Sapphire HD7870 Overclock Edition Review

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell April 2, 2012 Featured Tech News, Graphics

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.

Excellent performance, slotting in behind the HD7950 by only half a frame per second.

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KitGuru Games: DLSS 5 misses the point

It would be hard to argue that NVIDIA’s DLSS technologies haven’t been a net positive to the PC space, with the machine-learning based upscaler successfully translating lower resolution inputs into a final image which is perceivably sharper while hogging fewer resources. Though somewhat more contentious, the next evolution of DLSS came in the form of Frame Generation, using ML in order to generate additional frames for high-refresh rate gaming. Both techniques can have their issues, but generally speaking they’ve allowed for more people to experience higher-end titles at increased frame rates. DLSS 5, however, takes a sharp pivot, with a very different end goal in mind than the performance-boosting versions that came before.

10 comments

Davis
April 2, 2012 at 8:57 am

Another good card from the Sapphire team 🙂
Brian McFadden
April 2, 2012 at 11:06 am

Great cards. My friend bought one and its really quiet. the coolers are great this year.
Terry Oreilly
April 2, 2012 at 2:27 pm

Bought the 7970 last week 🙂
Justin
April 2, 2012 at 2:28 pm

Quality cards, but its a tough decision id have to base on price right now. as they all overclock much the same.
Brian
April 2, 2012 at 2:28 pm

Its XFX or Sapphire usually, but that gigabyte card is a solid buy,

Only one problem. YOU CANT FIND IT ANYWHERE !!!”
Joseph
April 3, 2012 at 8:02 am

nice specs. good performance sapphire coolers seem a bit better than XFX coolers in regards to tempeatures.