Configuration:

The ASUS EAH6870 was tested in a system with the following configuration:

» Intel Core i7-920 quad-core processor
» ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 motherboard
» Cooler Master Z600 heatpipe CPU cooler
» Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB SATA 6Gbps hard drive (boot drive)
» Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB DDR3-1600 memory kit
» Nesteq EECS 700 Watt modular power supply
» Toshiba slim DVD drive
» Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit

All tests were conducted in the 64-Bit version of Windows 7 Professional, and the Windows 7 compatible Catalyst 10.10 drivers were downloaded from the AMD website. The screenshot below provides details on the card as provided by Techpowerup.com's GPU-Z, which confirms much of what we already knew, as well as detailing some other features.



The next screenshot is from the Overdrive tab in the Catalyst Control Center, provided simply to get another confirmation of the GPU and memory speeds.



While running these preliminary checks, I found the card to be rather quiet. The fan was not audible over the normal din in the room, and I had to get up close and personal to hear it at all. Even during later testing where the load and temperature was greatly increased, the fan never ramped up to leaf-blower proportions like many other cards I have tested. At worst, the sound was a mild WHOOSH, that would definitely be well muffled if it was installed inside a closed case.

The setup is run on an open testbed, so fit up in a typical case was not gauged. The card is large, but not that large, so it should work fine in most mid-tower or larger cases.

Overclocking:

I am not an extreme overclocker, but I like to try to squeeze some extra performance out of a card for the sake of comparison while testing. In general I enter the Overdrive tab, and slide the memory and GPU speeds to their maximum, and then proceed to testing. This simple approached has worked well for the majority of cards I have tested, but not on the HD6870.

The GPU runs at 915MHz by default, and the maximum the Overdrive tab will allow is 1000MHz. The memory runs at 1050MHz by default, and the maximum the Overdrive tab will allow is 1250MHz. Both are fairly healthy potential increases, and I believe the memory slider's maximum exceeds the rated speed for the chips used on the card. Regardless, the system was unusable with both sliders simply maxed out, so a new approach had to be taken.

Instead of manually trying to find the sweet spot for overclocking, I let the Auto-Tune feature of the Overdrive tab handle it. After what seemed like an eternity of tuning and testing, it finally chose a GPU speed of 990MHz, and a memory speed of 1215MHz. Definitely better than I thought it would allow, and more in-depth testing at these speeds proved that the system was stable.

The screenshot below shows the overclocked speeds to be used during testing...