Overclocking

Unlike the previously reviewed 7850, the Radeon 7870 comes with voltage control! For this review we selected the maximum allowable voltage and went from there. In this case using the iturbo software 1.337v can be used for overclocking the core frequency.

Temperatures:

For overclocking we ramped up the fan speed to 100% and did the testing. With the card maxed out temperatures skyrocketed to over 100*C and resulted in a bunch of crashes. Since I was concerned with these temperatures I pulled the card apart and applied some Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste to the card. Temperatures dropped 11*C under load across the board! Clocks that were not stable now were suddenly stable. I've gotta say that if you want to push this card to its limits I really suggest getting an aftermarket heatsink for this card since the stock one is fine if you want to run a small overclock or keep it at factory clocks, but if you want to push it as far as it can go on air it would be a good idea to improve the cooling.

GPU-Z

3dMark Vantage

Physx Off:

Over 28000 GPU score is quite impressive! This is getting close to 7970 territory.

Heaven Benchmark

Direct X 11:

Once again, a solid increase with a relatively simple overclock.

Far Cry 2

HUGE frame increase here from an overclock.

Battlefield 3:

Even at stock clocks the 7870 is very playable but the smoothness is only increased when it is overclocked. The game was great even in heavy action scenes.

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Very nice boost in speed.

Street Fighter IV

 Over 200FPS in a game is borderline crazy.

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