Radeon HD 7870: overview of the video card

Radeon HD 7870 is a mid-range video card that appeared on the shelves in 2012. It is not capable of surpassing its more expensive counterparts, but it seriously overtakes previous models. Equal rival AMD Radeon HD 7870 was GeForce GTX 570. Accelerator was released a few months after HD 7970, which surprised many fans of the company. The novelty was to get into the fresh line - the Southern Islands. Here it became one of two representatives of available models with good performance and a decent cooling system. In addition, AMD Radeon HD 7870, whose price was $ 350, received an updated architecture.

Packing and equipment

A video card is supplied 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 be amazing.

More information is on the back side. Here the user can familiarize himself with the main characteristics of the accelerator. The box leaves a pleasant impression, but let's move on to the bundle.

In addition to the video card, the package includes:

• A set of manuals;
• CD-ROM with drivers;
• Set of adapters;
• PCI-E power cable;
• Bridge CrossFire.

In general, the bundle of Radeon HD 7870 is not better and not worse than what other manufacturers offer. For normal operation, you do not have to buy the parts yourself, which is good. Additional adapters may only be needed by some users. The rest will be enough that offers ATI.

Appearance

Just attention attracts several interfaces, allowing you to easily connect any device. The main elements are soldered on a printed circuit board in black. The front side clearly shows the graphics processor. By the way, the video card can work in a bunch. True, a tandem can consist of only two graphics cores. Therefore, gamers will not be able to create a "monster", which will give out a million frames per second on the maximum graphics settings.

In addition, the board carefully stores memory modules and several holes for mounting a massive cooling system. In principle, the appearance of the card can surprise only a beginner who sees such a device for the first time. Everything is done quite qualitatively and is typical for similar graphics accelerators.

Characteristics

A video card is built on the graphic core Radeon HD 7870. Supports DirectX 11.1, and also OpenGL 4.2, which adds optimism. I got a whole set of proprietary technologies, for example CrossFireX. With their help, 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 to transfer data.

The video memory modules are developed by Hynix. The accelerator has 2 GB of memory, which is of type GDDR5. The memory operates at an effective frequency of 5000 MHz. This is enough even for most games this year. However, not all will be launched at the maximum graphics settings.

The video card is capable of displaying an image with a maximum resolution of 4096x2160 pixels. Today, the characteristics leave much to be desired, but with a low budget Radeon HD 7870 will be an excellent option for purchase. In conjunction with a good processor, it is still able to perform miracles in demanding programs.

Cooling system and power consumption

A two-slot cooling system is used. In view of the average characteristics, the manufacturer did not load the accelerator with three slots, which are universally used in more powerful and expensive models.

The cooler is a fairly large system that has two fans. To the video card this "machine" is attached with only 4 bolts. Inside there are three heat pipes, which directly go to the heat distribution cover. There is also a small radiator made of aluminum. As already mentioned, two small fans are responsible for the blow-out, the specifications of which are not available.

In idle mode, the graphics card consumes 32 W of energy. Consumption increases significantly when you run demanding programs or games. For example, in Crysis 2 (maximum graphics settings and FullHD-resolution), there was recorded power consumption in the region of 140 W.

The video card works quite quietly. In idle mode, there is almost no sound of the cooler. However, under load, the noise level increases significantly, the Radeon HD 7870 in this mode exceeds even more powerful models.