PowerColor Readies Radeon HD 6870 PCS+ Graphics Card

[btarunr]

Back at its launch, AMD didn't allow its board partners to release custom-design Radeon HD 6870 graphics cards right away, though such a restriction wasn't in place for the HD 6850. They were, however, allowed to come up with factory-overclocked models, that stick to the AMD reference design. That restriction could soon be lifted, with one of the first pictures of a completely non-reference design HD 6870 graphics card, the PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+, smiling for cameras.

The Professional Cooling System Plus (PCS+) from PowerColor makes use of a high-grade cooler that facilitates better overclocking, and runs quieter compared to the reference design cooler. It consists of a racy-looking shroud under which there's a large GPU heatsink, which is cooled by a 90 mm fan. The PCB also looks to be non-reference design. The card is also overclocked out of the box, 940/4400 MHz (core/memory, GDDR5 effective), vs. reference speeds of 900/4200 MHz. The Radeon HD 6870 is based on the 40 nm "Barts" silicon, it packs 1120 stream processors, and connects to 1 GB of memory over a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ is expected to release towards the end of this month.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[WhiteLotus]

Being a builder that enjoys a silent computer I will await W1zz's review on noise and performance... hint hint.

 

[RejZoR]

Why the hell can't they design a exhaust cooler with improved cooling capacity? The cooler on my HD5850 is a reference one, dumps pretty much all heat outside and i can barelly hear it inside half open uATX case. While these dump all the heat inside. Stupid.

 

[PopcornMachine]

FINALLY...the first glimpse of a custom 6870...really interested in what they can do...

 

[Imsochobo]

Why the hell can't they design a exhaust cooler with improved cooling capacity? The cooler on my HD5850 is a reference one, dumps pretty much all heat outside and i can barelly hear it inside half open uATX case. While these dump all the heat inside. Stupid.

Agree'd!

I go for stock coolers, cause its the way forward in a µATX case.
my pc is dead silent with a 5850.


µ sign = ctrl+alt+m on a norwegian keyboard, probably on yours too for those who might wonder.

 

[Salsoolo]

^
those of us who have cases with big fans will like these.
im tired of waiting for a 6870 with non reference cooler.

but PowerColor is on my sh*t list. im waiting for asus or sapphire.

 

[crow1001]

Crap OC, 6870 suck at clocking anyway, AMD with their massive default clocks left not much room for clocking, 1000 core is the average. 470 is the better buy, faster than the 6870 at stock but overclocks like a bitch, just turn that fan up.

 

[chaotic_uk]

the older cooler on the 5830 pcs+ looks loads better than this tbh , this looks cheapo but then again thats just me lol

 

[jpierce55]

Crap OC, 6870 suck at clocking anyway, AMD with their massive default clocks left not much room for clocking, 1000 core is the average. 470 is the better buy, faster than the 6870 at stock but overclocks like a bitch, just turn that fan up.

TBH, who cares if it has much oc headroom as long as it performs well for the money. Oc'ing is partially to get the most bang for your buck and improve what you have to its max.

 

[Neo4]

Crap OC, 6870 suck at clocking anyway, AMD with their massive default clocks left not much room for clocking, 1000 core is the average. 470 is the better buy, faster than the 6870 at stock but overclocks like a bitch, just turn that fan up.

I thought performance was the point in overclocking. If it comes from the factory pretty much near it's limit and competes with your example of the GTX 470 then where is the problem? I have a HD5770 and a GTX460 in two different boxes. I game with both and the 460 is a much better card but the 6870 is the one I would get if I could afford it. It's that much better than both of them from what I've read and is more energy efficient/cooler running to boot.