PowerColor HD7870 DEVIL 2GB Video Card Review

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 (BF3) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released in North America on October 25, 2011 and in Europe on October 28, 2011. It does not support versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista as the game only supports DirectX 10 and 11. It is a direct sequel to 2005’s Battlefield 2, and the eleventh installment in the Battlefield franchise. The game sold 5 million copies in its first week of release and the PC download is exclusive to EA’s Origin platform, through which PC users also authenticate when connecting to the game.

Battlefield 3 debuts the new Frostbite 2 engine. This updated Frostbite engine can realistically portray the destruction of buildings and scenery to a greater extent than previous versions. Unlike previous iterations, the new version can also support dense urban areas. Battlefield 3 uses a new type of character animation technology called ANT. ANT technology is used in EA Sports games, such as FIFA, but for Battlefield 3 is adapted to create a more realistic soldier, with the ability to transition into cover and turn the head before the body.

Benchmark Results: The PowerColor Devil HD7870 performed pretty well in Battlefield 3 and was found to be just slightly faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 graphics card at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600. We were able to stay above 30FPS on our single 30-inch display setup, but when we went to the three panel 5760×1080 setup we dropped down to the low 20’s. The PowerColor Devil HD7870 doesn’t have the power for an Eyefinity setup when using Ultra image quality settings, so if you plan on going that route be prepared to lower the IQ. Notice that this factory overclocked Radeon HD 7870 is unable to keep up with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 reference card. This is a key card to look at as both are available in the $250-$260 price range.