# MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III 2 GB



## W1zzard (Mar 28, 2012)

MSI's HD 7870 TwinFrozr III improves on the AMD reference design by adding the company's dual-fan cooling solution to the card. It also comes with increased clock speeds of 1050 MHz core and 1200 MHz memory out of the box. In our testing we saw great additional overclocking potential, well into the 1200 MHz range.

*Show full review*


----------



## okidna (Apr 3, 2012)

Typo :

"MSI is using their *DirectCU II* cooler on the card, which we have seen on other models before."

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7870_Twin_Frozr/3.html



Good review and nice card, btw


----------



## W1zzard (Apr 3, 2012)

fixed, too many numbers in the coolers


----------



## NHKS (Apr 3, 2012)

Nice review again W1zz.. although the card itself doesnt impress me much with performance gain(2% max over stock)..  noise@load too seems on the higher side.. the temps dont look great either.. the stock card can OC to 1205 MHz compared to 1230MHz of the TFIII, while  temp@load+OC for stock is 71C against 74C of the TFIII.. without OC both stock & TFIII hover around 69C.. so what is the real purpose of TFIII other than 'marginally' better OC capability (&10$ hike)?


btw.. I like the new 'Verdict icons' used by TPU! when was it updated?.. even old reviews seem updated with this


----------



## dj-electric (Apr 3, 2012)

Getting the better version based on the TF IV soon. Will update results, not allowed to say more about this.


----------



## NHKS (Apr 3, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> Getting the better version based on the TF IV soon. Will update results.



U mean the 7870 Hawk?


----------



## arnoo1 (Apr 3, 2012)

i don't get it, the msi twinfrozer cooler is dead silent on some geforce cards and they consume more power, it's just 155w and it's noisy? what's up with that?
crappy tim or weak airflow in the case wizz test those cards?
45db is not normal for a twinfrozer cooler


----------



## dj-electric (Apr 3, 2012)

NHKS said:


> U mean the 7870 Hawk?





> not allowed to say more about this.



One thing i will say is that XFX's BE card was able to OC to 1245Mhz on its core at stock voltage.


----------



## OneCool (Apr 3, 2012)

So in a perfect world this would have been the competition for the 680 (both being a mid-high level card)

I think it could have been very easy for AMD to have done the same thing nV did.Crank up the core and mem and let it fly.Clock for Clock the 680 is faster but some things could have been tweaked and changed to to fix that.

Nice card.If it only cost about $250 AMD would sale these things like crack.


----------



## W1zzard (Apr 3, 2012)

arnoo1 said:


> crappy tim or weak airflow in the case wizz test those cards?



same case / airflow / room temperature in all my reviews

it's the fan settings that are not properly adjusted to the cooler


----------



## Norton (Apr 3, 2012)

Thanks for the great reviews as usual 

This one is nice but I think I will hold off for the Hawk version for when I upgrade my 6870 Hawk later this year


----------



## Crap Daddy (Apr 3, 2012)

Agreed, the 7870 is a very good card... for 2010. 5% faster than the GTX570/HD6970 for 370$? Really? Yeah, I know, uses half the power and overclocks like a beast.


----------



## N3M3515 (Apr 3, 2012)

W1z, the memory clocks of the GTX 680 in the specifications sheet is wrong, isn't it 1500 Mhz?


----------



## N3M3515 (Apr 3, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> One thing i will say is that XFX's BE card was able to OC to 1245Mhz on its core at stock voltage.



All i have to say to that is......................HOLY SH*T!!!




> Agreed, the 7870 is a very good card... for 2010. 5% faster than the GTX570/HD6970 for 370$? Really? Yeah, I know, uses half the power and overclocks like a beast.



Reference card should cost $240 max.
Lightning, DCU, TF, BE, etc, maybe $260.

PD: off topic, supposedly the high prices on HD 7770 ($160), where going to dry HD 6870 (EOL?) inventories, but i still see LOTS of HD 6870 in all the stores.


----------



## Major_A (Apr 4, 2012)

What happened to the days of getting a game with your video card?  The first card manufacturer that sets up a plan with STEAM to offer either a game credit or a monetary limit is going to get more customers.  Sure custom PCB and aftermarket fans are all great but in the end people/we buy these things to play games.


----------



## stupido (Apr 4, 2012)

quick question to Wizzard:
why do you use MW4 to test the gain of overclocks? I mean is that game particularly sensitive or something else?

I'm curious because any card can run that title nicely... To me it would be beneficial to see if the overclock is doing well in more challenging games such as BF3, Crysis-whatever or likes...


----------



## zargana (Apr 4, 2012)

With the AMD's 7 series MSi's custom solution is under expectation as we compare to old generation. Also Asus have some issues on his custom solution. Expl. 7950 dcu issues.

But the comments on various sites for Sapphire with his dual-x solution is very good. Sapphire with new AMD 7 series has the "wind" on his side.  Price, cooling, quietness etc. 

I think before buy any AMD 7870,7950, 7970 custom designed solution, sapphire dual-x must be considered!


----------



## dj-electric (Apr 4, 2012)

IMO Sapphire was always the best in price\performance\cooling\OC ratio, at least since the HD5000 days where OC became more important and do-able.


----------



## djxinator (Apr 4, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> IMO Sapphire was always the best in price\performance\cooling\OC ratio, at least since the HD5000 days where OC became more important and do-able.



I got my Sapphire 7870 recently, Its wonderful. 1250/1450 (MSI Afterburner Limits memory, need to use ASUS GPU Tweak for higher memory)

Paid £265 for it, which is lower than the Reference price.


----------



## Kärlekstrollet (Apr 4, 2012)

Great review, but sadly I have Sapphire HD7870 for a good price of 299USD.


----------

