VTX Radeon HD 6870 X2 review

However, when we plugged the HD 6870 X2 into a PC with an AMD Llano A8-3850 processor and a Gigabyte GA-A75M-GH motherboard, it ran perfectly. It also worked fine in an Asrock A75 Pro4 motherboard with an AMD A8-3850 and a different power supply, as well as in an Asus Crosshair V Formula motherboard with an AMD Bulldozer FX-8150 processor. It seems the card has a real problem with either Intel Sandy Bridge processors or their compatible chipsets, but is fine with AMD’s current mid-range and high-end lineup.

Once we got it working, we found the HD 6870 X2 to be a seriously powerful card. It destroyed our Dirt 3 benchmark, which we run at 1,920×1080, Ultra detail and 4x anti-aliasing, with a huge 95.4fps. When playing Dirt 3 with three monitors in Eyefinity mode at 5,760×1,080 we still saw 40fps average, and the frame rate never dipped below 30.6fps. In the more challenging Crysis 2 benchmark, again at 1,920×1,080 and Ultra detail, the HD 6870 X2 managed a smooth 45.7fps.

Considering the card is only £23 more than its nearest competitor, AMD’s Radeon HD 6970, these are impressive figures. The HD 6970 is a powerful card, but can only manage 31.1fps average in our Dirt 3 Eyefinity test, dropping to a slightly jerky 26.1fps in certain sections. The HD 6970 could also only manage 28.5fps in Crysis 2, showing you’ll need to turn down some detail levels to guarantee a smooth frame rate at all times.

In fact, the only card we’ve seen faster than the HD 6870 X2 is the Radeon HD 6990, which is an eye-watering £580. VTX’s Radeon HD 6870 X2 is a seriously fast card which is very good value, but its incompatibility problems mean we can only recommend it for use with AMD motherboards and processors. Also, if you have two spare PCI Express x16 slots on your motherboard and a power supply with four 6-pin PCI Express power plugs, you may prefer to buy two separate Radeon HD 6870 cards and run them in CrossFire mode, which will save you around £40.