VTX3D Radeon HD6670 Review

Rating: 9.0.

There are no shortage of video cards on the market today, with all sectors perfectly covered with solutions from both AMD and Nvidia. Today we are looking at the new card from VTX3D – a custom cooled Radeon HD6670.

The HD6670 was released by AMD to target the HTPC audience, and for those wanting a card capable of ‘casual gaming' via a high definition television. AMD have included Eyefinity support on this range, meaning it is also ideal for business users who need multiple applications open at the same time.

Many readers will never have heard of VTX3D so time for a little background history:

“VTX3D” stands for VERTEX and 3D, designed to bring the ultimate visual experience in 3D graphics industry with a complete product line up fully contributed to ATI solution from enthusiast segment to HTPC solution. We’re ready to offer the most powerful and reliable products with advanced technology; and to create a reputable brand of ATI team in GPU industry.

We believe the growth of business credits to partner’s success and support. VTX3D will provide the best product solutions and grow along with our partners to establish a mutual beneficial understanding in this competitive industry.

Specification

The VTX3D HD6670 arrives in a small box with an image of the old ATI mascot Ruby on the front.

There is really no bundle to mention, just a software disc and a quick installation guide. We always advise getting the latest drivers from AMD's website.

The VTX3D card is very colourful, with a bright red plastic cooler on top and a reassuringly big fan in the middle.

The card doesn’t require any auxiliary power connectors as it draws all the power it needs from the PCI Express slot on the motherboard.  There are three display outputs on the back; VGA, DVI and DisplayPort which can all be used simultaneously for Eyefinity setups.

The cooler is aluminum based with two small rows of fins on either side of the block.

GPU-Z gives us an overview of the 40 nm ‘Caicos’ HD 6670 which has a core clock of 800 MHz and the GDDR5 at 1000 MHz (4000 MHz effective) across a 64-bit memory interface.

For the synthetic and game tests today we are using our Core i7 970 system. We have already reviewed a HD6670 within a mid range system and today we want to supplement our initial review by seeing how it slots into the full range of discrete solutions available on the market.

Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.3ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Power Supply: OCZ ZX 1250W
Memory: 6GB GSkill Performance Gaming ram @ 902.9 MHz (2:10) @ 9-9-9-24
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Monitors: Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi, Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00, Iiyama Prolite E2472HDD x2

Other graphics cards for comparisons:
AMD HD6990
AMD HD6970
AMD HD6950
AMD HD6870
AMD HD6850
AMD HD5870
AMD HD5850
nVidia GTX590
nVidia GTX580
nVidia GTX570
nVidia GTX460 OC (715/900)

Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 11.5
Forceware 270.61 WHQL
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
HQV 2.0 Software

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Nikon D300S with R1C1 kit
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:
Resident Evil 5
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Far Cry 2
Alien V Predator
Tom Clancy H.A.W.X. 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.

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11.

We test at 1080p so that all video cards can be compared throughout our reviews. Obviously driver updates might enhance performance slightly over time, but as a rule, its a useful way for us to present the findings.

Pretty much at the bottom of the performance pile with an average of just under 15 fps at these settings.

Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

A score of just under 7,000 points places it below the last generation HD5770 which scores 9,500 points. This does however give an early indication that the HD6670 would be suitable for casual gaming at 720p resolution. We will test some games later in the review.

3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.

AMD's new 6 series hardware has strong Direct X 11 performance and the HD6670 falls in around 900 points behind the HD5770.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

Read our initial analysis over here

A fantastic set of results for the budget AMD card, scoring 196 points out of 210. The hardware is delivering comparable image quality to the high end boards.

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.

The HD6670 is at the bottom of the list, but it is worth bearing in mind that this is at 2560×1600 resolution with 4AA enabled ! The HD6670 actually manages to keep the frame rates above 40 fps for most of our benchmarking section, which is very impressive. Lowering the resolution to 1080p and dropping AA further would increase the frame rates considerably.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

To test the cards we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. We use this with most of our graphics card testing so cards are comparible throughout reviews.

The card struggles to maintain playable frame rates at these settings, however the HD5770 and GTX550 ti are also struggling to maintain playable framerates. The resolution would need lowered to 720p to help boost the performance.

Lowering the resolution to 720p and reducing texture quality slightly helps push the frame rates into the playable zone, with The HD6670 only dropping below 25 fps once.

Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer.

Far Cry 2 is still a popular game and the open world environment can be taxing on even the latest hardware available today.

Settings: 1920×1200, D3D10, Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(8x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Ultra High), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High).

Again, the card struggles to maintain playable frame rates, dropping to 19 fps in the most intensive gaming sections.

