overclocking settings.
You need to have at least two six-pin connectors
and a 500-watt power supply to run the HD
7870. AMD's graphics team recommends you
have four six-pin connectors available and a 600-
watt power supply if you want to use a
CrossFireX setup with two HD 7870 cards.
AMD's ZeroCore technology is one of the
outstanding features of the HD 7870. When your
computer goes into idle or sleep mode, hardware,
such as graphics cards, may still run at full
capacity. ZeroCore drops the power usage of the
HD 7870 to a mere 3 watts when your monitor
sleeps and shuts down extra cards if you are
running a CrossFireX setup. This saves power
and reduces heat output and wear on your video
card.
The AMD Radeon HD 7870 isn't the best
graphics card on the market, but it is a decent
high-end graphics card. With its superior
processing speed and intuitive PowerTune
feature that automatically overclocks the card
when possible, you are sure to get the most out
of your gaming and videos.