PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review

We check out the new dual core HD 6870x2 from PowerColor and proceed to overclock it. Our thoughts? Let's find out!

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: PowerColor
16 minutes & 56 seconds read time

Introduction and Package

Introduction

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 02

It's been a while since we've looked at anything from PowerColor, but after seeing their showings at Computex, it's great to see something new from the company. Made even better is the fact that we're not talking about a card with a new cooler or anything like that, we're talking about a new card that PowerColor themselves have been working hard on.

The HD 6870x2 is as the name suggests, a dual GPU HD 6870 card. What you need to know, though, is this isn't an official AMD model. Instead, it's a card designed by the mad scientists at PowerColor and I've got to say, the HD 6870 GPU could well be the perfect option for this kind of card. Before we find out what's going on in terms of performance, though, we've got to go through the usual procedure.

First up, we'll check out the package of the HD 6870x2 from PowerColor before we have a closer look at the card itself, the heatsink/fan they've opted for and the connections that are on offer from the I/O side of things.

Before we get into our testbed and performance of the card, we'll of course be taking a look at the specifications. Since the card looked so good, though, we took the time to do some overclocking and we'll also show you what we managed to do there when it came to overclock results.

Before we get into all that fun stuff, though, it's important to look at what's going on in terms of the package. So let's get started.

Package

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 03
PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 04

Checking out the box of the HD 6870x2, we have got a really nice simple design that highlights the features of the card, with the back putting strong focus on the heatsink and the performance.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 05

Moving inside, we've got the standard manual and driver CD. Along with that, we've got a Dirt 3 coupon that lets you download the game off Steam. We've also got a lineup of cables including the CrossFire Bridge, mini DP to DP connector, two 6-Pin PCI-E to 8-Pin PCI-E connectors along with a DVI to VGA convertor. A pretty good looking bundle from PowerColor with the stand outs being the inclusion of the Dirt 3 coupon and mini DP to DP connector.

Card & Specification

Card Pictures

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 06

Looking at the card, you can of course see we're dealing with quite a large one here with a massive heatsink/fan setup. PowerColor have opted for two fans and you can see the one on the left is slightly larger than the one on the right.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 08

The other big stand out for the card is the massive copper heatpipe setup that is going on. You can see it running across the top and bottom of the card and it really makes for a mean looking card, which is something we always love.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 07

Moving our way around the card, you can see in the back corner we've got two power connectors. It comes as no surprise that the connection requirement is a little bigger than your standard HD 6870 with two 8-Pin connectors present. Looking back at the bundle, you can see that PowerColor included two 6-Pin to 8-Pin convertors, so if you don't have 8-Pin connectors, you're not going to be running into any problems.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 09

Moving to the front of the card, you can see we've got a single CrossFire connector. Being a Dual GPU card of course means that only two can be supported in CrossFire, giving us a maximum of four GPUs when running CrossFireX.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 10

Connectivity isn't unusual, but it is strong. We can see that PowerColor has opted for two DVI connectors, a single HDMI port and two mini DP ports. This setup allows the card to run up to four monitors in Eyefinity.

Specifications

Looking at the HD 6870x2 out of the box, it comes as no surprise that PowerColor have opted for just stock clocks which means we've got 900MHz on the core and 4200MHz QDR on the 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Because of the default clock speeds, we figured you're not going to be looking at much more than two HD 6870s running at stock speeds. So for that reason, we decided to overclock the card and see what we could do.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 01

Bumping our voltage up to 1.299v on the cores, we ended up with a core clock of 1000MHz, while our 2GB of GDDR5 ended up coming in at 5GHz QDR. This is a strong overclock and we should see some really good performance from the card. It will be interesting to see how we go in our benchmarks.

Test System Setup and 3DMark 11

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 99

We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASRock, Kingston, Mittoni, Noctua and Corsair.

We'll be comparing our PowerColor HD 6870x2 against a number of setups here today including the HD 6970 DirectCU, HD 6870 in CF, HD 6950 in CF and HD 6990 to round out the AMD side of things. On the NVIDIA front we've got the GTX 580, GTX 560 Ti in SLI and GTX 580 in SLI.

With the overclock on offer here today, it'll be interesting to see the kind of performance we're about to get out of the PowerColor HD 6870x2, so let's not delay any longer and see what our HD 6870x2 from PowerColor can do when running at 1000MHz on the core and 5GHz QDR on the 2GB of GDDR5 memory.

Let's get started!

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Buy It Here

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 20

Starting off under 3DMark 11, we can see some fantastic performance from the PowerColor HD 6870x2 which puts it ahead of other Dual GPU setups including the GTX 560 Ti setup which is using quite heavily clocked Sonic cards from Palit.

