The Radeon HD 7870 is a mid-range graphics card that hit the shelves in 2012. She is not able to surpass more expensive brothers, but she seriously overtakes previous models. The GeForce GTX 570 became an equal rival to AMD Radeon HD 7870. The accelerator was released a few months after the HD 7970, which surprised many fans of the company. The novelty was destined to get into the fresh line - Southern Islands. Here she became one of the two representatives of the affordable models with good performance and a decent cooling system. In addition, AMD Radeon HD 7870, which cost $ 350, received an updated architecture.
Packaging and equipment
The video card comes in a small box made of glossy cardboard. On the front side of the user meets an evil-looking rider on an even more evil horse. Here you can see the name of the model and the main points that the Radeon HD 7870 will surprise.
More information is on the back. Here the user can get acquainted with the main characteristics of the accelerator. The box leaves a good impression, but let's move on to the configuration.
In addition to the video card, the package includes:
- set of manuals;
- driver CD
- set of adapters;
- PCI-E power cable
- CrossFire bridge.
In general, the Radeon HD 7870 is no better and no worse than what other manufacturers offer. For normal operation, you do not have to buy parts yourself, which is already pleasing. Additional adapters may be needed only by some users. The rest will be enough of what ATI offers.
Appearance
Immediately attention is drawn to several interfaces that make it easy to connect any device. The main elements are soldered on a black printed circuit board. On the front side, the graphics processor is clearly visible. By the way, the video card can work in conjunction. True, a tandem can consist of only two graphic cores. Therefore, gamers will not be able to create a "monster" that will issue a million frames per second at maximum graphics settings.
In addition, the memory modules and several holes for mounting a massive cooling system are neatly located on the board. In principle, the appearance of the card can surprise unless a beginner who first sees such a device. Everything is done quite qualitatively and typically for such graphic accelerators.
Characteristics
The video card is built on the graphic core of Radeon HD 7870. It supports DirectX 11.1, as well as OpenGL 4.2, which already adds optimism. He got a whole range of proprietary technologies, such as CrossFireX. Using them, the user will be able to make the accelerator work at full power. The core operates at a clock frequency of 1100 MHz. A fairly new 256-bit bus is used for data transfer.
Video memory modules developed by Hynix. The accelerator has 2 GB of memory, which is of type GDDR5. The memory runs at an effective frequency of 5000 MHz. This is enough even for most games this year. However, not all will start at maximum graphics settings.
The video card is capable of displaying an image with a maximum resolution of 4096x2160 pixels. Today, the specifications leave much to be desired, however, with a low budget, the Radeon HD 7870 will be an excellent option for purchase. In conjunction with a good processor, it is still able to work wonders in demanding programs.
Cooling system and power consumption
A dual-slot cooling system is used. Due to average performance, the manufacturer did not load the accelerator with three slots, which are widely used in more powerful and expensive models.
The cooler is a fairly large system that has two fans. This "colossus" is attached to the video card with only 4 bolts. Inside there are three heat pipes that directly go to the heat distribution cover. A small radiator made of aluminum is also installed here. As already mentioned, two small fans are responsible for the airflow, the specifications of which are not available.
In idle mode, the video card consumes 32 W of energy. Consumption increases significantly when you start demanding programs or games. For example, in Crysis 2 (maximum graphics settings and FullHD-resolution) was recorded power consumption in the region of 140 W.
The video card is pretty quiet. In idle mode, you can hardly hear the sound of the cooler. However, under load, the noise level increases significantly, Radeon HD 7870 in this mode surpasses even more powerful models.