Dropping the resolution to 720p and lowering the anti aliasing to 4AA helps increase the frame rates and maintain a 30fps+ rate throughout.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. After the events of the first game, the H.A.W.X squadron is sent to Middle East, where a high level of violence is being registered, and the appearance of various insurgents leaders in various hotspots. The team also has to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Russian nuclear weapons. The player will be controlling three groups: one American (Hunter), one British (Munro) and one Russian (Sokov), each with its own pilots and supporting characters. There will also be references to other characters in the Tom Clancy universe.

We are testing in full DX11 mode with all settings to maximum.

At this resolution, the HD6670 is going to struggle, it was quite juddery throughout and unplayable.

Lowering the resolution to 720p reaped massive gains with frame rate smoothness. This isn't the most exciting game to play but it runs surprisingly well at these settings.

Homefront is speculative fiction, set in a near-future, post peak oil world that features a significantly diminished United States, and a united Korea that has built a massive alliance in East Asia. The Gate Corporation (a major private military company) also plays a minor role. The game focuses on the collapse of the United States, subsequent occupation by the Greater Korean Republic—a united Korea under the rule of Korea—and the American Resistance that fights said occupation. The player is invited to join the American Resistance, “using guerrilla tactics, commandeering military vehicles, and utilizing advanced drone technology”.

Homefront’s PC version has been outsourced to Digital Extremes, a Canadian developer responsible for numerous Unreal Tournament games and Bioshock ports. Frank Delise, the executive producer of the PC version has stated that the PC version of the game will feature exclusive content and dedicated servers. Additional exclusive features include clan support, DirectX 11 graphics, and first person vehicle cockpits.

The engine is too demanding at these settings, not just for the HD6670, but for the GTX 550Ti.

Lowering the resolution to 720p and adjusting the Anti aliasing to 2x helps generate another 10-13 fps, smoothing out the overall gaming experience.

Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our BluRay and conversion tests.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with a Bluray disc of Avatar.

CPU utilisation is low, averaging around 8 percent and rising to a maximum of 18 percent. With such a low overall percentage of utilisation, the processor is free for other multitasking duties.

Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.

No problems with High Definition media playback averaging only 5 percent usage across our testing section.

We have changed our method of measuring noise levels. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The card is very quiet, and we were hard pressed to even tell that it was in operation most of the time, even when gaming. This makes it ideal for a media center, although we are sure many enthusiast users will opt for the passive version of this card.

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 25c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.

Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.

Fantastic results for the HD6670, peaking at around 50c when gaming. Furmark pushes the card much higher than we recorded under real world conditions, at 59c. Generally, the card operates between 35c and 45c.

To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and record the results.

At idle, the card only consumes a miserly 10 watts of power. This rises to 49 watts when gaming and 57 watts under Furmark load. A very efficient board design.

This isn’t really the kind of card you would normally overclock, but we know that some people will try and squeeze a few extra frames from their system. We used Sapphire’s excellent TriXX software as Catalyst Control Center only allows for limited overclocking with this particular card.

The card overclocked very well, achieving a 17 percent overclock from both the core and the memory, hitting 936 mhz and 1170 mhz respectively.

The 17 percent overclock managed to generate another two frames per second, not a huge performance increase.

As we said before, the AMD HD6670 is a very good budget offering which should sell well to a very wide audience. Today we highlighted how the solution slots into the overall marketplace against cards from the low end, right to the very top. It certainly isn't going to win any performance awards, however when considering the price and the demands of the target audience, it is very capable.

For those people who are building a new media center hooked into a high definition television this card is ideal because it only generates a tiny amount of heat and the noise emissions are very low – partly thanks to the large fan that VTX3D have included with the cooler.

If you are happy gaming at 720p or 1080p with some reduced image quality settings, the HD6670 makes for an ideal partner. As my colleague Henry said in our previous review, when compared with Intel's integrated graphics, it is a huge step up. There is even support for Eyefinity, which will suit a business audience with no desire for high resolution, multi screen gaming.

Our HQV testing showed that AMD are really optimising their range for media playback and this card scored just under 200 points, which is a fantastic result and comparable to one of AMD's high end boards costing significantly more money.

UK pricing for these cards is around £80 inc vat, which is competitive. It certainly won't suit an enthusiast user looking for high quality image settings with the newest game engines – one of the latest Sapphire Xtreme series cards would be a much better purchase. The HD6670 does however bring affordable, high definition media support with a very efficient, low noise, low heat design. It is ideal for confined chassis designs and when low noise operation is a key requisite.

Pros:

• Decent gaming performance with modest settings and resolutions
• Eyefinity support
• fantastic image quality for HD media
• low power consumption
• minimal noise, even with active cooling
• Direct X 11 support

Cons:

• Single slot version might make more sense for a portion of the prospective audience.

KitGuru says: A great card from VTX3D which will assuredly find a home in many media centers.

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