Powercolor HD6870 PCS++ Review

The Powercolor HD6870 PCS++ is a very high performing card which is supplied at highly modified ‘out of the box' clocks. It is in fact one of the fastest HD6870's we have tested, almost performing at the same level as a reference HD6950.

The cooler design is attractive, with a ‘race car' feel to it, complete with gold grill beside the fan. The results of our temperature testing are concerning however. Our final results of almost 100c in Furmark, and around 90c when gaming is much higher that we would expect from a custom cooled card and we actually delayed the review by almost a week so we could communicate directly with Powercolor.

Powercolor claim that our voltage figures are accurate and that the card has been tuned to deliver the highest possible performance with increased frequencies. They do claim however that our temperature results are higher than they should be which would indicate that our sample is faulty on some level. Before remounting the cooler and applying new thermal paste our system would shut down when running Furmark, afterwards it was stable with all games and synthetic testing.

It makes it somewhat difficult for us however, because while we are sure the temperatures are higher than they should be, we only have one sample to evaluate, and there is a niggling doubt that perhaps Powercolor have set the voltage a little high. Even if the temperatures dropped by 10c they would still be borderline on what we would expect from a custom cooled solution.

On a performance level, the HD6870 PCS++ certainly delivers a great gaming experience coming close in performance to the reference clocked HD6950. Two of these in Crossfire would certainly make a great multi screen gaming experience.

Pros:

• Nice design
• very high ‘out of the box' clocks which lead to class leading performance

Cons:

• Our sample ran very hot

KitGuru says: Without having access to another sample it is hard to wholeheartedly recommend this particular card, but temperatures aside, it is one of the fastest HD6870's on the market.

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