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  • princehamlet - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    the Sapphire HD 7870 OE Load uses 219 V under load? Fascinating!!
  • Ryan Smith - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    Yep, but the amperage is astoundingly low! Thanks for pointing that out; fixed.
  • ImSpartacus - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    Best correction response ever. Jarred will need to up his game.
  • axelthor - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Best response ever. I think today is the first time I actually laughed out loud reading Anandtech.
  • xeizo - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    As it is best in "just about every metric" as Charlie D wrote long before it's launch.

    But, it could be interesting for the uninitiated to see just how much is sacrified by chosing a cheaper solution, that's why it should have been included in this an upcoming tests.
  • CeriseCogburn - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Yes, but they had to show only amd winning to satisfy their fanboy love.
    Just expect it here every time, right down to wording and phrasing, not just the charts.
    Anyway, if we go back to the abandoned price vs performance metric that was spewed here for years and instantly abandoned when AMD spit out their greedy failship that cost me dearly, I'd say the GTX570 is one sweet deal - and they did include that in the charts.
    Overclock it and you almost have the 580 - also in the charts.
    Here is it for $269, and it's a quad monitor, surround single card MDT overclocked out of the box. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
    +
    Never mentioned is the FACT that Nvidia's newest driver 301.24 takes ALL the wonderful GTX680 special driver features and ports them all the way back to the 8 series Nvidia cards.
    +
    That's FXAA, dynamic V-sync, etc, etc -all the way back to anyone and everyone including gems like 8800GT/X, all the rebrands !
    ROFL @ amd's driver fail
    +
    Think about that - all that hatred over all those years now Nvidia is stepping up like the men amd only wished they could be and providing enormous added value for long discontinued cards - with so many owners one can only hope these review sites swallow their bias and actually report on the wonderful development.
    What this means is cards going way back for Nvidia purchasers just got new life breathed into them, the adaptive v-sync does wonders for gaming smoothness.
    +
    I've dumped the flagship amd card overboard for failure to support the end users and gamers and scalping us like crazy until they got hammered back by Nvidia, then what did they do ? Dumped support for my 4000 series amd cards.
    Good bye amd, who cares what your fps say at we won't show nvidia 680 websites, and your lousy amd no added valueless fail crash drivers.
    And that's the way it is. Good night.
  • CeriseCogburn - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Here's the driver link
    http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-g...
  • snakefist - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    errrr... are you sane?

    being a fanboy is one thing, but having THAT ridiculous argumentation is... well, *quite* different

    where I came from, there is absolutely NO GTX680 available, neither for love nor money... i see not much point in argument that "almost fictional graphic card seen only on reviews or as a gift on lottery" to be a necessary addition to a completely different price-range card review

    or, if we want to play make believe reviews, let me introduce brand new, revolutionary Einstein-architecture graphic card called Snakefist GTX+1699, which has recommended price of sub-300$, beats both AMD and NVIDIA flagship solutions in all benchmarks for blazing 30+%, and require no additional power...

    only catch is, this magnificent card is available only on reviews, and can't be bought in real life... but surely, this lacking review would profit greatly if a Snakefist GTX+1699 was included, therefore i protest for its malicious excluding... and this site is well known to be biased to BOTH AMD AND NVIDIA, as well as for BOTH AMD AND INTEL... and dropping out GTX+1699 only confirms this fact

    anyway, people *that* full of rage should refrain from posting... at least until they cool off a bit...

    as for me, this review includes all relevant, similarly priced and AVAILABLE cards in the price range... and as much as i would like to be able to see my make-believe card showing its shiny blue colour in, for example, budget card comparison, dominating everything else by 30-30000% margin, it's just... not necessary

    and, please, do a comment about my grammar, i'm not a native english speaker, but i surely deserved that. and lacking grammar is a sure sign of being completely wrong in all points, that is a fact well known of this site. please. just this time. it will strengthen your argumentation and make you feel superior
  • CeriseCogburn - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    In other words everything I said is true and you decided to call names and make up fantasies for 8 paragraphs because you have no other method of dealing with the truth.
  • snakefist - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link

    i have no problems in dealing with a truth (and no problems with typing, either - besides, i don't see mine post was longer than yours). thing is, you were raging and spilling hate because ~500$ card was missing for sub 300$ comparison. and because you presumably had a problem with a card, every review from there on has to be 680 vs 7970? if you need it in writing: "680 is better than 7970". happy?
  • silverblue - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Why show a card that the 7870 has no hopes of getting anywhere near?

