Tried it: AMD Radeon HD 7870/7850 - dangerous pit bulls

Cue

Another long test, and it's over again. But before the run is over here, let's sum it up! We’ve been introduced to the Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 before, a pair that is the first and most powerful representative of the GCN architecture. Tahiti cards have been a great success, so to speak, they have seen, won and won, but the problem with top cards is that few can afford it, at least in terms of home conditions. The Pitcairn and Pitcairn XT, the Radeon HD 7850 and the HD 7870 are already a much more enjoyable category in terms of price, perhaps this is the maximum you’ll spend on a better-positioned consumer video card at home.

Your direct adjectives are Barts, i.e. HD 6850 and HD 6870, but Pitcairn washes them away in a way that the comparison doesn't really hold up. The new cards have reached a level and have broken the laurels of the previous top models, i.e. the real opponent is the HD 6950 and HD 6970, so in the first round we will also sum up against these. Of the 11 test applications, 7 won in 7870 and HD 4 in the remaining 6970. To this must be added that the drives for the 6970 VLIW4 engine are already ripe, unable to accelerate further, with no spare left, while the 7870 worked with an early, immature drive. It is much more technologically advanced, consumes much less, in short, all of its indicators are better than those of the previous king. But what about the tide? A Radeon HD 6970 starts at £ 88 gross, while an HD 000 can be taken home for around $ 7870, so the latter is more expensive, but we think the Pitcairn XT is well worth the difference as it is a more modern, more economical and time consuming we get a more stable, stronger card with it. 

In addition, it should be borne in mind that in most cases, manufacturers do not follow AMD's recommendations regarding the clock, and they are launching significantly tuned cards, which are even stronger. We could see with the GIGABYTE and ASUS cards what the 7870 is capable of tuning. Of the 11 programs, the HD 7870 won exactly the same proportion against the GTX 570, but the price of the GTX 570 has now dropped to HUF 77, making it roughly HUF 000 cheaper than the 20, which is a big difference, currently the GTX 000 not a bad choice either, but if the margin is available, we would clearly rather vote for the 7870, which was often close to the GTX 570, and with tuning it can sometimes beat it, about 7870-580 HUF. tal cheaper. 

The Radeon HD 7850 went primarily against the HD 6950. In 11 of the 8 tests, he was able to put him behind him, often with a big difference, in addition to the 7850, what we noted about the 7870 is also true. The card will certainly speed up with newer drives, promise great tuning potential, and consume less. An HD 6950 starts at 58 HUF, while for a 000 they ask for 7850 HUF in the cheapest places, i.e. 69-000 HUF is definitely between the two models, but based on what you have seen and the future in the light of this we would also choose the HD 9. The 10 clearly beats the GTX 000 Ti, but since the latter is already available from 7850 HUF, we expect this from it, it lags behind the GTX 7850, although it is often able to approach it seriously.

If it’s not important to have a brand new model, both the GTX 560 Ti and GTX 570 may be a viable alternative due to depressed prices, but if you want a fresh, modern, forward-looking card, it’s clear that with previous Radeons and GeForce- for any reason, we have to choose HD 7870 or HD 7850, according to our budget and needs. These two new GCN models, namely the Pitcairn and Pitcairn XT, are clearly recommended.

AMD Radeon HD 7870 and HD 7850

The ASUS 7870 and 7850 TOP, as well as the GIGABYTE 7870 and 7850 OC models in the test, represent a significant force, the factory tuning is so great that we immediately benefit from it, and the tuning potential is fabulous, we can squeeze a lot out of them. We can do this with confidence, as the cooling of all four cards is lavish, and since Pitcairn’s heat generation and consumption is very favorable, they are able to keep the cards cool even in the event of a severe overdrive.

We have not found any retail prices for the ASUS TOP models yet, but it is likely that the situation will change within days, the GIGABYTE 7850 OC can be grabbed for around 73 HUF. The GIGABYTE 000 OC is also even less available in retail, and we anticipate a rapid change. However, due to the shape shown in the test, the factory tuning, the additional tuning potential and the excellent cooling, all four cards deserve the recommended rating according to our decision.

ASUS HD 7870 TOP DirectCU II TOP ASUS HD 7850 TOP DirectCU II TOP

GIGABYTE HD 7870 OC GIGABYTE HD 7850 OC

 With the Radeon HD 7870 and s HD 7850, AMD has put a strong pair of trump cards on the table that both manufacturers and customers can be happy with, especially if prices continue to fall. In our next article, we will cover Cape Verde, the new folk cards, the Radeon HD 7770 and the HD 7750!

The ASUS HD 7870 TOP DirectCU II TOP (HD7870-DC2T-2GD5) and ASUS HD 7850 DirectCU II TOP (HD7850-DC2T-2GD5) are Domestic representation of ASUSwhile the GIGABYTE HD 7870 OC (GV-R787OC-2GD) and GIGABYTE HD 7850 OC (GV-R785OC-2GD) cards are Domestic representation of GIGABYTE made it available to us, which we thank you along the way!

The article was written by: Zoltán Mihics (med1on) and Gábor Pintér (gabi123)

Thanks to the following sponsors for our permanent test components in this article:

• Intel Core i5-2500K - Intel
• GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 + GIGABYTE Representation in Hungary
• MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II OC - MSI Representation in Hungary
• Kingston HyperX T1 DDR3 2133 MHz 4 x 2 GB Kit - Kingston Representation in Hungary
• Kingston SSD Now V Series 64 GB SATA2 (SNV425-S2 / 64) - Kingston Representation in Hungary
• Xigmatek NRP-HC1501 - PC Gear
• ASUS 24T1E TV Monitor - ASUS Representation in Hungary