PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review

We check out the new Tahiti LE based HD 7870 from PowerColor and give you the low down.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: PowerColor
16 minutes & 21 seconds read time

Introduction and Package

I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that AMD decided to bring something a little new to us in time for the holiday season. The new Tahiti LE based HD 7870, though, seems to be extremely limited with only a few companies choosing to pick up the new variant. AMD themselves don't have the new model on its website, though, and it seems that only a few companies have decided to pick up the model.

Alongside Sapphire the other main company we know that has bought the new Tahiti LE based video card to us is PowerColor and it comes in the form of the PowerColor PCS+ HD 7870 2GB Myst Edition. The main problem is that you're not quite sure that the model is based on the new Tahiti LE chip. Hopefully today, though, we'll be able to give you a bit of a clearer picture of what exactly we're dealing with.

While we'll go into a bit more detail on the next page when we look at the specifications side of things the main thing to remember is that this is an "LE" based chip. The Tahiti chip is used on the HD 7900 series while the Pitcairn chip is used on the HD 7800 series. What I like here is that while they're using the Tahiti chip, AMD have decided to bring the "LE" based version of it to the HD 7800 series.

In the end from a specification point of view it looks good for the consumers because by bringing it under the HD 7800 series name we feel like we're getting a supped up HD 7870 where if it was called the HD 7950 LE, the impression of a cut down HD 7900 series based card just doesn't sit as well.

Anyway we don't want to go into too much detail when it comes to the specifications side of things as we'll cover that in the next page. Before we get there, though, we'll quickly see what's going on with the package before taking a closer look at the card itself. Once we've done that we'll check out the specifications, our testbed, the cards we'll be using in our graphs today and finally get into the performance side of things.

Package

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 03
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 04

I always love the box design from PowerColor; it looks great and you can see on the front we've got the main information we need. Including the fact it's a HD 7870, PCS+ cooler and the Myst Edition card which helps let us know it's based on the Tahiti LE chip. As for the back of the box you can see we've got information on some of the components and a large chunk is dedicated to showing off the cooler and the benefits it brings.

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 05

Moving inside the bundle we don't have a whole lot going on with a Quick Installation Guide and Driver CD being included alongside just a single cable which is a Mini DP to DisplayPort connector.

The Card and Specifications

The Card

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Having a look at the card the overall cooler design isn't anything too exciting with a black shroud covering most of the card. Looking at it, though, you can see under the center fan a big aluminum heatsink with a couple of heatpipes coming out the top.

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PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 08

As we take a look around you can see we've got two 6-pin PCIe power connectors which is the same as the standard GHz Edition of the HD 7870. Closer to the front you can see we've got a single CrossFire connector in the event you want to add a second card into the mix.

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Moving to the I/O department you can see on the left we've got two Mini-DP connectors, one HDMI connector and a Dual Link DVI connector to round off the connectivity side of things. You can see the top half of the I/O plate is a vent that's going to assist in getting the hot air out the back of the case.

Specifications

Like we mentioned in the introduction the main thing to remember about the Tahiti chip is that it's the one used on the HD 7900 series cards and not the HD 7800 series. So while it carries the "LE" tag at the end of it, specifications wise it looks impressive against the Pitcairn XT chip which the HD 7870 GHz Edition uses.

The standard HD 7870 and this Myst Edition share some similarities like 28nm core and 256-bit memory bus, the main difference between the two cards is the Unified Shaders. The original HD 7870 GHz Edition came with 1280 while this Tahiti LE based model offers 1536.

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 01

While the clock speeds are down with 975MHz being seen here via boost compared to the 1200MHz via Boost on the GHz Edition card, the extra shaders are going to make a huge difference. Along with that we've also got a 6000MHz QDR memory clock instead of 4800MHz QDR.

Benchmarks - Test System Setup

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

Looking above you can see our testbed in a fair bit of detail so we won't cover anything else in that department. Instead we'll just quickly go over the cards that will be included in our graphs today with the first of course being the PowerColor PCS+ HD 7870 2GB Myst offering.