    The 7950 is there to show how close the 7870 is.
    The 7970 is there to show how much stronger it is than the 7950.

    I admit that I'd have liked to see the 680 there, but with the 7970 on the graph, I think you can work out where the 680 would come in most games.

    You're nitpicking and over nothing particularly important. You may have had a few bad experiences but there's no need to vent them in the comments section of a 7870 article. If you think AT is biased, go to Guru3D.
  • Spunjji - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link

    LOLOLOLOLOLOL

    Dude, get a hobby or something. This site is in no way AMD biased.
  • Wreckage - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    No 680 in the benchmark? I would wait for the 670
  • antef - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    I was excited by the Final Words until I saw the almost-7950 price and 2 year warranty. No thanks.
  • Tunnah - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    are the ATI cards playing the same second fiddle to Nvidia their overlords do to the intel grand-daddies ?

    I know it's not such a wide gulf as between intel and AMD CPUs but it just seems Radeon cards are constantly playing catch-up against the much superior counter-brand.
  • kyuu - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    I dunno what you're talking about. For anyone not looking to spend half a grand on a (not-in-stock) GPU, which is pretty much everyone, AMD's 7xxx-series is the clear winner at the moment.

    If I were in the market, I'd probably be looking at a 7850. Great performance for the price.
  • CeriseCogburn - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    I do know what you're talking about like the other guy does as well but won't admit it, and you're correct.
  • Galidou - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link

    Hmmm I think your perception is really flawed, the wide gulf is really between AMD and intel's cpu. Nvidia and AMD's video card are never that far. Right now, AMD gets out a new cpu and it's hardly competing against last intel gen cpus.

    When AMD's and Nvidia's video card get to the market, you can see them all around in graphs. Look at intel vs AMD's cpu review graphs... all the AMD's cpu on the bottom, all intel on top... Currently, AMD's cpu performance compare to old core 2 duos almost... speaking mhz for mhz.
  • Galidou - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link

    The much superior, LOL man what you smoke is really good. You must be the hell blind... OMFG the funniest shit I ever had to read!!! Way to go blind fanboys, get some new high tech glasses so they can give your sight back to learn to read graphs... I don't know but... anyway.
  • plopke - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link

    Why does this card come with 2* pci express 6-pin power connecter?
  • Ryan Smith - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Because of the 190W TDP. That means you need a further 115W on top of the 75W a PCIe slot can provide,which in turn requires 2 6pin PCIe power sockets.
  • hwhacker - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    I think he was asking why it needs 2x6-pin connectors when under load these things do not draw 150w. Heck, a 7950 questionably draws 150w a lot of the time, and a 7970 questionably 225w. If those were nvidia cards, they would without a doubt have less power connectors.

    This is probably a mix of different things, some obvious and others inferred:

    Yes, TDP. AMD actually puts power connectors according to a theoretical but unrealistic 100% load and the lovely powertune rating is for product differentiation. This is a huge qualm I've had with them since nVIDIA started doing the questionable/smart choice of supplying power connectors for AVERAGE load at STOCK. IE, a 680 draws 225w at load stock, but can be clocked to draw much more because the pci-e spec is completely over-specced. This started with GTX570 iirc. Bending the rules or smart marketing...you be the judge. I wish there was a single spec that everyone agreed on, one or the other. It does make AMD look bad for what I see as playing by the rules.

