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To test this high end card today we have built a system with suitable matching components, based around a liquid cooled 12 core (6 physical/6 logical) Intel i7 970 processor overclocked to 4.33ghz with 6GB of GKILL memory running at 1800mhz with tight timings. We will be mixing the resolutions, as we know that less than 1 percent of the audience have access to a 30 inch screen.
Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.33ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Power Supply: Corsair Ax1200
Memory: 6GB GSkill Performance Gaming ram @ 902.9 MHz (2:10) @ 7-8-7-24
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Monitors: Dell U2410 UltraSharp, LaCie 730, Iiyama Prolite E2472HDD x2
Other graphics cards for comparisons:
Nvidia GTX590
Nvidia GTX580
Nvidia GTX570
XFX HD5970 Black Edition 4GB (QuadFireX)
AMD HD6990
AMD HD6970
AMD HD6950
AMD HD6870
AMD HD6850
AMD HD5870
AMD HD5850
MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II
nVidia GTX570
nVidia GTX460 OC (715/900)
Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 11.6
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
HQV 2.0 Software
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
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:
Resident Evil 5
Far Cry 2
Alien V Predator
Lost Planet 2
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
Metro 2033
Dirt 3
STALKER: Clear Sky
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Dead Space 2
Total War: Shogun 2
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
VTX3D, never heard of them ! nicely designed card, but yeah bit hot for my tastes my own 6850 hits 80c in furmark..
I like the fact they are trying to break the reference designs, thats normally left for Sapphire. my concern however is that this cooler isn’t adequate. I read another review of the powercolor card and they found the same thing, I think one of the systems actually SHUT down in some testing. Did you experience any hard locking Zardon?
This is not for me, but yeah its cool to see X2’s again.
Id rather get the GTX580 as it runs much cooler.
No stability problems when gaming no.
Good idea, but there are so many cards now for every price range, its sure to confuse people
I think this will be closer to 400 sterling due to vat and current crap economy here
Interesting concept idea from Powercolor. certainly got them some headlines lately
Compared to the GTX580, this seems a much better deal IMO. faster, cheaper. etc.
Seems like it is a problem to get it cooled adequately. Many enthusiast users want sub 80c temps under load. 80-90c+ isn’t really that good a selling point, even if it is massively difficult considering the power on hand.
I like it, however why not just get two 6870s, which will run cooler? I understand not everyone will have a crossfire capable board, but stil…..
biggest heatpipes ever on a video card? we should hold a vote to find out
Maybe this is why the 580 has dropped to £339?
isnt it 6 core? (12 threads) in cpu =)
Hi Pelle, it is indeed. 6 physical, 6 logical. 12 threads.