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Today we are using one of our most powerful systems, a Core i7 970 based configuration, liquid cooled at 4.33ghz, with a Corsair AX1200 power supply – all built into a sexy Thermaltake Level 10 chassis.
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: Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi, Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00, Iiyama Prolite E2472HDD x2 , Iiyama Prolite B2712HDS.
Other graphics cards for comparisons:
Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 1GB GDDR5 (in Sli)
Inno3D GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5
HIS Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5
Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 10.12
Forceware 263.09 WHQL
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
HQV 2.0 Software
Widescreen Fixer
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:
Alien V Predator
Far Cry 2
Mafia 2
Resident Evil 5
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
Lost Planet 2
F1 2010
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Metro 2033
Lost Planet 2
Medal Of Honor SP
Battleforge
Crysis Warhead
Devil May Cry 4
Left4Dead 2
Alien V Predator
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
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.
Christ thats a lot of work. those cards are brilliant for 145. great for a future upgrade if you bought one now.
fucking A1 man. great work
Very very very very nice. I like the cooler design from XFX. these guys are delivering
Lovely. liked the videos too. I must get that battlefield game, keep meaning to.
great design from XFX< especially the power drain and noise. excellent
Also, have to hand it to you, quality of reviews this week has been top drawer.
A good point was made on the crossfire driver profiles. are they any faster out of the drawer with them now ? they seemed to be slow in the past.
nice performance, but im saving for a 6990. if its good, It better be.
Keep em coming, but I too am waiting on 6990 review next year. im all set for reading. you got one already Zardon?
Read this over a cup of tea. what a great article and i liked the rating system, its hard to work out later what did what and what is performing better in which engnie.
HAWX2 seems like a total farce to me.
Wicked. The prices of all these cards now are great. still got my GTX460 and love it, no need to move, but ive my eyes on the GTX580, if I ever get the money.
Am I the only one who finds the new AMD range a little underwhelming? id expected the HD6900 series to do more. these are good cards though for the money.
I am ordering these for my son for his birthday in January. if I order now I might get them in time, due to the crap weather here 🙁
Hard to beat this at the price, I’m sold
Excellent idea. Unfortuantely AMD can be slow with profiles for CFX sometimes so performance would be much worse
Good detail, 6850s are good value cards, I like this design from xfx
Shame scan won’t deliver before Christmas because of our shitty weather. 🙁
I’ve no idea why AMD and XFX are selling 6850s with such low core clocks, they have huge headroom.
Ordering anything in the UK now is a waste of time, but this card is worth 144 quid ! will wait till new year before deciding anything, but its one of the top 3 choices for me. (not ordering two though, ive only one screen).
nothing to say, but well done. liked the article.
Excellent editorial piece from KG. cards are very good, I already have a powercolour HD5850, but I might upgrade next year to a 6950. Crossfire is great in principle, but I had issues with a older cfx setup. never again.