SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition DirectX 11 100354OC-2L 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card

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

Pros: Beautiful graphics, runs most games on high or max settings. Quiet fans.

Cons: Since upgrading to this card with a new power supply, I hear a soft buzzing noise coming through the speakers as soon as I open any game. This is not coil whine, which comes from the card itself. This is coming through the speakers. I bought a new sound card, power supply, audio cables, even video cable. And the buzz is still there. I have updated the audio drivers for both the new soundcard and the on-board sound. The only thing left is to replace the video card, and I threw away the packaging before I noticed the buzz.

Overall Review: Also, be aware that this card requires 2 6pin connections. The price was good, but maybe I should have gone for a different brand.

Pros: Plays most games on max settings (bf3, dead space 3). Crysis 3 and Far cry 3 run on very high settings with 2X SSAO which is quite impressive for a $230 card imo. Was previously running 2 4870's in crossfire and I can't get over how much this card blows them away. Granted they are almost 5 years old but still. Also the card is incredibly quiet and runs at around 55C under heavy load.

Cons: Not seeing any so far.

Overall Review: Seeing a few reviews complaining about the black screen issues that have been reported. I have not had any issues with this so far. If considering this card please keep in mind that someone with a DOA piece of hardware is more likely to take the time to write a review. As I said before this is one hell of a card for the price. Intel i7-2700K OC 4.5ghz Asus P8Z68 Deluxe/gen3 8GB g.skill ripjaws x OC 1966mhz Intel 520 180GB SSD

Pros: Great card, runs Bioshock Infinite with everything Ultra and maxed out. It gets avg of about 70fps in game. Sometimes dips a little low but no choppiness at all, sometimes over 120 fps. Plays every game I throw at it, literally.

Cons: Not really any cons to it, games were easy to get for free. Shipping took 1 day and was free. Fans ARE loud only wen cranked to 100%, which never happens because it never gets over 60 Celsius.

Overall Review: Don't listen to the other reviewers about the black screens. I GUARANTEE they either aren't plugging in the power connectors that it requires which is 2 x 6-pin off your power supply. All the people that leave reviews like that, probably shouldn't even be upgrading their computer to begin with. And probably don't have enough of a power supply to handle it. Not very big sized graphics card either. Pretty much standard size for them these days. I OC'd this thing about 250 MHz over the stock clock and it never reaches over 60 Celsius even with the fans at around 60% speed. These clocks I used aren't even the highest recorded clocks on this card. It is a freaking powerhouse and worth every penny I spent on it for sure.

Pros: I think these are probably the best value on the market especially when they are on sale. If you crossfire them they are unbelievable and significantly outperform a GTX680 in 3DMark scoring.

Cons: none

Overall Review: If you are looking for extreme graphics performance then crossfiring these is an absolute beast of a value. You can get these cards on sale with rebates for under $200 each, so paying less than $400 for crazy high performance is a no brainer. Couple this with a OC processor to 4.5Ghz and you have a pretty sweet setup that will demolish pretty much everything. Crossfire setup could not be more simple - just click a button on Catalyst Control Center where options are "enable" or "disable" crossfire and you are good to go. I was really surprised at the performance of these cards in the crossfire setup. I know lots of folks are in love with the GTX 600 series cards, but you can get a ton of performance at a much better value with these kinds of setups.

Pros: Runs Crysis3 on high settings without a burp. I initially tried Crysis with an Nvidia 660 card and it would freeze up minutes into the game. No problems at all with any game I've tried.

Cons: none

Overall Review: This is a correction for an earlier post: I submitted a review on 3/30 saying I could not get the card to push 2560x1440 on my monitor. Then I realized I had connected the monitor to the slower dfi port. Now it drives my monitor at 2560x1440 in all the games I've tried at high settings. No complaints with this card at all. Good value.

Pros: Fast, cool, quiet... and there is no comparison in graphic detail with my old 5870. This card is just a little over 1/2 the size, runs 40 deg cooler, and I can't hear it even with the fans boosted (though I have no real reason to run it that way now). This thing hasn't broken a sweat yet.

Cons: None that I can see or imagine.

Overall Review: I'm embarrassed to say I paid far more for my old card than I did for this one ... and it still works. Just not nearly as fast or as well. But at this price (on sale with a rebate), after seeing this card run, I don't regret the purchase one little bit.

Pros: Great fps at 1080p gaming. Runs BF3 and everything so far on Ultra. good for the $190 I spent on it.

Cons: NONE