Hd 6870 watt: AMD Radeon HD 6870 Specs

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IndexBarts: The Next Evolution of CypressSeeing the Future: DisplayPort 1.2Seeing the Present: HDMI 1.4a, UVD3, and Display CorrectionHigh IQ: AMD Fixes Texture Filtering and Adds Morphological AAWhat’s In a Name?NVIDIA’s 6870 Competitor & The TestCrysis: WarheadBattleForgeStarcraft IIMetro 2033HAWXCivilization VBattlefield: Bad Company 2STALKER: Call of PripyatDIRT 2Mass Effect 2WolfensteinCompute & TessellationPower, Temperature, & NoiseFinal Words

Last but not least in our look at AMD’s new Radeon 6800 series is our look at power consumption, GPU temperatures, and the amount of noise generated. With efficiency being one of the major design goals for Barts, AMD stands to gain a lot of ground here compared to the 5800 series for only a minor drop in performance.

Looking quickly at the voltages of the 6800 series, we have 4 samples – 2 each of the 6870, and 2 each of the 6850. Both of our 6870 cards have an idle voltage of 0.945v and a load voltage of 1.172v, and seeing as how they’re both based on AMD’s reference design this is what we would expect for a design that is based around a single VID.

However our 6850 results, which include a non-reference card in the form of XFX’s customized 6850, are much more interesting. While our reference 6850 has a load voltage of 1.094v, our XFX card reports a load voltage of 1.148v. We’ll be taking a look at the XFX 6850 in-depth next week in our 6850 roundup, but for now this leaves us with the question of whether  AMD is using variable VIDs, or if XFX is purposely setting theirs higher for overclocking purposes.

Radeon HD 6800 Series Load Voltage
Ref 6870	XFX 6870	Ref 6850	XFX 6850
1. 172v	1.172v	1.094v	1.148v

Finally our EVGA GTX 460 1GB FTW card has a VID of 0.975v, which compared to all the other GTX 460 cards we’ve tested thus far makes it quite notable. This is lower than any of those other cards by 0.012v, a property we believe is necessary to sell such a heavily overclocked card without causing a similarly large rise in power/heat/noise. It’s also for this reason that we question whether NVIDIA could actually supply suitable GF104 GPUs in high volumes, as GPUs capable of running at this voltage are likely coming from the cream of the crop for NVIDIA.

For our tests, please note that we do not have a pair of reference 6850s. For our second 6850 we are using XFX’s customized 6850 card, which means our results will undoubtedly differ from what a pair of true reference cards would do. However as the 6850 reference design will not be widely available this is less important than it sounds.

As always we start our look at power/temp/noise with our look at idle power. Because we use a 1200W PSU in our GPU test rig our PSU efficiency at idle is quite low, leading to the suppression of the actual difference between cards. But even with this kind of suppression it’s still possible to pick out what cards have a lower idle power draw, as the best cards will still result in a total system power draw that’s at least a couple of watts lower.

AMD’s official specs call for the 6800 series to have a lower idle power draw than the 5800 series, and while we can’t account for all 8 watts we do manage to shave a couple of watts off compared to our 5800 series cards. The Crossfire results are even more impressive, with the 6870CF drawing 11W less than the 5870CF.

Compared to the 6800 series the GeForce GTX 460 768MB does manage to hang on to top honor here for a single card by a watt, however in SLI our 1GB cards do worse than our 6800 series cards by 10W.

Looking at load power consumption it’s clear from the start that AMD’s efficiency gains are going to pay off here. On the latest iteration of our power consumption chart the 6850 underconsumes even the already conservative 5850 by 20W under Crysis and 25W under FurMark, showcasing how AMD was able to reduce their power consumption by a significant amount while giving up much less in the way of performance.

Compared to the 6800 series NVIDIA does notably worse here, with all of the GTX 460 cards pulling down more power than the 6870 and the GTX 470 being in a league of its own. While NVIDIA was competitive with Cypress on power, they’re not in a position to match Barts. They can deliver Barts-like performance (and then some), but they have to consume more power to do it.

Up next is our look at GPU temperatures, starting with idle temps. As we mentioned in our GTX 460 review, NVIDIA ended up producing a very effective reference cooler for the GTX 460, utilizing an open-air design that by dissipating air inside and outside of the case is capable of reaching temperatures fully exhausting coolers can’t match. As a result all of the GTX 460 cards top our charts here.