Alongside the PowerColor card we've got the HIS HD 7850 IceQ Turbo and the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition which is probably the most important card out of the pile we've got here today. Finally to finish off the line up we've got the HD 7970 GHz Edition and the HIS HD 7950 IceQ X2 Boost which is overclocked to 1200MHz.

Let's get started!

The FPS Numbers Explained

When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.

30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.

60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.

120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.

Benchmarks - 3DMark 11

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

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.

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Starting off with 3DMark 11 you can see performance sits slightly above the HD 7870 OC from Sapphire with a little bit of a bump being seen in both the Performance and Extreme preset. We'll see what happens as we move into some real world games.

Benchmarks - Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 3

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.

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Looking at Unigine Heaven performance you can see the two HD 7870s perform almost identical to each other with very little separating them. It's important to remember that the Pitcairn XT based HD 7870 we're looking at is of course a pre-overclocked version from Sapphire.

Benchmarks - Phantasy Star Online 2

Phantasy Star Online 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.sega.com/?t=EnglishUSA

Product Homepage: http://www.pso2.com/us/html/index.html

Play Phantasy Star Online 2 and experience revolutionary combat in an action-driven, free-to-play multiplayer online RPG from SEGA. Take a journey into an immersive sci-fi fantasy narrative and explore mysterious worlds to unravel their secrets. Join fellow adventurers and fight against the legions of darkness to banish them from the galaxy.

Score explanation: Less than 2000: Please adjust your game settings because the processing load is quite heavy.

2000 through 5000: The game runs fine at the setting, if you have room, you can adjust some settings.

5001+: The game works wonderfully at this setting.

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Looking at PSO2 performance we can see it looks good against the other HD 7800 series based video cards and we're nearing that 5001+ territory which Sega say is perfect for solid game play.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

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."

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Looking at Lost Planet 2 performance you can see at the lower resolution we get an extra couple of FPS while we dip slightly at the highest. Overall, though, the gains at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 are most appreciated as we're in the area of playable numbers.

Benchmarks - Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower

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

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

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

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Just Cause 2 numbers across the board look good and the extra couple of FPS at 2560 x 1600 is extremely appreciated as we're floating around that 60 FPS area.

Benchmarks - F1 2012

F1 2012

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/

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

In F1 2012 players will feel the unparalleled thrill of becoming a FORMULA ONE driver with a host of new features, wide-ranging technical and gameplay advancements and extensive competitive and co-operative multiplayer components. F1 2012 will feature all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the 2012 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, including the debut of the 2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX at Austin, Texas and the return of Germany's famous Hockenheim circuit to the calendar.

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F1 2012 numbers across the board are nice and you can see an extra couple of FPS at all resolutions. Again like Just Cause 2 that bump at 2560 x 1600 is nice as it takes us out of that 60 FPS realm.

Benchmarks - Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/

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

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.

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Metro 2033 performance is slightly down compared to the OC version of the Pitcairn XT based HD 7870.

Benchmarks - Dirt Showdown

Dirt Showdown

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/dirtshowdown/360/

DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.

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Across the board we can see a bump in performance, but it would've been nice to see 2560 x 1600 numbers move into the 60 FPS area. We can see a decent bump that brings us closer. A slight detail drop would pick up those extra 6 FPS we want for a smooth gaming experience.

Benchmarks - Nexuiz

Nexuiz

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.alientrap.org/

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

Nexuiz is an Arena First Person shooter coming soon to consoles. Nexuiz is fast paced with extremely competitive game play. IllFonic brings Alientrap Software's Nexuiz to next-gen gaming consoles around the world while staying true to the game play refined over the years through development. IllFonic introduces a new Victorian influenced art style that is simultaneously futuristic and sophisticated. Nexuiz for consoles is powered by CryENGINE 3.

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Performance is a little all over the place here, but more importantly it's just below that 60 FPS number we want at every resolution.

Benchmarks - Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

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

Product Homepage: http://sniperelitev2.com/us/age.html

Sniper Elite V2 features detailed sniping simulation with advanced ballistics, taking into account gravity, wind, velocity, bullet penetration, aim stability and more. Guaranteed to provide players with the most realistic simulation of military sharpshooting yet available.

