AMD released the original 6870 back in October and almost every video card manufacturer had reference models. It has been a while since the launch and now we are seeing manufactures come out with their own versions of the 6870, one such company is ASUS. They have sent us their HD 6870 DirectCU which features ASUS’s in house PCB design, a slight overclock up to 915 MHz and the DirectCU (direct copper) GPU cooling solution, which ASUS says will cool the GPU up to 20% better than the stock cooler. Let’s take a look at this card and see if it is perfect for your gaming needs.
Special thanks to ASUS for providing us with the HD 6870 DirectCU 1GB Video Card to review.
Features
– 915MHz Factory Overclocked edition
– Super Alloy Power technology delivers 15% performance increase, 2.5 times longer lifespan and 35°C cooler operation
20%* Cooler with exclusive DirectCU thermal solution
Up to 50%* faster clock speed with exclusive Voltage Tweak
Specifications
| Graphics Engine | AMD Radeon HD 6870 |
| Bus Standard | PCI Express 2.1 |
| Video Memory | GDDR5 1GB |
| Engine Clock | 915 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 4200 MHz ( 1050 MHz GDDR5 ) |
| RAMDAC | 400 MHz |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Resolution | D-Sub Max Resolution : 2048×1536 DVI Max Resolution : 2560×1600 |
| Interface | D-Sub Output : Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1) DVI Output : Yes x 1 (DVI-I),Yes x 1 (DVI-D) HDMI Output : Yes x 1 (via DVI to HDMI adaptor x 1 ) Display Port : Yes x 2 (Regular DP) HDCP Support : Yes |
| Accessories | 1 x CrossFire cable 1 x Power cable 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor 1 x DVI to HDMI adaptor |
| Software | ASUS Utilities & Driver |
| ASUS Features | DirectCU Series |
| Dimensions | 11 ” x 5 ” Inch |
Packaging
The HD 6870 comes in ASUS’s retail packaging. On the front of the package there is large Voltage Tweak logo, which will get into later in the review. There are also some other features listed on the front. On the back there is a list of features and an explanation of some of those features.
Opening the box up inside you will find a box of accessories and the card itself. With everything taken out you have the HD 6870 card, driver CD’s, CrossFire bridge, DVI to VGA adapter, DVI to HDMI adapter and a PCI-E power cable.
