AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

The AMD ATI Radeon HD 7870 measures 24cm long (9.4 in). The GPU core is clocked at 1000MHz and the GDDR5 memory operates at 1200MHz (4.8GHz DDR), The HD 7870 carries 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs, it also adopts the 28nm design process and is PCI Express 3.0-compatible.
GCN 1.0 (Pitcairn XT)
Architecture
Midrange
Product Tier
1280
Shader Cores
32
ROPs
80
TMUs
No RT
Ray Tracing
2 GB
Memory
GDDR5
Memory Type
153.6 GB/s
Bandwidth
175 W
TDP
GPU Snapshot
Release date:Mar 5, 2012Price at Launch:$349
Type:DesktopArchitecture:GCN 1.0 (Pitcairn XT)
Generation:Radeon HD 7000 seriesProduct Tier:Midrange
VRAM Capacity:2 GBTotal Board Power:175 W
Core Configuration
Shader Cores:1280TMUs:80
ROPs:32L2 Cache:512 KB
Memory
VRAM Capacity:2 GBMemory Type:GDDR5
Memory Speed:4.8 GbpsMemory Bus:256-bit
Bandwidth:153.6 GB/s
Graphics Processing
Base Clock:1 GHzFP32 Throughput:2.56 TFLOPs
Ray Tracing:NoProcess Size:28nm
Process Name:TSMC 28nmDie Size:212 mm²
Power & Connectivity
Total Board Power:175 WPower Connectors:2x 6-pin
Bus Interface:PCIe 3.0 x16HDMI Support:HDMI 1.4a
DisplayPort Support:DP 1.2DSC:No
Max Displays:4
Media & Software Support
DirectX Support:12Shader Model:6.5
Vulkan Version:1.2OpenGL Version:4.6

Reviews and Ratings

84

Average Score

Based on 19 reviews

Reviewers Liked

  • Outruns similarly priced GTX 500-series Nvidia cards
  • Lots of overclocking headroom
  • Support for 4K video and other forward-looking features
  • High performance for price
  • Quiet
  • Impressively low power draw
  • Excellent energy efficiency
  • Native full size HDMI & DisplayPort output
  • Adds support for PCIExpress 3.0 and DirectX 11.1

Reviewers Didn't Like

  • 4K video content and screens likely won't be common for a year or more
  • Not worthy update for HD 6900 owners
  • Competing GPUs offer similar performance for less
  • Requires two PCIe power connections
  • Blocks an expansion slot when installed
  • Expensive
  • Noise levels a tad bit high
85

Let me start by providing you some hard facts on the performance we observed from the new Radeon HD 7800 GPUs. Gaming on the Radeon HD 7870 at 2560x1600, it was on average just 12% slower than the HD 7950 and 7% slower than the GeForce GTX 580....

By TechSpot on
80

A card that manages to give high performance at the same time as limiting energy consumption, showing that it's possible to increase performance from one generation to the next without upping the energy cost too much....

By DigitalVersus on
67

A fine performer, but it looks like it may be a bit more expensive than we'd...

By PC Pro on
100

Almost as quick as the HD 7950 and significantly cheaper - a great card for the serious enthusiast...

By Expert Reviews on
80

At long last the line up is complete, with the AMD Radeon HD 7870 and AMD Radeon HD 7850 finishing things off for AMD's next generation graphics family. Yes, we've seen the (almost) very top-end of AMD's graphics stack, with the AMD Radeon...

By TechRadar on
80

At $349, the Radeon HD 7870 is pricey. But overall, it manages impressive performance, outpacing Nvidia's similarly priced GeForce GTX 570 on most tests, even besting the step-up GTX 580 on a few. It's a safe choice for those who need this level...

By Computer Shopper on
80

The AMD HD 7870 is one hell of a card given that encroaches on the sub $400 territory of the HD 7950 and GTX 580 with relatively modest overclocking. It remained cool and fairly quiet throughout our testing compared to the other cards. The best part...

By tbreak.ae on
100

As these are reference design cards the build quality of the are the standard level we would expect for a modern GPU and in the coming weeks we expect to see the likes of ASUS, Sapphire and XFX exceed this with their custom cards and coolers.On a...

By HardwareHeaven on
80

Power Consumption Predictably due to the 28nm process shrink, AMD has brought their power consumption and efficiencies to new heights. Interestingly, the HD 7870 has the same power draw as the HD 7950, which the latter has more compute units and...

By VR-Zone on
80

Editor's note: the Radeon HD 7870 and HD 7850 have merely been announced today, coinciding with public viewings at the CeBIT and GDC shows. Retail availability is slated for week commencing March 19, according to AMD. A hole needs fillin'What...

By HEXUS.net on
90

AMD launch the ‘Pitcairn’ series of graphics cards today, completing their Trinity of new Direct X 11 discrete solutions. In previous months we analysed the ‘Tahiti’ series HD7970 /HD7950 and the ‘Cape Verde’ HD7770 and HD7750, targeting the ultra...

By Kitguru.net on
80

The Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition is a powerful and feature-rich addition to AMD's line of enthusiast video cards, but its price may be a bit of a problem....

By PC Mag on