PowerColor HD6870 Eyefinity 6 Edition CrossfireX Review

For our review today we are using one of KitGuru’s strongest systems, featuring an Intel Core i7 970 processor clocked to 4.33ghz with a Noctua NH D14 Cooler.

Our testing will take place across various sections. We will be running some basic benchmarks first to get an overview of the performance for a user with a single screen.

We will follow this up some 3 screen (5760×1080) and 4 screen (7680×1080) testing at super high resolutions.

With two of these cards you could theoretically power 12 screens, although for gaming demands we would recommend either 3 or 4 maximum.

PowerColor HD6870 Eyefinity 6 Edition in CrossfireX

Main Hardware Test System:
Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.33ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Power Supply: OCZ ZX 1250W
Memory: 6GB GSkill Performance Gaming ram @ 902.9 MHz (2:10) @ 7-8-7-24
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)

Camera: Nikon D300S and R1C1 Kit

Monitors: Dell Ultrasharp U2410 (A00)
Iiyama ProLite E2472HDD x2
Iiyama Prolite B2712HDS

Other graphics cards (single screen comparisons):
Nvidia GTX590
Nvidia GTX580
Zotac GTX580 AMP! Edition
Nvidia GTX570
XFX HD5970 Black Edition 4GB (QuadFireX)
AMD HD6990
AMD HD6970
AMD HD6950
AMD HD6850
AMD HD6790
AMD HD5870
AMD HD5850
Sapphire HD5770 Vapor X Edition (860mhz core)
MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II
nVidia GTX570
nVidia GTX 550 ti (900/1026)
nVidia GTX460 OC (715/900)

Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
HQV Benchmark
Catalyst 11.4 Driver
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 Ultra
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Forceware 266.58 WHQL

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter

Games:
Alien V Predator
Metro 2033
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Colin McRae Dirt 2
F1 2010
Dead Space 2
Just Cause 2
Lost Planet 2
Mafia 2
Assassins Creed Brotherhood
Total War: Shogun 2

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.

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