AMD Radeon HD 6870

The AMD ATI Radeon HD 6870 measures 25cm long and weighs roughly 1kg. The GPU has been fabricated using the 40nm process, except it features 454 million less transistors than the Radeon HD 5870's Cypress XT core. This allowed AMD to shrink the die from 334mm2 to 255mm2, making the Radeon HD 6870 more fuel-efficient. The core is clocked at an impressive 900MHz, the HD 6870 has 1120 SPUs, 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.
VLIW5 (Barts XT)
Architecture
Midrange
Product Tier
1120
Shader Cores
32
ROPs
56
TMUs
No RT
Ray Tracing
1 GB
Memory
GDDR5
Memory Type
134.4 GB/s
Bandwidth
151 W
TDP
GPU Snapshot
Release date:Oct 22, 2010Price at Launch:$239
Type:DesktopArchitecture:VLIW5 (Barts XT)
Generation:Radeon HD 6000 seriesProduct Tier:Midrange
VRAM Capacity:1 GBTotal Board Power:151 W
Core Configuration
Shader Cores:1120TMUs:56
ROPs:32L2 Cache:512 KB
Memory
VRAM Capacity:1 GBMemory Type:GDDR5
Memory Speed:4.2 GbpsMemory Bus:256-bit
Bandwidth:134.4 GB/s
Graphics Processing
Base Clock:0.9 GHzFP32 Throughput:2.02 TFLOPs
Ray Tracing:NoProcess Size:40nm
Process Name:TSMC 40nmDie Size:255 mm²
Power & Connectivity
Total Board Power:151 WPower Connectors:2x 6-pin
Bus Interface:PCIe 2.0 x16HDMI Support:HDMI 1.3a
DisplayPort Support:Mini-DP 1.2DSC:No
Max Displays:4
Media & Software Support
DirectX Support:11Shader Model:5.0
OpenGL Version:4.4

Reviews and Ratings

86

Average Score

Based on 21 reviews

Reviewers Liked

  • Decent cooler
  • Decent performance
  • DX11 enhancements
  • Great power efficiency

Reviewers Didn't Like

  • Power hog
  • Can't quite beat selected GTX460 overclocked parts
  • Slightly less powerful than same-priced
  • Fails to fix anisotropic texture filtering

Putting the new Radeon naming scheme aside, we'd like to focus more on the Radeon HD 6870's price and performance. The GeForce GTX 460 clearly got under AMD's skin, as the company created a product specifically to compete with it. At $239,...

By TechSpot on
80

What's in a name? We see if ATI's mid-range graphics card can dominate the marketRating: 4Average: 4 (1 vote) Since ATI last launched a new range of GPUs, the graphics worlds has a distinctly red tinge to it rather than the green we’ve...

By Channel Pro on
90

Thee successor to AMD's popular Radeon HD 5850, the Radeon HD 6870 is the larger, more capable member of AMD's new 6800 series lineup. This midrange graphics card manages to outpace its closest relative--the Radeon HD 5850 --while doing minimal...

By GamePro on
92

Both the AMD Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon HD 6870 offer great performance for the prices and being able to drive multiple displays with one card via DisplayPort is great. While these cards might not appeal to the enthusiast gamer, they still offer up...

By Gaming Nexus on
100

A very good mid-end card, at easy with all video games. Note however that it has a misleading name: it is not a substitute for the brand's old...

By DigitalVersus on
80

If all AMD wanted to do by releasing the Radeon HD 6870 was call Nvidia onto the carpet, it succeeded. That the outcome was essentially a draw, albeit one that left AMD just a bit more sore, doesn't call...

By ExtremeTech on
90

After all, the shaders run faster at 900MHz versus 850MHz, and the efficiency is improved too. The 1,120 stream processors are joined by 56 texture units, 128 Z/stencil raster-ops (ROP) units and 32 color ROP units. Looking at single precision...

By The Inquirer on
80

The AMD Radeon HD 6870 represents some major improvements in the sub-$250 video card space, but Nvidia solutions can provide a bit more performance for the same price....

By PC Mag on
90

Overall, this choice is a no brainer. AMD's Radeon HD 5850 had a good run, but it's outclassed by a newcomer that delivers superior performance, comparable power efficiency, and a lower price tag. A great card may be riding off into the sunset,...

By PC Advisor on
80

The arrival of the HD 6870 1GB is causing a total reshuffle of GPU pricing from both red and green camps, so you’ll have to forgive us if inevitable price-shifts change the situation post-publishing this article. At time of writing the HD 6870 1GB...

By Bit-tech.net on
60

AMD's latest card, the Radeon HD 6870, is here and, well, you can colour us fairly unimpressed.AMD has had a good year. An incredible year. Twelve month's ago it was the first to market with a DirectX 11 graphics card and has reaped the rewards...

By TechRadar on
100

This is a fantastic graphics card, but 5000-series owners won’t be too excited, and true enthusiasts should wait for upcoming releases before deciding....

By Expert Reviews on