HIS HD6970 CrossFireX Graphics Card Review

1. Introduction2. The Positioning, Architecture & New Catalyst Driver3. The HIS HD69704. Testing Methodology5. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven Benchmark6. Synthetic: Stone Giant7. Synthetic: TessMark8. Synthetic: ShaderToy Mark9. Image Quality: HQV BenchMark V210. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage11. Synthetic: 3DMark 1112. 1 screen: Alien V Predator13. 1 screen: Far Cry 214. 1 screen: Resident Evil 515. 1 screen: Tom Clancy HAWX 216. 1 screen: Mafia 217. 1 screen: Lost Planet 218. 3 Screen: F1 2010 @ 5760x108019. 3 Screen: Metro2033 @ 5760x1080 CFx20. 3 Screen: Left4Dead 2 @ 5760x1080 CFx21. Technical: Thermal Dynamics22. Technical: Power Consumption23. Technical: Acoustics Performance24. Technical: Overclocking25. Closing Thoughts26. View All Pages

HIS are famous for performance products and today, as AMD releases the Radeon HD 6900 series they were quick to release their new range of  products. To see what this second generation graphics processor is really capable of, we tested a pair of the Radeon HD 6970 cards in CrossFireX formation as well as the usual array of stand alone tests.

Is this the perfect card to replace your last generation HD5870? Is it worth your money buying two of them to run in CrossFireX? Today we aim to help you answer these questions.

Product	HIS HD6970
Core Clock speed	880mhz
Primitive Rate	2 prim/clk
Shader Architecture	VLIW4
Stream Processors	24 SIMD/1536 ALU
Texture Units	96
ROPs/Z-Stencil	32/128
Frame Buffer	2GB GDDR5
Memory Width/Speed	256 bit, 5.5 Gbps
Power Connectors	8 pin & 6 pin
Display Outputs	2xDVI + 2x mDP + HDMI

AMD was out of the DX11 stable more than 6 months before nVidia. It has now shipped and sold more than 25 million Direct X 11 graphics solutions. In addition to being first for DX11, Eyefinity is also a key focal point as the cards on test today can support between 3 and 6 displays via a single card … later on we will test some current games over a 3 screen setup. We'd love to have had a single card head-to-head across multiple screens, but nVidia are still trying to catch AMD in this regard and can't yet support more than a pair of monitors on a single card. We expect nVidia to rectify this in its next generation design, the GTX600 series.

KitGuru has seen documentation that suggests the Radeon HD 6950 will come in around the £220 mark and the full blown Radeon HD 6970 will be around £280 inc vat at today's rate.

That sees a straight line up between the GTX570 and the Radeon HD 6970 (more on that in a future review). At the same time, the Radeon HD 6950 will cost slightly more than an overclocked GTX460.

There is a way to line the GTX580 up against the Radeon HD 6970 – and that's in a multi card configuration. Buying a pair of GTX580 cards will cost you about the same as three Radeon HD 6970 cards. So if you have around £840 to spend on graphics, both companies have a solution for you.

Now that we have the pricing and market positioning out of the way, lets have a look at the architecture.

When the HD6900 series was in development, AMD's goal was to enhance compute architecture and geometry performance while maintaining high levels of power efficiency. AMD have refined the VLIW4 architecture and have a dual graphics engine design with asynchronous dispatch.

This new configuration allows for up to 24 SIMD engines and 96 texture units with rendering improvements, including enhanced anti aliasing performance. This is all aided by a 256 bit GDDR5 memory interface.

All stream processing units now have an equal share as the T unit design has been made redundant. Special functions (transcendentals) now occupy 3 of 4 issue slots. Greater utilisation than the previous VLIW5 design offers a 10% improvement in performance per mm2 and a simplified scheduling and register management.

The upgraded rendering back end system allows for Coalescing of write ops and the 16 bit integer (unorm/snorm) ops are twice as fast as before. The 32 bit FP (single/double component) ops are between twice and four times as fast.

The new asynchronous dispatch architecture design means that multiple compute kernels can be executed simultaneously. Each of these kernels has its own command queue and protected virtual address domain. DMA engines are dual bidirectional for faster system memory reads and writes. Flow control has been further improved with this design and there are now faster double precision operations.

The 6900 platform also brings AMD's 8th generation tessellator to the fore – this is a dual rate geometry configuration with off chip geometry buffering.

The dual graphics engines can now process two primitives per clock with tile based load balancing and a 2x transform and backface cull rate. With dual rasterisers and up to 32 pixels per clock, this new tessellation performance is up to three times better than the HD5870 – the last class leader.