    Another portion is marketing. Irregardless of where AMD places their chips, there stack has been pretty consistent that the low end is 75/150w, the mid-range 150/225w, high-end 225/300w for power connectors. This almost never actually fits with their actual power consumption but does place realistic segmentation on the lower-end parts when they cannot have their voltage adjusted etc. The given rational obviously being they would climb over their pci-e spec, the reality being that lower-end products would deter buying higher-up the chain. AMD has effectively killed the 4850/5850's of the world, and 7850 looks unattractive to 7870 when if all things were equal, it shouldnt.

    WRG the powertune rating, it's not tough to see through the marketing ploy of it all:

    A 7870 can use a max of 190w for overclocking. Sea Islands is on the same process. Is it so cynical to think 8870 will have a ~/slightly greater stock tdp than the powertune rating of 7870 with a powertune rating of the 225w pcie spec? Think about that for a second. By doing this not only are they essentially guaranteeing the new product will perform better than the old even if the earlier had the capability (which 7870 doesn't) because the newer part can use more power, it also appears as an upgrade in technology as the average consumer sees power requirements as similar because they require the same amount of connectors. I could very much see this coming into play when comparing a 8870 to a 7950, for example, or a 7850 to 8770. Similar specs, higher frequency and tdp potential on newer parts via voltage or what-not.
  • plopke - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    :) Ty both for your reply , well was just curious AMD itself says on their website you only need one 6 pin connector. But I guess most are made with 2 for overclocking potential and given a 2-1 adapter for normal use.
  • CeriseCogburn - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    If only the fantasies he filled your head with were true, but they are not.
    Let's take the big amd favorite game, Metro2033 in the above chart right in front of geniuses' eyes.
    Here's the total power consumption in the game for a system with "these cards"
    310
    316
    324
    331
    334
    336
    352
    353 (7950 at stock clocks)
    +
    Now let's remove the gentleman's arbitrary declaration of low power usage:
    "when under load these things do not draw 150w. Heck, a 7950 questionably draws 150w a lot of the time"
    -
    That leaves 160 watts for the rest of the system, or more than 202 watts in the case of the overclock, and here's the 100 watts idle usage in the release article link
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/amd-radeon-hd-7...
    Gee, it's right there.
    100 watts
    Oh well, more fan fantasies and excuses are surely coming, and facing reality is the unattainable job for the spinners.
  • Spunjji - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link

    CC, Since when did 100W idle system power mean your system besides the GPU will also be drawing 100W under load? What madness makes you think you can clatter out that sort of utter bollocks without anybody noticing?

    Just to demonstrate how little sense you just made:
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_...
    Now have a look for the 7870. In case you're having trouble finding it, it has a *peak* power draw of 115W under Crysis 2. You'll note that the GTX 670 gets a commendable 152W under the same test, because it too has fucking excellent power efficiency.

    Before you start your trolling some more, note that TechReport have a reliable methodology for measuring -card- power draw. Anandtech's methodology is poor for rating the cards alone because their over-specified CPU leads to compressed results under low load. I don't particularly care about that though because even if their results *were* a good indicator of card power alone, what you wrote here would still be a lousy piece of chicanery.

    In short, hwhacker is right and you are so, so wrong.
  • medi01 - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Wow, different nick, exactly same words, same post. nVidia employees trolling here? Pathetic...
  • CeriseCogburn - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Read much what you comment on instead of calling names rudely?
    His link goes to a Kindle Fire for $199, which by implication he would rather spend his money on.
    Maybe since you're such a genius you could tell us what graphics chip is in the kindle fire, and then claim he's a Nvidia employee ? Good luck son.
    Hey guess what - people can, and do, and have, especially lately, hated the overpriced amd cards !? Imagine that, they ripped me off for over $130 dollars by the way.
    Guess what ? I'm not nor have I ever been employed by Nvidia, although hoinesty that would be absolutely great since they have money and hire more employees and amd doesn't and fires employees then rips people like me off too !
    Yes, please direct the Nvidia headhunters to both mine and the other possibly several guys posts. ( people do copy what was written prior and repost it when they see the clueless jabbering !)
  • Ryan Smith - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Chill guys, that was a spammer.
  • silverblue - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    Amusing, considering NVIDIA actually cut 360 jobs back in late 2008. The first time in a long time, sure, but even the amazing NVIDIA loses money and employees once in a while.