3DMark Vantage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/

Buy It Here

3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 21

3DMark Vantage sees some great performance, but you can of course see thanks to that PhysX support in it that the NVIDIA cards perform stronger.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 2

Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com

Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//

New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 22

Looking at Unigine Heaven, we can see some great performance from the HD 6870x2. Compared to other single card setups like the HD 6970 and GTX 580, we can see that the HD 6870x2 does exceptionally well against them.

Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5

Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark

Developer Homepage: www.residentevil.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.residentevil.com/

Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on September 18. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 23

Getting into some games, we can see some great performance again from the HD 6870x2 which is having no problems dealing with any of these resolutions.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx

Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., released in 2009.

The game begins with Colonel David Crenshaw participating in a routine patrol mission in the Middle East. After halting an insurgent attack, a volley of missiles is fired at the Air Force base that Crenshaw was stationed at, with one of the missiles disabling Crenshaw's aircraft, resulting Crenshaw being in enemy captivity. A joint strike force composed of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and a Ghost Recon squad executes an operation to rescue Crenshaw. In Scotland, Royal Navy Pilot Colin Munro encounters an unidentified passenger aircraft that explodes from an on-board bomb when undergoing training exercise. In Russia, an air force squadron led by Colonel Denisov and Captain Dmitri Sokov engages separatist aircraft but is ordered to retreat from the region after numerous Russian military installations have been attacked.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 24

Looking at H.A.W.X. 2, we can see some fantastic performance from the card again. Compared to the GTX 580, we can see it sits just behind it. With that said, it's worth remembering that H.A.W.X. 2 does favor the NVIDIA offerings, though, thanks to that heavy use of Tessellation. The most important thing to note is the fact we've got playable FPS across the board.

Benchmarks - Mafia II

Mafia II

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.2kczech.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.mafia2game.com/

Buy It Here

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State"), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game features a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There are around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 25

You can see we hit a bit of a wall at about the 110 FPS mark for our AMD cards. That means it performs similar at these lower resolutions. Moving to 2560 x 1600, though, we see the cards begin to separate themselves, and we ultimately continue to see exceptional performance from our HD 6870x2 with very playable numbers.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 26

Looking at Lost Planet 2 performance, we can see just how intensive the game is. With that said, we still manage to see our HD 6870x2 break that 60 FPS barrier at the highest resolution. It goes to show that just because it's a Dual GPU card, it doesn't mean that you should only be looking at it if you're running something like Eyefinity. At 2560 x 1600 you still need this kind of power.

Benchmarks - Aliens vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/

Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1999 original PC game, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race/faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that, while separate in terms of individual plot and gameplay, form one overarching storyline.

Following the storyline of the campaign modes comes the multiplayer aspect of the game. In this Multiplayer section of the game, players face off in various different gametypes in various different ways.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 27

Not quite as extreme as Lost Planet 2, but we can see this is again a game that's very taxing on the card. Saying that, we still see that 60 FPS barrier broken at the highest resolution and the HD 6870x2 from PowerColor is really showing us what the card is all about.

Benchmarks - Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.streetfighter.com/

While Street Fighter IV features models and backgrounds rendered in 3D, the gameplay remains on a traditional 2D plane, with the camera having freedom to move in 3D at certain times during fights, for dramatic effect. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II. A new system called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attack" for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.

All the characters and environments in Street Fighter IV are rendered as 3D models with polygons, similar to the Street Fighter EX sub-series Capcom produced with Arika. However, there are a couple of key differences. Art director and character designer Daigo Ikeno, who previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, opted for non-photorealistic rendering to give them a hand-drawn look, with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays during the fights.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 28

No surprise here, huge numbers across the board.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01

Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/

Buy It Here

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 29

Looking at Far Cry 2 you can see that you're not going to have an issue playing this game at any resolution on our high end setups here.

Benchmarks - Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test

Developer Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/

Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum - Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.

Using a wide range of Batman's gadgets and abilities, players will become the invisible predator and attempt to foil The Joker's demented scheme.

Batman: Arkham Asylum features an original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author and five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini, whose credits include Lost season one and Batman: The Animated Series.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 30

Batman AA paints the same picture as Far Cry 2 with some great performance across the board.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 31
PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 32
PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 33
PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 34

Cranking up the AA and AF detail, you can just see the performance the HD 6970x2 is able to offer us. You can see there's no trouble playing these intensive games like Aliens vs. Predator and Mafia II with the AA and AF detail cranked up.

