ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card Review

The ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card

There is nothing like a really powerful video card to make all of your gaming dreams come true. Let’s take a look at that statement. We all want really high frame rates at really high resolutions and we want it all to look as real as possible, and even sometimes on top of that we want it in 3D. Well, the 3D thing isn’t going to happen here today but from what I can see ASUS is trying to pull out all the stops with one of their 6800 series Radeon HD cards. To be more specific, the ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card (EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5). Another part of this dream is the ability to overclock your video card into the stratosphere. So what we are going to do today is take a look at how the ASUS Radeon HD 6870 (EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5) performs in a variety of games and benchmarks to see if it can make these dreams come true.

Most of us know ASUS as one of the top tier motherboard makers in the world. And in recent times they ventured into other aspects of computer hardware such as video cards, monitors, laptops, and even sound cards if you can believe that. ASUS was founded in Taipei, Taiwan in 1990 by TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and MT Liao. Let’s fast forward quite bit to the present time and take a look at their 6870 video card that features their very own Direct CU cooler system that incorporates the use of 3 heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU and results in around a 20% temperature difference compared to a reference cooler.

To try and say that this video card is made for anything more than playing video games is a gross misjudgment. Although you can use it for a multitude of other things such as watching movies, You Tube videos, making spreadsheets or anything else along that line. But come on, we all know that’s not what this was intended for. It was made for pure frame processing power. This card is made for the gaming and enthusiast crowds because not only can it play pretty much any game it wants to it looks really cool in your case while it’s doing it. With its heat pipes and its black PCB it looks like a muscle car that is ready to tear up the road.

ASUS currently makes 2 different versions of the Radeon HD 6870 Graphics Card:

• ASUS EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5

915 MHz Core Clock 4200 MHz memory clock with DirectCU cooling at $199.99

• ASUS EAH6870/2DI2S/1GD5

915 MHz Core Clock 4200 MHz memory Clock at $199.99

With a core clock of 915 MHz and a memory clock of 4200 MHz you already have a good thing, but add in a price like $199.99 and kick in a 3 year warranty and you have the makings of a great thing. Although the price may be a tiny bit higher than the other cards in this price point, I don’t know how many other companies are actually offering a full 3 year limited warranty so this all might pan out in the end.

Well, I guess there isn’t much more to say regarding a quick overview of the card and the company so let’s just go ahead and move it along by taking a quick look at some of the specifications and features of the ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card (EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5) before heading further into the review where we will look at the results of our testing and benchmarking.

ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card (EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5) Features:

• AMD Hd3D Technology
• Eyefinity Technology
• AMD CrossfireX Capable
• Direct X 11 support
• Windows 7 Compatible
• ASUS Super Alloy Power
• Overclocked from the Factory

ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card (EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5) Specifications

• Graphics Engine: AMD Radeon HD 6870
• Bus : PCI Express 2.1
• Memory: GDDR5 1GB
• Core Clock: 915 MHz
• Memory Clock: 4200 MHz ( 1050 MHz GDDR5 )
• RAMDAC: 400 MHz
• Memory Interface: 256-bit
• Resolution:
  D-Sub Max Resolution : 2048×1536
  DVI Max Resolution : 2560×1600
• Interface D-Sub Output : Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1)
  DVI Output : Yes x 1 (DVI-I),Yes x 1 (DVI-D)
  HDMI Output : Yes x 1 (via DVI to HDMI adaptor x 1 )
  Display Port : Yes x 2 (Regular DP)
  HDCP Support : Yes
• ASUS Features: DirectCU Series
• Dimensions: 11 ” x 5 ” Inch