    You're really starting to grate as regards that 7970. In the past, people might've shown some sympathy, but now, you just look like somebody with more money than sense for not waiting a bit to see how the product's early months panned out and not enough gumption to do something about a bad purchase other than bitch about it incessantly. Amusingly, if you forget the 7970 for a moment (which AMD only priced where they did because the top card always commands a much higher price - 580 anyone?), AMD are usually more competitive than NVIDIA as regards performance/$, and until Kepler, less power hungry. You had a bad experience, we know, but just because you did, doesn't mean you should come here preaching that everybody stop buying AMD products as a result. Believe it or not, having more people like you slating one company and praising the other is exactly why people get uppety about possible employees or shills posting here.

    More people are going to shell out for a 7870 (or the NVIDIA equivalent, when they launch it) than the 7970 or 680. This review is concerned with the 7870, a card which undoubtedly performs notably slower to the 680, not like it would be a surprise.
  • Galidou - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link

    Let him be, he's a mad fanboy looking for love, because his beloved company can't give him any. The only thing they'll do is sell him some overhyped video cards that, while being very good, aren't the holy grail of computer part that ever existed in human history! OMG people we're not comparing a Honda Civic to a Lamborghini Diablo special limited edition... get REAL LOL!!

    I have a radeon 6850 in one righ and a GTX 550 ti in another and both runs EVERYTHING with 80-90% of graphical options enabled... With the last 10-20% of options noticeable if you stop the rythm of the game to only look at graphics... All that AT 1080p!!!!!!!!!!

    AHHH life's good...
  • Galidou - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link

    LOL CeriseCogburn, don't be such a mad fanboy... Answering to a simple inflammaroty sentence with a whole paragraph... Go buy a GTX 680 and throw eggs at AMD's headquarter like you were doing before commenting here :P
  • Origin32 - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link

    And another typical day at Anand. AMD fanboys accusing writers of being Intel fanboys and Nvidia fanboys accusing them of being AMD fanboys. lol
  • Spunjji - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link

    It's tiring, isn't it.
  • vicbee - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link

    Ya'll should just get a life. Seriously... most arguments revolve around $10-30 price difference and possibly 10 fps for similar card category. Yawn!

    Until last week I have a liquid cooled GTX285 until a transistors fried. I was kind of glad something happened because I wanted a newer card but just couldn't fathom taking my rig apart to uninstall the liquid circuit. And who in their right mind would buy a 2nd hand card with a liquid cooling add-on... problem solved.

    I've only owned higher end Nvidia cards so this time around I thought I'd try an AMD and got the Sapphire discussed in this article. It's a great card (like my Nvidia cards were great cards) and because it's an upgrade I get 20 fps more than with the old card. I did have a software install issue tied to a missing something .dll but on the 3rd download it solved itself. Problem solved now back to gaming...
  • Autisticgramma - Monday, April 30, 2012 - link

    @CeriseCogburn. You doth protest too much.

    Next you'll be telling us that nVidia's Tegra 2 is better than the (new AMD card).

    nVidia Isn't innovating, its reacting to AMD offerings. (in the desktop graphics realm) Granted most of the cards are about 10% better, and about three months later for about the same price.

    When Fermi was released, it was obviously a data center add in card, the price, the heat and performance (for graphics) was outrageous.

    I Tend to agree with the nVidia fan boys that they're (nVidia) holding stuff back, kepler looks good on paper, and the point of availability has been pounded to death.

    If they can crush AMD, why don't they?

    I'd be happy to give them my money, if they weren't the lazy hare in this race.

    -gramma
  • Stempy59 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link

    Hmn, under clocked 680 still better, yeah the price is higher but they will be more available soon!
  • Spunjji - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link

    Thank-you for that enlightening apples-to-oranges comparison. Meanwhile it was nice to see how AMD's second-tier card stacks up (better than its top-tier card, hilariously).

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