AMD are also offering new Anti Aliasing (EQAA) modes with their newest driver. New MSAA modes with up to 16 coverage samples per pixel. Additionally the number of colour and coverage samples can be independently controlled offering better quality with the same memory footprint. They are compatible with Adaptive AA, Super Sample AA and Morphological AA.

Morphological Anti Aliasing is a post process filtering technique which is accelerated by DirectCompute. It delivers full scene anti aliasing and is not limited to polygon edges or alpha tested surfaces. It bring speed benefits to the front, when compared against super sampling. The performance is similar to edge detect CFAA but it applies to all edges. The best thing is that it is compatible with any DirectX 9/10/11 application including games with no AA support and is simply enabled by Catalyst Control Center.

AMD have a sample of the modes in action (see above) and while it perhaps isn't the best example, it gives a rough approximation of the edge improvements.

They have introduced new PowerTune Technology, which is able to lock a GPU TDP output level to a pre determined level. An integrated control processor monitors the GPU activity in real time and it dynamically adjusts the clock to enforce the TDP.

This means that the user has a direct control setting over the GPU power draw, rather than just indirect clock/voltage tweaks. AMD state that their system provides an algorithmic approach to help ensure consistent performance across the product range.

The settings are available in the AMD Overdrive tab in CCC and it ties in with overclocking tools, allowing users to increase board power limis and also (just as importantly) to decrease limits for improved power draw and thermals in applications that demand high performance.

As with most HIS products, the HD6970 arrives in a ‘long' box with the image of a rendered sword on the front.

Inside there is a Crossfire connector, power converter cables, video adapter and literature on the product. There are no free games with this bundle.

The card is a reference design with a HIS sticker on the front. The rear has a protective plate over the PCB, encasing the card completely.

The card has two Crossfire connectors for 2, 3 and 4 way CFx. It requires a six pin and an eight pin power connector.

Both HD6950 and HD6970 have a new switch next to the Crossfire Connectors which enables two modes. Setting 1 is an unprotected mode for user updates and setting 2 is protected as factory default. Never has modding your video card been so user friendly.

Connectivity is strong with 2 miniDisplayport connectors being complimented by an HDMI 1.4A output and 2 DVI ports (one DL and one SL).

Once the backplate is removed, we have access to the PCB. Removal of the cooler is simple, just a little time consuming due to all the screws involved.

The cooler is a 5th generation Vapor Chamber system which AMD claim has great cooling efficiency and acoustic performance but more on this later. The memory installed on the card is Hynix H5GQ2H24MF.

Both cards running in Crossfire X.

Today we are using our most powerful system, a Core i7 970 based configuration – liquid cooled at 4.33ghz, with a Corsair AX1200 power supply – all built into a sexy Thermaltake Level 10 chassis.

System validation available over here.

Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.33ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Power Supply: Corsair Ax1200
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)
Monitors: Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi, Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00, Iiyama Prolite E2472HDD x2

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

Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 8.79.6.2RC2_Dec7
Forceware 263.09 WHQL
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
TessMark
ShaderToy
HQV 2.0 Software

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:
Resident Evil 5
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
Alien V Predator
Mafia 2
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
F1 2010
Metro 2033
Left4Dead 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 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.

Crossfire solutions lead the way with the single GTX580 card outperforming the HD6970 by around 7 fps. A good showing from AMD with the latest architecture.

Stone Giant is a benchmark tech demo that showcases and measures DirectX 11 performance using the BitSquid Engine. This is a very heavy tessellation dependant benchmark which runs very well on nVidia hardware.

nVidia solutions, unsurprisingly score the highest with the Stone Giant benchmark. This is not without some controversy however, in our recent interview with AMD guru Richard Huddy he said “With artificial tests like Stone Giant, which was paid for by nVidia, tessellation can be done down to the single pixel level. Even though that pixel can’t be broken away from the 3 other pixels in its quad. Doing additional processing for each pixel in a group of 4 and then throwing 75% of that work away is just sad”.”

Regardless, it is a popular benchmark and we felt it was worth an inclusion in our reviews today. We can see that nVidia hardware scores well, claiming both of the top positions, followed closely by the AMD HD6970. Those who pay attention will see that the all important minimum frame rates of the HD6970 is higher than the GTX460 card, meaning it is slightly smoother to the naked eye. AMD are clearly improving their tessellation performance.

TessMark, is small synthetic graphics benchmark focused on Tessellation performance of Direct3D 11 and OpenGL 4 capable cards.

Like Unigine Heaven, TessMark allows to select the level tessellation. The small difference is that TessMark proposes four differents levels:

• moderate
• normal
• extreme
• insane

Moderate and normal levels are levels we’ll find in real world applications like games. Extreme and insane levels are reserved for GPUs with high levels of tessellation processing power. We tested today with moderate, normal, and extreme settings to get an indication of the tessellation scaling with each card.