Prior to the GTX 460 series this is a metric the 5850 always did well in, so we had expected a similar performance from the 6850, only to leave disappointed. What we’re ultimately looking at is a matter of the quality of the cooler: the 6850 may consume less power than the 5850 at idle, but it packs a weaker cooler overall, allowing it to approach these temperatures. For a gaming card such as the 6800 series idle temperatures are almost entirely superficial once we get below 50C, but even so this tells us something about the 6850 reference cooler.

Thanks to the GTX 460’s open-air cooler, all of our GTX 460 cards top our temperature chart even with their higher power consumption. The trade-off is that all of these cards require a well-ventilated case, while the Radeon 5800 and 6800 series will tolerate much poorer cases so long as there’s enough ventilation for the card to pull in air in the first place.

As was the case with idle temperatures, the reference 6850 ends up doing worse than the 5850 here thanks to its less effective cooler; however the 6870 ends up doing better than both the 6850 and 5870 due to its more effective cooler and its lower power consumption compared to the 5870. While these cards can’t quite touch the GTX 460 series, we’re still looking at some of the coolest cards among our current benchmark suite.

Meanwhile our XFX 6850 ends up doing the best out of all of our cards here, however this will come at a cost of more noise. We’ll touch on this more next week in our 6850 roundup.

Last but not least is idle noise, which isn’t much of a story with modern cards. With the exception of the GTX 470/480, the latest GeForce and Radeon cards are both capable of running up against the noise floor of our testing environment.

Under load we once again see an NVIDIA GTX 460 card top the chart thanks to its open-air design. This is followed very closely however by the Radeon 6850, which at 47.7dB is our third-quietest card and finally showing off the advantages of the tradeoffs AMD made with the reference cooler. The 6850 may not be as cool as the 5850, but it’s quite a bit quieter. As for the XFX card, this is where XFX has to pay the piper, as their 6850 card ends up being as loud as a 5870 in exchange for their lower temperatures.

Meanwhile the 6870 ends up being quite a bit louder than both the GTX 460 series and the 6850, coming in at 55.2dB. This is a definite leg-up compared to the 5870 and nicely cements the fact that the 6870 is intended to be the 5850’s replacement, but it means the GTX 460 series spoils the results here. Once custom-design vendor cards come out for the 6870, I suspect we’re going to see someone quickly sell a 6870 with a less aggressive cooler, which for the costs of higher temperatures would afford less noise.

Compute & Tessellation
Final Words
IndexBarts: The Next Evolution of CypressSeeing the Future: DisplayPort 1. 2Seeing the Present: HDMI 1.4a, UVD3, and Display CorrectionHigh IQ: AMD Fixes Texture Filtering and Adds Morphological AAWhat’s In a Name?NVIDIA’s 6870 Competitor & The TestCrysis: WarheadBattleForgeStarcraft IIMetro 2033HAWXCivilization VBattlefield: Bad Company 2STALKER: Call of PripyatDIRT 2Mass Effect 2WolfensteinCompute & TessellationPower, Temperature, & NoiseFinal Words

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HD6870 on a 300W PSU? | Page 3

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I’m planning to build a mini-ITX PC in a SG05/SG06 but I’m not sure if the 300W is enough for my configuration

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=210&area=en

Setup:

Asus P8H67-I mini-ITX
core i5 2500K
Corsair XMS 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1333
OCZ Vertex 3 90GB
I want to use a Sapphire HD6870 1GB but if the PSU cannot supply the amount of power it requires I will to put in a HD6850.
Since it’s a H67 chipset I’m not going to overclock the CPU. I’m not installing a DVD drive nor any other components besides the 120mm fan.

www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine generates a Minimum PSU Wattage of 249W and a recommended PSU Wattage of 299W

Can u guys advise me if this configuration is going to work on the default 300W PSU? Or do I need the 450W version? The thing is that the 450W PSU isn’t any good:

http://www.overclock.net/t/889834/silverstone-st45sf-total-crap
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=276&area=en

Cheers!

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Unoriginal Sin

That’s a vary poor calculator and also some very poor advice.. if you don’t know don’t post.. you’re not helping.

