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To test the Sapphire HD6670 today we are using several systems. Our synthetic testing will be performed on our long term GPU rig, powered by a Core i7 970 system running at 4.33ghz. For the gaming results we are using an AMD FX 8150 Black Edition which is overclocked to 4.2 ghz.
Synthetic/Media Test Bed:
Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.33ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Memory: 6GB ADATA @ 2133mhz 9-10-9-32
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Monitors: Sharp Aquos 50 inch LCD 1080p / Lacie 730 30 inch screen.
Gaming System:
Processor: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition @ 3.6ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Nikon D3X with R1C1 kit / 24-70mm lens
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 & Software:
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Dead Island
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
F1 2011
Far Cry 2
Resident Evil 5
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.
Some game descriptions are edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.
Another good card from the Sapphire team. Id like a new media center, just have never gotten around to building one.
The fan on that card must spin very slow cause its tiny and the noise levels seem very good.
If I was building a media center id opt for a passive card, like their ultimate series.
Shame they couldnt engineer it to be passive and low profile/single slot. Would have made a nice deal indeed.
Been waiting for a good review of this, thanks.
Fascinated with the power drain, 8 watts is very tempting. I wonder would it be possible to use another heatsink on the card for completely passive cooling without taking up much more space? I have a completely silent media center with an underclocked 2500 processor, undervolted. This would be ideal, but I dont want a fan in it. my case is small so the ultaimte cards dont work
Here is a score more realistic for a low profile htpc, A c2d E4700, DDR2 800Mhz 4Gb. I have never seen a low profile htpc / light lanbox with a i7 EE.
Min: 5.7
Max: 31.0
Avg: 14.8
Score: 372
Hi Nian,
I agree, but it is possible and a lot of people are doing it, Why? When combined with a decent graphics card the audience can also play all the latest games with high IQ at 1080p – as well as doubling up as a media center. Some of our audience are also performance freaks who just want the fastest possible system.
http://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/zardon/building-a-core-i7-htpc-with-sapphire-mini-itx-h67/
I hate the anti spam box…. the refresh from an incorrect entry clears a comment. Ack.
Anyway I know there are speed freaks with high end lanbox/htpc systems that use i7, but its rare for them to ever use low profile cases, thats almost exclusively for those people who bought a budget pc or went for a very small case for the most basic of stuff. Many people would love to know how it performs on a low to mid level cpu and a <300watt psu.
I forgot to say that bench was for Unigine at 1680×1050 same settings as what you used. I have benched the hell out of this card and it is only ever a minor few fps worse than your own benchmarks with the i7.
We normally test graphics cards with the same system so they are interchangeable, although driver updates can change performance a little over time.
Your results are close because the card isnt that powerful and fps scores will be gpu limited, not cpu limited.
If you lose a comment in reply, dont hit refresh, press ‘back’.
Oh I understand why you reviewed the card in the system you have, its your standard test box and the best way to compare it to other cards.The thing tho is Its an unusual card released for a specific market, It wouldn’t have been a bad thing to include a couple of benchmarks showing what it can realistically do with low end systems that the card was targeted for. Still, I am thankful for your review, only two sites bothered and that’s a shame.
By the way, don’t you think its temperatures are alarming for such a small gpu? I am quite surprised how hot it gets, certainly a bother in such a space constrained low profile case.
Oh and yes the back button still wipes the comment if I enter the antispam incorrectly. (On Firefox atleast)
Hi nian, what case do you use?
Its actually an old Acer office pc. Picked it up for a htpc cheap, decided to play with it. The cooling is not the best but its hitting the same temps your review hit. I wouldn’t have expected under load to hit 80c like it does.
Hi Nian. Thanks. Yeah, the temperatures aren’t quite as low as maybe some people would expect. I had a few emails about it also.