According to the author TessMark is a pure tessellation benchmark and as such shows native performance for each card. We aren’t sure what to think about these results and whether it could in any way translate into ‘real world' gaming performance. Nevertheless its interesting enough to merit an inclusion.

ShaderToyMark is an OpenGL benchmark, developed with GeeXLab, and focused on pixel shaders only.

In the words of the author … Why ShaderToyMark? Simply because I recently played with the pixel shaders available with Shader Toy, a great WebGL tool for testing GLSL shaders. And I said to myself: that would be nice to see several of these shaders running at the same time in the same 3D window… ShaderToyMark was born.

The contributors of Shader Toy are all famous demomakers and their shaders are real gems. It’s just amazing to see what can clever people do with some sin/cos and other math tricks.

Again, the nVidia GTX580 comes out on top, but there is a price difference. Quick calculation shows us that the nVidia card is 34% faster but costs 43% more. Insert your favourite comment about swings and roundabouts here.

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.

	HIS HD6970
Dial	4
Dial with static pattern	5
Gray Bars	5
Violin	5
Stadium 2:2	5
Stadium 3:2	5
Horizontal Text Scroll	5
Vertical Text Scroll	5
Transition to 3:2 Lock	5
Transition to 2:2 Lock	0
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video	5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video	5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed	5
5:5 FPS Animation	5
6:4 12 FPS Animation	5
8:7 8 FPS Animation	5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)	5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)	5
Random Noise: Sailboat	5
Random Noise: Flower	5
Random Noise: Sunrise	5
Random Noise: Harbour Night	5
Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Luminance Frequency Bands	5
Chrominance Frequency Bands	5
Vanishing Text	5
Resolution Enhancement	15
Theme Park	5
Driftwood	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Skin Tones	7
Total	196

A very high level of image quality for the HD6970 graphics card.

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.

The GTX580 scores just under 25,000 which is a hell of a result for nVidia. The HD6970 scores just under 21,000, around 16 percent slower. The HIS HD6970 in CrossfireX scores over 34,000 which is significantly higher than the HD5870 in CFx at 30,714.

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.

3DMark 11 is the newest, and greatest benchmark from Futuremark which uses all of the modern rendering techniques to ascertain performance levels, as such modern hardware scores much less than 3DMark Vantage with the powerhouse GTX580 scoring 6144 points in our overclocked Core i7 system. This is the fastest single chip graphics solution today.

The HD6970 and HD6950 in CrossfireX score significantly higher, at 9380 and 8580 points respectively. Killer performance levels.

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 nVidia GTX580 leads the way with single chip rendering ability, followed closely by the AMD HD6970. HIS HD6970 crossfire scaling is very good peaking at an average of 107 fps – 72.5% higher than the nVidia solution.

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)

AMD performance in Far Cry 2 is significantly improved over their last generation of cards. The HD6970 is still some way behind the GTX580 in this particular game, but the overall levels of performance are excellent. Crossfire scaling is also very good, with the HD6970 CFx solution scoring 124 fps.

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 HIS HD6970 is around 17 fps slower than the GTX580 at these settings, however both cards are capable of delivering insane levels of performance with this DX10 engine. Crossfire scaling is reasonable, increasing from 111 fps to 157 fps when enabled.

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.

HAWX2 certainly favours nVidia hardware with a single GTX580 outperforming the CFx solution. Regardless, even a single HD5870 is capable of delivering smooth frame rates at these settings.

Mafia II is a gritty drama which chronicles the rise of World War II veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will join the Falcone Crime Family and become a made man. There are 15 chapters in the game, connected into one storyline.

We tested at 2560×1600 with fullscreen: on, antialiasing:on , Anisotrophic filtering: 16x, Shadow Quality: High, Ambient Occlusion: on, Geometry Detail: High and APEX PhysX: medium.

We normally test with physX disabled, but we felt enabling it with this high end hardware was an interesting, fresh look at the title. nVidia hardware runs better with this engine with physX enabled as can be seen with the results. We would need to disable this to increase the frame rates for the AMD hardware (and GTX460).

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates.

After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. Lost Planet 2 runs on the MT-Framework 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in several Capcom-developed games.

We are testing in DX11 mode with all settings on the highest. Direct X 11 features are on high.

Lost Planet 2 isn’t a game we particularly like, but the DX11 engine is a fantastic hardware test. Cranking everything to full and enabling 4x MSAA shows that the AMD hardware in Crossfire configurations really delivers the best overall experience. The GTX580 also puts in a solid showing, leading the single GPU performance path.

F1 2010 is a video game based on the 2010 season of the Formula One world championship. It is the sequel to the 2009 video game based on the same series. It was released in September 2010 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows platforms. The game was confirmed by Codemasters on 23 April 2009. The game engine is based on the new EGO 1.5 engine, an unofficially titled evolution of the EGO 1.0 engine that was created specially for the title.

