Pros: If you're like me you don't browse through the feedback to hear that a card is fast or amazing. You want to get an idea of how many issues users ran into and how they solved them or what are the chances that your card will be defective. Thankfully, I did not run into any of these problems, so I will have to write this review about how this card is amazing. I upgraded to this card from a Radeon HD 6870 from a different brand, because my last card was incredibly noisy and I couldn't stand it anymore. Why would I choose this card when there are significantly better performing cards out there? Besides cost, I have limited space in my case and only a 550W power supply. This card measures to 8 & 7/16” in length from the metal bracket to the end of the shroud. The PCI-E power adapters are on the end of the card, so you will want at least 9” of space in your case to fit comfortably. The plastic shroud extends past the PCI-E power adapters, so if you don’t care how much you bend your power wires you could probably cram it into an 8.5” space. My last card was incredibly noisy at higher RPM’s, it sounded like a turbine. This card is quiet enough even with the dual fans that I can’t really distinguish it from the 6 other fans in my case. Granted I haven’t seen it go over 70% RPM’s, because it stays incredibly cool, which leads me to my next pro. This card idles ~39-40 C and peaks at ~66 C under heavy load. My last card idled around 59-61 C and peaked at a staggering 89 C! At temperatures like that I didn’t expect my last card live much longer. I chose this card based on benchmark reviews stating that it was quiet, stayed cool, and had good performance for the price. I am happy to say that I found these reviews to be accurate. I must also admit that getting Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider for free weighed heavily on my decision to purchase another AMD card. I see they are giving away Blood Dragon in addition now, is there any way I could get a free copy of that too?

Cons: These cons are merely superficial. The card looks atrocious, I am not sure who designed the color scheme or design, but I do not agree with their tastes. Thankfully, since it’s in my case I can’t really see it through the window in my case very well. The plastic shroud is somewhat flimsy, but it didn’t break installing, so that’s all that matters right? I mean it’s inside my computer case, it doesn’t need to built like a tank. The only real complaint is that the PCI-E power cables are somewhat difficult to unplug due to the placement of the plastic shroud. I didn’t get Blood Dragon, because I ordered it a week too early. I have owned this card for less than a week, so I will update if I run into any issues.

Overall Review: If you're like me, you like numbers, so here are some benchmarking results among various popular games. All of these benchmarks were taken from games with benchmarking tests. I did not use FRAPS to produce these results! All games were set to maximum ingame settings including anti-aliasing and filtering, v-sync was turned off, and the resolution set to 1680x1050. Sorry I am still using an ancient monitor and for any formatting errors. <benchmark test><avg FPS: HD 6870><avg FPS: HD 7870><performance increase> HL2: Lost Coast 266 267.6 0.6% Crysis 64bit CPU 29.2 39.9 36.87% Crysis 64bit GPU 31.4 43.4 38.18% Company of Heroes 59.6 59.6 0% Street Fighter IV 133.4 163.3 22.4% F1 2010 64 92 43.75% DiRT 3 60 97.1 61.73% DoW II - Retribution 88.7 93.7 5.5% Batman: Arkham City 54 76 40.74% Metro 2033 17.7 30.3 71.65% Bioshock Infinite 36 56.3 56.31% Tomb Raider 26.8 47.9 78.73% I must admit I wasn't expecting more than a 20-30% increase between 1 generation of the same card. I am pleasantly surprised! My rig: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4, Intel i7 3770K, Sapphire HD7870 GHz Edition, 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1833 9-10-9-28