AMD Radeon HD 6870 review

The card itself measures 245mm in length, around the same as the old HD 5850. The big black heat sink on our reference test card stayed reasonably cool during testing, and fan noise was less than the older cards. On the rear of the card is a big selection of connectors. There’s a pair of DVI ports, as you’d expect, but only one is dual-link, while the other is single-link (supporting resolutions up to 1,920×1,200) . These are joined by a full-sized HDMI 1.4a port and two DisplayPort 1.2 mini connectors.

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It’s these latter ports that provide the new features on the card, which are otherwise thin on the ground. HDMI 1.4a is the latest standard and adds support for all the current 3D standards, plus support for resolutions up 3,840×2,160 – often professionally referred to as 4K displays and found in the best digital cinemas. The DisplayPort 1.2 connectors still provide Eyefinity multi-monitor support, but new breakout hubs (more details yet to be announced) will allow you to connect these to DVI or HDMI equipped monitors.

The card draws 151W under load, which requires two PCI-Express 6-pin power connectors. This is the same as the HD 5850, so you’re getting more graphical power per watt. It idles at just 19W, a significant improvement of 50% over the older cards.

The HD 6870 isn’t jaw-dropping, but for those who want to upgrade from a 4000-series, or older, graphics card they do provide a lot of graphical power for the money. Prices have ended up being about £25 cheaper than we were initially led to believe. With performance gains of around 40% over the GTX 460 1GB in our tests, it’s well worth the extra £20.

Rumour has it that ATI’s next generation ‘Cayman’ cards are only just around the corner, but we reckon that these will be priced well beyond the reach of most gamers. For enthusiasts without bottomless pockets, who want a powerful card today, the HD 6870 is the best choice.