We are testing across three screens with 4aa and 8af enabled and ultra quality settings in DX11 mode.

F1 2010 at 5760×1080 is a fantastic gaming experience and one you need to see first hand to appreciate. The performance of the HD6970 with this engine is excellent, and a minor drop in AA would increase the minimum frame rates a little higher.

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

The game utilizes multi-platform 4A Engine, running on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. There is some contention regarding whether the engine is based on the pre-release X-Ray engine (as claimed by Sergiy Grygorovych, the founder of GSC Game World, as well as users who have seen the 4A Engine SDK screenshots, citing visual similarities, shared resources, and technical evaluation of the pre-release 4A Engine demo conducted at the request of GSC Game World), or whether the engine is an original development (as claimed by 4A Games and Oles' Shiskovtsov in particular) who claims it would have been impractical to retrofit the X-ray engine with console support). The PC version includes exclusive features such as DirectX 11 support and has been described as “a love letter to PC gamers” because of the developers' choice “to make the PC version [especially] phenomenal”.

This engine is incredibly demanding and with a single HD6970, the frame rates can often dip into the low 20's. After adding another card however the minimum frame rates increase enough to keep the engine running above 30fps at all times. This transforms the experience completely.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead.

Like the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign's finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the “Director” that monitors the players' performance and adjust the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Several new features have been introduced: new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects the game's five campaigns together.

A single HD6970 card delivers enough power to keep this game smooth throughout all the sections we tested, however adding another shows a good percentage of Crossfire scaling with the Source engine- this boosts minimum frame rates from 46 to 74.

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.

Under gaming load, the card peaks around the 75c mark, rising to 83c under Furmark load. The 5th generation Vapor Chamber is actually pretty good considering the performance levels. We look forward to seeing the new 3rd party coolers however in a couple of weeks time.

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. The best way to get maximum load results is by using Furmark, and even though it is not indicative of a real world situation it shows the limits the card can theoretically demand. The ‘gaming’ results are measured when playing Crysis Warhead and is a more valuable result to take from this.

Efficient at idle, rising to around 190 watts when gaming.

Recently 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.

We load the card with FurMark.

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 cooler is reasonably good, although both can be heard when fully stressed in Furmark. Adding another raises the noise to around 43 dBa.

To overclock the HD6970 today we used Catalyst Control Center initially, then pushed higher with the Sapphire TRIXX overclocking tool. All of our samples overclocked to almost identical levels so the screenshots may not be directly linked to the cards in this review. This is because they are all the same reference design from the same production line batch.

The HD6970 peaked at 950mhz. Memory reached 1475mhz (5900mhz effective). This is the an 18 percent overclock on the Hynix GDDR5 memory, we are very impressed with this.

If ever you needed to see the performance differences between the last generation and the current generation AMD graphics cards then this is a good test to run. Tessellation performance due to the architectural changes noted earlier shows that a single overclocked HD6970 is capable of performing close to the HD5870's in a Crossfire configuration!

At these overclocks, temperatures rose by around 3-4 C under load.

The HIS HD6970 is an extremely high performance card which delivers eye-popping levels of performance, even when tasked with powering a 5760×1080 display. While nVidia still has the single chip performance crown with the GTX580 and AMD has the single card crown with the dual-chip 5970, KitGuru believes that price needs to be factored into each verdict. While nVidia is undoubtably ahead in heavy tessellation situations, it's also worth reiterating that AMD cards have a unique selling point with multiple monitor configurations, if this is a feature that appeals to you. It certainly does to us.

At only £280 inc vat, the HD5970 is over £100 less expensive than the GTX580 and generally delivers performance levels not too far behind, depending on the gaming engine, or synthetic benchmark. We will be looking at the GTX570 in an upcoming review and seeing how it fits into the overall performance picture.

As a reference card design, the HIS HD6970 has no exclusive talking points to elaborate upon, but we doubt that any gamer will be unhappy with the overall gaming performance in any of the modern gaming engines. The only game which actually caused a single HD6970 a problem was Metro 2033 at 5760×1080. CrossFireX scaling alleviates the Metro performance challenge, but obviously you are doubling the credit card bill for a single game.

The reference cooler isn't too bad, but we know in the coming weeks that AMD partners like HIS will release new and improved, overclocked, quieter solutions to sate enthusiast desires. The price of those overclocked solutions could be higher, but you generally get what you pay for. Whether you want to wait is another question, because these really are some of the finest products that AMD have delivered to market.

KitGuru says: Performance gaming at a very low price point. The HD6970 eats the HD5870 for breakfast and is priced way lower than its predecessor was at launch.

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