There have been quite a few new graphics card releases this year and with the now crowded GPU market, we have gotten many requests to revisit some of the earlier launches to see how they stack up in the latest GPU landscape. One such card is AMD’s Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, which has seen some dramatic improvements since its initial release in March.
AMD’s entire lineup of graphics cards based on the Southern Islands architecture were released between the months of January and March of this year, with only a few updates during the summer to combat new releases from NVIDIA. Though they don’t get as much review time anymore, the Tahiti, Pitcairn and Cape Verde GPUs still have a lot to offer gamers and the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition is a perfect example of that.
Thanks to recent price cuts, the Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition and all other Pitcairn GPUs can be found for much less than when they were launched. With a starting price of $350 in March, some base HD 7870s can be found online for $250 and sometimes less with rebates today making it a great deal for gamers on a budget.
You can check out all of our graphics card reviews right here to see how the market currently stands but there are really very few bad choices anymore.
Well done Ryan.
Well done Ryan.
Excellent. Two of those
Excellent. Two of those Sapphire 7870 in Crossfire for 500 Bucks will definitely light up your Game Machine and framerates!
I’m not sure if your video
I’m not sure if your video will answer my question, but im going back to Eyefinity/Surround again today with 3x Dell U2410’s and I’m going to need to do some graphics cards updates to reflect the best bang for the buck to run the latest games at 5760×1200. I haven’t found anything that 100% answers this question – but how does the 660ti SLI ($300×2) stack at this resolution vs say an HD7970 ($400). Thoughts?
IMO, Buy a couple 7950s.
IMO, Buy a couple 7950s.
While obviously an awesome deal if you’re an overclocker (7970 and 7950 perform similar at similar clockspeeds, and 7950 can overclock to similar levels as 7970) even at face value they are a nice option, especially for your scenario.
Big buffer for high rez even as a single card, which makes 7950 better than 660ti for your usage, more performance than either of your options listed as a dual setup, and can be found cheaper than 660tis. Not gonna lie…I’d be pretty jealous of that setup.
Me, I keep eying a single 7870 for 1080p…and this video isn’t helping by reminding me I need to hide my credit card. With prices dropping as low as 200-220 after rebate on occasion, more realistically ~230 OTD, they are such a nice option when they are small cards (that will fit in a small case) and the next step up…660ti…really is not worth the extra coin both in terms of real-world performance (both will play 1080p maxed out with acceptable frames, especially overclocked) and 660ti is disproportionally more expensive. 7870 is just a sweet card that gets sweeter as it edges towards $200. Only thing that should really hold anyone back is the possibility of 8850 which may perform slightly better over-all, be priced similar if not lower than current 7870 prices at launch, and use one less power connector in only couple months. That said, as the old tech adage goes…the world never stops turning and you’ve got to make a decision sometime. There will always be something better, and cheaper, tomorrow.