Click to expand…

Quote:

Originally Posted by pioneerisloud

So much wrong it hurts. Commercial PSU calculators usually over estimate power usage by a LOT.
Use this one:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1140534/psu-calc-final-release
According to our own PSU Guru’s here at OCN, his proposed build will require 375w, assuming an overclock (which H67 won’t do), and assuming full system loads will ever be used. With that taken into effect, a good 300w will be enough, if everything is kept at stock.

Click to expand…

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unoriginal Sin

That’s a vary poor calculator and also some very poor advice.. if you don’t know don’t post.. you’re not helping.

Click to expand…

Apparently PSU Guru’s on OCN is «Trash» as well.

For the record, the PSU calculator I used came up as 376 watts.
Go for it, buy a PSU that meets the bare minimum requirements! I promise you wont regret it?

Go google 6870

Sorry for posting a link to a PSU calculator that came up 1 watt higher than the one on here.

… friend or customer, I would NEVER throw the bare minimal power supply at someone. I’m entitled to my own opinion, you want to tell people they are wrong, go to page 1 and quote them all.

From guru: «Radeon HD 6870 — On your average system the card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit.»

Lets use his advice since mine was completely smashed and laughed at.

I STILL think this is a 400 minimum / 450 watt system.

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heaviest i pulled on my inwin commander 750 w is 286 watts, and that includes EVERYTHING except monitors. ie — except monitors in my sig, everything including cpu and gpu pulled 286 watts tops under load.

(zalman fan controller i have has a live digital power meter, and it displays instantaneous power draw on a small led screen on the case)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by unity100

heaviest i pulled on my inwin commander 750 w is 286 watts, and that includes EVERYTHING except monitors. ie — except monitors in my sig, everything including cpu and gpu pulled 286 watts tops under load.

(zalman fan controller i have has a live digital power meter, and it displays instantaneous power draw on a small led screen on the case)

Click to expand…

And you’ve got a MUCH more power hungry CPU, assuming overclocked even, and a HD6950 which draws a LOT more than a 6870.

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I dont understand why all the fuss. This should already be solved. A 300Watt PSU is bare minimum, and probably wont last for a long amount of time. It IS the bare minimum because of PSU efficiency. You wont get all the 300 watts into the system. Plus, max efficiency is usually found at around 82% load. 300/.8 = 375. Shoot for a 400 watt PSU and know that your in the clear.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by pioneerisloud

And you’ve got a MUCH more power hungry CPU, assuming overclocked even, and a HD6950 which draws a LOT more than a 6870.

Click to expand…

i didnt do any overclocks until this point. currently the meter shows 142 watts. no power management is active.

so i think anyone with a single card (not one that sucks power too much) would be well off for a while with a 550 watts psu.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by HexATL

From guru: «Radeon HD 6870 — On your average system the card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit.»
Lets use his advice since mine was completely smashed and laughed at.
I STILL think this is a 400 minimum / 450 watt system.

Click to expand…

This is not a yoga camp you know?

Either way, if Phaedrus said that he’s wrong.. maybe he meant 2x 6870s.. otherwise 500W for one 6870 is simply unneeded, even on a heavily overclocked Gulftown or Nehalem you won’t be pulling nowhere near 500W with a single 6870

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Unoriginal Sin

This is not a yoga camp you know?

Either way, if Phaedrus said that he’s wrong. . maybe he meant 2x 6870s.. otherwise 500W for one 6870 is simply unneeded, even on a heavily overclocked Gulftown or Nehalem you won’t be pulling nowhere near 500W with a single 6870

Click to expand…

300 watt system = buy 400 watt power supply

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Quote:

Originally Posted by MacNcheese

I dont understand why all the fuss. This should already be solved. A 300Watt PSU is bare minimum, and probably wont last for a long amount of time. It IS the bare minimum because of PSU efficiency. You wont get all the 300 watts into the system. Plus, max efficiency is usually found at around 82% load. 300/.8 = 375. Shoot for a 400 watt PSU and know that your in the clear.

Click to expand…

Efficiency comes into the power being drawn from the WALL. So yes, if its 82% efficient, the unit will draw 375 from the wall, but it’ll still put out 300w to the components.

