AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

AMD has been heating up the winter video card market with its release of cards in its new 7000 series (code-named "Southern Islands"), first with the release of the highest-end models (the Radeon HD 7970 and 7950) and later the more mainstream options (the Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition and 7750). So it only makes sense that the company would continue (and perhaps end?) the season by filling in the gap between the two lines. Hence the AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, which is priced (at $349 list) and powered to provide a strong and sensible entry point into the enthusiast gaming graphics realm. At that, the 7870 definitely succeeds, and those looking for a sub-$400 current-generation solution won't presently find a better card, but there are better values (peddling not vastly inferior performance) to be had.

You do, of course, get the full swath of technologies that AMD has been smartly using to build out the 7000 series. These begin with the 28nm Graphics Core Next architecture, which improves utilization, throughput, and multitasking by giving each compute unit the ability to execute instructions from multiple kernels at once. Then there's PowerTune technology, which intelligently monitors energy usage on an application-by-application basis, and adjusts it when the proper electrical and thermal headroom exists for doing so. There's also ZeroCore Power, an innovation that shuts down the GPU and the fan during long idling periods to reduce power usage considerably (particularly in CrossFireX multicard configurations, as secondary GPUs are always in the ZeroCore Power state unless they're being used). Naturally the "traditional" roster of AMD features is included as well, such as DirectX 11, Eyefinity for easily setting up and configuring multiple monitors (up to six, in this case), the HD3D stereoscopic 3D standard, HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, and PCI Express (PCIe) version 3.0.

Where the 7870 GHz Edition particularly distinguishes itself is in its specs. As its name suggests, this is AMD's second card to sport an engine clock running at 1GHz. It's paired with a 1,200MHz memory clock and 2GB of GDDR5 memory; its memory data rate is 4.8Gbps, and its overall memory bandwidth is 153.6GBps. An array of 1,280 stream processors, granting it up to 2.56 teraflops of compute performance, is matched with 80 texture units and 32 ROPs. (For what it's worth, these are largely the same stats as found on this card's less-powerful little brother in the 7800 "Pitcairn" family, the Radeon HD 7850.)

All this unquestionably brands the 7870 as a high-end card. This means several things: It's on the long side, but at about 10.5 inches it will fit easily into most any gaming case; it utilizes an oversized fan?heat sink combo that will block a second expansion slot when installed; and requires extra power direct from your PSU in the form of two six-pin PCIe power connectors. Output ports are standard AMD fare: two MiniDisplay Port, one HDMI, and one dual-link DVI.

Given all this, the 7870's capabilities falling into line between the 7770 and the 7850, and competing handily with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 570, is hardly surprising. In fact, it's not shocking at all that the 7870 just beats the GTX 570 in most tests: 2,072 versus 1,851 on the Futuremark 3DMark 11 Extreme preset, for example, or 41.8 frames per second (fps) versus 36.9fps on Aliens versus Predator, 65.2fps versus 60.6fps on DiRT 3, and 27.5fps versus 24.1fps on the Heaven Benchmark 2.5 (in all cases at a resolution of 1,920 by 1,200). It took a slightly wider lead on Just Cause 2 (45.9fps versus 36.3fps), and predictably lagged on Nvidia-branded titles like HAWX2 (112fps versus 121fps) and Lost Planet 2 (42.5fps versus 45.5fps), again at the same resolution.

The 7870 stood out only in the area AMD cards typically dominate, and especially in this generation: power usage. A full system built with the 7870 used only about 97 watts when idle and 180.4 watts under load; the GTX 570?based PC used 110.6 watts while idle and a whopping 246.5 watts under load. We've said it before and we'll say it again: AMD's power technologies are a terrific advancement, and we'd love to see Nvidia adopt equivalent ones when it finally releases its new cards.

Nvidia, however, proves something of a spoiler to the 7870's accomplishments. The GTX 570 may be slightly underpowered in comparison, but it's also priced significantly less. Versions of the GTX 570 card are available for as little as $305 (with mail-in rebates) and others are priced well below the $350 threshold AMD admits is the 7870's starting point?and when the card is released in two and a half weeks, it could be priced a bit higher still.

That means that, despite its advanced design and features, the AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition isn't quite the bang-for-the-buck champ in the mid-$300 stratum. (And we wouldn't go as far to recommend it over the Editors' Choice Radeon HD 7970 or 7950 for gamers with bulging bank accounts.) It earns its keep when power usage is a major concern, and delivers fine frame rates in games across the board. But with a price-performance profile that just isn't quite as compelling as we'd like, waiting to see what the card will really cost you might be better than automatically paying a fair amount more for the few additional frames you'll get above the GTX 570.

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