CPU3D.com

Tags : 512Mb   amd   ATI   DDR4   HD3870   pcs   Powercolor   Radeon   Reviews   rv670   TUL   Video Card   Zerotherm  

Introduction Specifications Photos and Pictures Installation and Package Test Setup and Procedures Benchmarks: F.E.A.R. (DX9) Benchmarks: Call of Juarez (DX10) Benchmarks: Crysis (DX10) Benchmarks: 3DMark 2005 Benchmarks: 3DMark 2006 Verdict and Conclusion

The Powercolor HD3870 PCS (Professional Cooling System) comes with an impressive all copper cooler by ZEROTherm ... it's definitely very attractive

 

INTRODUCTION 

{mosmodule advert3}

For those who don't know who Powercolor is, here's a brief introduction. Powercolour is a wholly owned subsiduary of TUL (Technology UnLimited)

"Established in Taipei, Taiwan since 1997, Tul has dedicated its brand and services in offering the ultimate total-solutions of technologies, making it one of world's fastest growing marketing and services companies in the IT industry. Tul is the leading supplier for graphics cards, powered by ATI's graphics processors. Tul's wide-ranged products also include motherboards, multimedia cards, Thin Clients, and Home Gateway Services. Tul employs more than 150 talents worldwide, and owns branch offices in China and Holland to support over 300 channel partners and distributors in 50 plus countries. Its customers include the tier-one OEMs, distributors, VARs and System Integrators. "

 

Since the release of ATI's HD3870x2 only a few weeks ago, the price of the Radeon HD3870s has dropped considerably. What's more, AMD have announced to further lower the price of the HD3870s to counter Nvidia's release of the 9600GT this week. With all this happening, it's a great time to consider getting yourself a REAL bargin ... a Radeon HD3870 graphics card. It will offer one of the best price/performance ratio for quite some time. The last time I checked on Pricegrabber, you can get yourself a Radeon HD3870 for approximately £115.00 ($200.00).

 

 

Now, remember, a single card will perform quite nicely, allowing you to play all the latest DX10 games ... but the main attraction is when you Crossfire two Radeon HD3870 cards together. The performance gain is far better and noticable, than if you were to have two Geforce graphic cards in SLI mode. What's even more interesting is that ATI have released their latest Catalyst drivers v8.2 that will allow Crossfire X, allowing upto 4 totally different Radeon HD38xx cards to be configured in Crossfire mode ... giving you performance like you've never experienced. Read our article here 

Here's a brief re-cap on the ATI RV670 GPU. It's produced using 55nm technology and supports 320 stream processing units, 256-bit memory interface, GDDR4 ram, as well as DX10.1. All-in-all a very inpressive feature list. Now, most Radeon HD3870 cards are pretty much the same, since they use the same AMD/ATI reference designs. However, some board partners such as MSI, Powercolor and Sapphire have overclocked the RV670 GPU and memory ... for increased performance.

Factory overclocked cards are great, but extra cooling is always needed to dissipated the excess heat. This is where one manufacturer ... Powercolor has taken that extra step. They have included a very impressive, pre-installed all copper cooler made by ZEROTherm.

 

           

 

The price of the Radeon HD3870 is now becoming very affordable, and what better time to get one of these cards to boost your graphics performance. I'm using one myself. Thanks to our CPU3D review team we'll be taking a look at the Powercolor HD3870 PCS (Professional Cooling System). It features an overclocked RV670 GPU, 512Mb of DDR4 ram, and a very impressive all copper cooler by ZEROTherm.

We're expecting some good results from the Powercolor HD3870 PCS, it will probably be very similar to other HD3870 cards out there. But what makes this card different and appealing, is the slightly overclocked memory of 1170Mhz (2.34Ghz) and the pre-installed all copper cooler by ZEROTherm.

OK, let's take a closer look at the Powercolor HD3870 and see how well it plays some DX10 games ...

 

    Specifications - Next >

Introduction Specifications Photos and Pictures Installation and Package Test Setup and Procedures Benchmarks: F.E.A.R. (DX9) Benchmarks: Call of Juarez (DX10) Benchmarks: Crysis (DX10) Benchmarks: 3DMark 2005 Benchmarks: 3DMark 2006 Verdict and Conclusion