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There is no doubt that the VTX3D HD7870 EyeFinity 6 is a specialist custom solution for a relatively small user base.
It is ideally suited for a professional environment when four or more screens are in operation. AMD's image quality is exquisite, especially when paired up with DisplayPort enabled panels.
The EyeFinity 6 is also a good choice for a gamer, although there are plenty of admirable alternatives available around the £300 mark.
While the VTX3D HD7870 EyeFinity 6 can support up to six screens simultaneously, there is no doubt you will need to configure two in Crossfire to get smooth frame rates and even then the latest Direct X 11 titles may prove too taxing at this kind of insane resolution.
I was rather disappointed with the cooling solution. It is not technically a poor design, but Sapphire have pushed the boundaries far this year with their silent, dual fan coolers. Additionally, the VTX3D EyeFinity cooler is built inside a thin plastic shroud which bends under modest pressure. Not particularly reassuring for a high end card.
In direct comparison with Sapphire, VTX3D have fallen short … the single fan has no alternative but to spin higher to maintain the thermal curve. Noise levels are not intrusive, however the card is always clearly audible, especially when loaded with a intensive Direct X 11 title.
Overall, this card is targeting a niche audience who will already know what they need. For a purist gamer who only needs three screens, then the dual fan Sapphire HD7870 FleX Edition is a better bet. If you have a slightly bigger budget then aim for the overclocked dual fan Sapphire HD7950 Dual X Flex Edition, it has more horsepower at higher resolutions.
The card has plenty of headroom, responding reasonably well to overclocking. We were able to squeeze another 152mhz from the core before artifacting would occur. VTX3D don't supply this product with any overclock out of the box, which seems somewhat remiss. We know that each card will deliver a different result, but even a 50mhz core increase would be well within safety parameters and deliver a minor performance boost.
The VTX3D HD7870 EyeFinity 6 is available from Overclockers for £299.99 inc vat. We recommend this card if you need to power four or more screens in a specialist environment.
Pros:
- supports 6 monitors.
- physically small to suit a variety of cases.
- good performance.
- strong bundle.
- high image quality.
Cons:
- single fan, not dual.
- not the quietest at this price.
- thermal performance is only slightly better than reference design.
- plastic cooler shroud feels rather flimsy.
- no out of the box overclock.
Kitguru says: A good card from VTX3D, but it could have been better if they had used a quality dual fan cooler.
Its a great idea for multiple monitors, but it seems like a half way approach.
people who want this for business, wont need a 7870, so its overkill as they wont game.
gamers who want 6 screen support would be better with a 7970 version as it has more power. then they could add another 7970 later for crossfire and added power.
Make sense or not? I think so anyway.
seems more suited to business users IMO. small design for business cases, single fan for people who dont really care about a little extra noise. not enough power for gaming on 4 screens or more etc.
I dont understand the selection. 7970 would make much more sense for this kind of card.
I think like Jeff, we need it for buisness and I don`t care much about the 3D support so 7750 with 6 outputs is good for me. I need PCIe 3.0 support, because I need fast 2D transfers over the bus.
Interesting card, currently the best you can have for Eyefinity in 7xxx series, unfortunately, as the two 7970 series who can run 6 screens have mixed outputs resulting in screen tearing, same for Sapphire 7950 FleX which is for a start limited to 1080p (bcos of HDMI) and on top of that has mixed outputs resulting screen tearing.
What someone should do would be a 7950 or 7970 with 6x DP. For business use one gets off the hook cheaper by going with either 6770 eyefinity 5 edition (like, from example, XFX does and which is on top of being small also a single slot card) or with 6870 Eyefinity 6 which is usually close to 100 euro cheaper and also has 2 Gb of vRAM.
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