Temperature Test

Temperature Tests

The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 40

Normally we'd split this up to show one core and the other, but both cores came in at 75c when under load. This compares to our HD 6870 in CrossFire getting 73c on one card and 78c on the other. Of course, our card is also overclocked here, so that's something really worth taking into account.

Sound Test

Sound Tests

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 41

Noise levels come in at just over 63dB which sees the card sit in towards the top half of the bracket. It's not too bad; I would've liked to have seen idle be a little lower, but it's nothing too major. You could always manually adjust it if you wanted, or setup custom profiles.

Power Consumption Tests

Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 42

At just under 500 watt, the power draw on the HD 6870x2 is higher than a lot of other cards, but it's nothing an excellent quality power supply won't handle. We're not talking about a card that draws 1000 Watt or anything like that.

Total Performance Rating (TPR)

Total Performance Rating

The TPR graph is a combination of all our benchmarks in which NVIDIA and AMD are on an even playing field.

The TPR number is a combination of:

3DMark 11, Heaven Benchmark V2, Resident Evil 5, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2, Mafia 2 (PhysX Off), Lost Planet 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Street Fighter IV, Far Cry 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum (PhysX Off) and our four High Quality tests which include Mafia 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Street Fighter IV and Far Cry 2.

All of the benchmark results achieved are then combined into a single number. As this graph will grow over time and cards won't be re-tested, next to each model you'll find the driver version that was used when the card was benchmarked.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 50

You can see performance is extremely strong. From a single card perspective it manages to beat out the heavily clocked GTX 580 Matrix XE from MSI which means that the HD 6870x2 has no issue dealing with the GTX 580.

Total Value Rating (TVR)

Total Value Rating

The TVR graph is the TPR score divided by the price of the video card. The price of the video card is based on the list price of the model on Newegg.com. In the event the card isn't listed, it will be based on the U.S. $ MSRP given to us by the manufacturer.

In the event we can't source a price from either, the product will not receive a TVR rating. As with our TPR graph, the amount of video cards on the list will grow over time and the price of the model won't change from what it was when first reviewed. For this reason the U.S. $ price that the card is based off will be included next to the name of the model.

In the event you want to find the TVR rating yourself based on the current price, all you have to do is simply divide the TPR number by the list price.

TVR numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number; 100.3 will be 100; 100.8 will be 101 and 100.5 will be rounded down to 100.

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870x2 2GB Overclocked Video Card Review 51

At $509 US the PowerColor HD 6870x2 isn't cheap, but value lines up with other powerful cards like the GTX 580 and HD 6990.

Final Thoughts

The first thing we need to talk about is the price of the card. At $509.99 US it's not the cheapest card on the planet. From a value perspective it's also not the best option when compared to buying a pair of HD 6870s. But, like the HD 6990 and the GTX 590, there are so many other benefits that are associated with buying a dual GPU card.

For starters, I think that Dual GPU cards can have a much stronger presence these days due to the fact that CrossFire and SLI dual GPU scaling is so strong. It means that these dual GPU cards really offer performance that can equate to 2x that of the original card.

The acceptance of larger coolers as well means that we can have really good cooling solutions on them. While the PowerColor HD 6870x2 is indeed a dual slot card, you're going to need to give it a bit of breathing room so it can draw cool air in over those GPUs.

Another huge positive to these dual GPU solutions that when you use something like a Z68 platform that has only one 16x slot, you can run the card at full speed instead of having it run at x8 / x8. It's not so relevant for the X58 platform, but the value that the Z68 platform holds means that this is a hot topic.

On a whole, the single card solution also runs slightly cooler thanks to the card not having any issue getting air, which certainly helps when it's overclocked and has more voltage running through the cores. Overclocking potential is very strong with it getting 1GHz on the cores and 5GHz QDR on the memory.

That means that performance is strong, and really, when it comes down to it, if you're buying a $500 US graphics card, the performance of it is so important.

It would be nice to see it a little cheaper, but it's unique; it's the first time PowerColor have dabbled into this area - it's the first custom dual GPU offering we've seen from any company so far and it's just a good all round performer. There's very little not to like about this card and a whole lot to love.

PowerColor has done a great job here and I think outside of just offering us a great product, it really shows us what PowerColor is capable of. While some would argue that you only need a card like this if you're using multiple monitors, we say they're wrong, because you can look at Aliens vs. Predator and Mafia II at 1920 x 1200 with AA / AF on and see performance that is perfect for gaming at those resolutions.

What do TweakTown.com awards mean? Click for details!

PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.

USUnited States: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com

UKUnited Kingdom: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.co.uk

AUAustralia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com.au

CACanada: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.ca

DEDeutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de

Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.