The PSU in question has 264w continuous 12v rating. It’ll handle his build fine. Doing any normal loading (gaming and such), he’ll never pass 260w with that setup, ever. He’ll more than likely be seeing around 175-200w at most power draw from the unit doing even the MOST HEAVY of gaming.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by HexATL

300 watt system = buy 400 watt power supply

Click to expand…

Are we talking about the same thing!?… this is not «recommend me a PSU».. if it was I would agree with you.. he asked if his 300W PSU would suffice, and it does.. it’s as simple as that.

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I recently asked Phaedrus about the same power supply for a stock 9800gt and 2500k.
As you can see here and here

a 6870’s max power usage is at around 163watts, which is about 40 more watts than the 9800gt.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Axle/GeForce_GT_240/images/power_maximum.gif
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/images/power_maximum. gif

What I got from that is the FSP unit will power the system you listed but it will use most of the rated power.
So if you use it for gaming or as a htpc, its just enough, but if you plan on having it on 24/7, then you should look at the 450w unit.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by NFSxperts

I recently asked Phaedrus about the same power supply for a stock 9800gt and 2500k.
As you can see here and here

a 6870’s max power usage is at around 163watts, which is about 40 more watts than the 9800gt.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Axle/GeForce_GT_240/images/power_maximum.gif
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/images/power_maximum.gif

What I got from that is the FSP unit will power the system you listed but it will use most of the rated power.
So if you use it for gaming or as a htpc, its just enough, but if you plan on having it on 24/7, then you should look at the 450w unit.

Click to expand…

You’re comparing a GT240, but you said 9800GT. 9800GT draws a good bit more power than a GT240.

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If you look at the chart, the 9800gt is 5 places down at 124watts

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Axle/GeForce_GT_240/images/power_maximum.gif

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Quote:

Originally Posted by NFSxperts

I recently asked Phaedrus about the same power supply for a stock 9800gt and 2500k.
As you can see here and here
a 6870’s max power usage is at around 163watts, which is about 40 more watts than the 9800gt.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Axle/GeForce_GT_240/images/power_maximum.gif
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/images/power_maximum.gif
What I got from that is the FSP unit will power the system you listed but it will use most of the rated power.
So if you use it for gaming or as a htpc, its just enough, but if you plan on having it on 24/7, then you should look at the 450w unit.

Click to expand…

If we were talking about a dedicated folding/mining rig then that would be correct.. you don’t want to run a value PSU @ 100% load 24/7 because that will degrade the capacitors pretty fast, however that isn’t the case here… and really, if you manage to keep the PSU cool(open platform, low ambient temp), then you have nothing to worry about even if you keep it at very high loads for extended periods of time

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Running a graphics card with two 6-pin connectors on a 300 watt PSU is a bad idea. A 300W PSU like that is for computers with onboard video or a low powered graphics card without 6-pin connectors. You have to account for the wattage of the motherboard and everything else too.

I have an i5 750, 5770, 2 ram dimms, and 3 hard drives powered by a 400W Corsair CX400 PSU. It would not boot if I overclock the CPU to 3.8GHz. Put in a higher capacity PSU and it boots fine. I would lean towards 450W to 500W for a 6870.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by pioneerisloud

The 300w PSU will handle your build JUST FINE. The PSU in question can handle 264w on the 12v rail. That 6870 probably draws right around 100w or so at most. Your CPU will draw at MOST 95w. That leaves around 60-70w or more to power the rest of the system. That’s MORE than enough. Its a good quality 300w, 80+ Silverstone unit. It’s not like a junk Logisys or CoolMax.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Riou

Running a graphics card with two 6-pin connectors on a 300 watt PSU is a bad idea. A 300W PSU like that is for computers with onboard video or a low powered graphics card without 6-pin connectors. You have to account for the wattage of the motherboard and everything else too.
I have an i5 750, 5770, 2 ram dimms, and 3 hard drives powered by a 400W Corsair CX400 PSU. It would not boot if I overclock the CPU to 3.8GHz. Put in a higher capacity PSU and it boots fine. I would lean towards 450W to 500W for a 6870.

Click to expand…

The reason for your system not booting lies somewhere else.. the CX400 is a solid unit, that system should’t draw more than ~250W at full load.. nowhere near the limits of the PSU in question

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