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Sniper Elite V2 sees a nice little bump at all resolution and we've got playable numbers at 1920 x 1200 and below. Moving to 2560 x 1600 we can see a nice increase in performance that equates to about 10%, but we're still below that 60 FPS number we need.

Benchmarks - Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://eu.square-enix.com/en

Product Homepage: http://www.sleepingdogs.net/

The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts in combat. Players also drive a variety of vehicles including cars, boats, and motorcycles.

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Sleeping Dogs performance across the board is good and it's nice to get a bit more breathing room at 2560 x 1600 where the Pitcairn XT based video card scored 61 FPS.

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.

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We can see a boost across the board as you'd expect, but ultimately we've just got very strong FPS at all resolution.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

While we test all our games with maximum in-game settings, turning on Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Antistrophic Filtering (AF) helps take the intensity of our testing to another level.

Here we see video cards go from playable FPS to an unplayable FPS and the real power houses continue to help break that 60 FPS mark we always aim for to provide a smooth gaming experience.

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With AA and AF turned on you can see we've got some pretty strong numbers and we're able to just be in that 30 FPS minimum area we want at 2560 x 1600 here.

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While we see a very small bump in performance; we're ultimately too far below that 60 FPS number we need.

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 34

While we again see just a small bump in overall performance we continue to have playable numbers at 1920 x 1200, but unplayable numbers at 2560 x 1600 when AA and AF is turned on.

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review 35

Finishing with Sleeping Dogs it's no surprise that our numbers are unplayable here, even with an extra FPS or two being seen from our PowerColor offering.

Temperature Test

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.

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Looking at the temperature side of things you can see the numbers aren't bad sitting in the middle of the pack. The idle is fairly cool at 29c and the 68c maximum under load is also pretty strong. It's not the largest of coolers so we're pretty happy with these numbers.

Sound Test

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).

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Noise levels on the card are fantastic and you can see the card sits towards the bottom of the pack with ease which is fantastic.

Power Consumption Test

Using our 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.

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The 400 Watt power draw at load is pretty strong and you can see it's in the middle of the pack. Any quality power supply isn't going to have a problem.

Final Thoughts

This new Tahiti based HD 7800 series video card is a nice edition to a strong line up from AMD and really helps add something new to the mix in time for the holidays. The biggest issue when it comes to promoting the new product, though, is because it's not something every partner is picking up, the only way you'll really see what's available is via reviews like this.

If you head on over to Newegg and do a search for the HD 7870, and then cut it down to the PowerColor ones, you'll see a total of five. The new Myst Edition card we're looking at today mentioned (Tahiti LE) in the title, but the problem is that means very little for most people.

You combine the LE tag with the fact that the out of the box core clocks are actually lower than the other model and you wonder why you're going to be paying an extra $10 for the Myst Edition which comes in at $239.99 after rebate. Of course after reading the review today you get a better idea of what's going on with this new model, but unless you do a bit of research, you're not going to know.

For an extra $10 you'd really be crazy to not choose the Tahiti LE based HD 7870 over the Pitcairn XT one. The question is going to be how many people will actually realize that? Stepping away from the general talk of the model, though, let's quickly get a bit more specific.

Package wise like most cards these days we're really not dealing with anything exciting. Outside of the installation guide and driver CD you can see the only other included piece in the bundle is a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter.

As for the cooling it doesn't look all that fancy and really overall it just looks quite plain. But it does a good job of keeping the temperature of the card at a nice level. More importantly, though, it manages to keep the temperature at a good level, and the noise level is extremely good as well.

Performance overall is strong and out of the box you can see we're coming in a little stronger than a pre-overclocked Pitcairn XT based HD 7870. Of course at times we do see both cards perform extremely close to each other and sometimes the Pitcairn XT based card manages to sneak slightly ahead. Word is overclocking on the new Tahiti LE based HD 7870 is meant to be extremely strong. Keep an eye out to see what's going on with clock speeds when we fire this new model up under MSI Afterburner.

The new PowerColor PCS+ HD 7870 2GB Myst Edition card is a really nice addition to the AMD line up. If you've taken the time to read the review and you're looking at spending around the mid $200 mark, you'd probably know that you'd be crazy to pick up an older Pitcairn XT based product.

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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.

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