Planning to get an HD 6870 - Quick Question!

[Evolved]

Are there any advantages to getting a reference design 6870?

Example:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506

And...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150561

Also, would I see any major performance gain with a 2GB 6870 from XFX?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150563

 

[entropy13]

At that price difference, no, the 1GB more isn't worth it.

Are there any advantages to getting a reference design 6870?

The cooler is the only real difference between the two. If you don't want the card to dump hot air to the case, get the first one (which would blow it out behind the case).

 

[Damn_Smooth]

I would say that if you plan on going eyefinity, the extra 1gb would be worth it. For a single monitor, I don't think you would see much of a difference. If any at all.

 

[blkhogan]

Go with the 1GB. With your monitor it will be smooth as silk. I love mine and its only 1GB.

 

[Evolved]

If you don't want the card to dump hot air to the case, get the first one (which would blow it out behind the case).

Are you saying that the Dual-Fan XFX 6870 will blow hot air into my case?

And the reference cooler does a better job at dissipating the hot air?

 

[BrooksyX]

Get the refrence xfx 6870 (the first one).

Thats the card I have and I love the thing! 1gb works great and is more that enough.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

As a 6870 owner, the extra gig of ram is pretty much worthless unless you've got serious screen real estate.

I'm running a 1920x1080 monitor, and haven't had any problems. The occasional second screen with 1680x1050 is also well covered, though I don't use it gaming.

Additionally, the stock design isn't great. Choosing the newer revision, with two fans, is a much better way to go. The card stays several degrees cooler, a good deal quieter, and doesn't draw any more power.

Edit: Try this one. Slightly cheaper, free shipping, and the new design. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521&cm_re=6870-_-14-150-521-_-Product

 

[xBruce88x]

that XFX card has a good cooler design. I took a closer look elsewhere at the cooler and its designed so that at least some air will go out the back of the case.

 

[amadzack]

try not to get refrence cooling with xfx..too problematic
i already send 3 times back to rma....and last time it burn 2 of my system

 

[billcat479]

choices

If you have a good ventilated case don't worry about the heat from the video card. It's really not that big a deal unless your working with a small case and poor fan placement.
The memory use depends on what you want to use the card for, the types of games ect... Games with huge maps (elder scrolls and such) suffer from the lower memory but if you don't play those types of games and important, don't plan on doing it in the future then save a little bit as the cost isn't that much between these cards. I prefer to think of the worst case and buy to cover all bases but this is just me. How I look at all use, current and future.
I am not crazy about the reference designs and they do tend to run a bit on the hot side. But plan it all if you can as the case/cpu/gpu air flow is a package deal in it's own way. But any modern case made today has ample air flow so if you have a good case go with the video card with the best cooling for it's self and let the case take care of the rest. If your case sucks your harddrives are all ready doomed.. lol.. I think you get my point though. Think of it as a whole, if your buying this type of video card you must already have a good enough case just to fit this video card will have the room to handle it's heat output.
And if your worried go buy a couple of better case fans, they are cheap enough. Good luck.

 

[blu3flannel]

Also, would I see any major performance gain with a 2GB 6870 from XFX?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150563

At that price, you may as well throw in an extra $20 and get a 6950 1GB. Other than that, the price isn't really justified, given the relatively small performance increase.

 

[techtard]

You have a HAF 922 that has a rear exhaust, a top 200mm fan OR 2 120mm top exhausts.
Don't worry about heat dumping inside the case, your case was designed for it.

I have a HAF 922 as well, and a heavily overclocked 5850 that dumps heat into the case. The fans take care of it no problem.

@amadzack You should only buy reference design cards from XFX. They cheap out on the non-reference, and those are the ones that everyone has problems with.
I have owned reference cards from XFX from both AMD/Ati and nVidia. None of them have been bad. I wouldn't touch the non-reference ones with a 10 foot pole, personally.

 

[RejZoR]

Reference coolers are crap. Well they are great for as long as they work. But the fan will start to rattle rather quickly which sucks. HD5000 and HD6000 series all have these crappy low quality fans that go bust quickly. Even though i prefer the exhaust design i just can't recommend it anymore because of the fan. Take it with an aftermarket cooler.
You may also want to check cheaper HD6950 with just 1GB of VRAM. I've seen some dirty cheap XFX versions with dual fan cooler. Not sure how that cooler fares but having HD6950 for that price, totally worth it. I don't think lack of extra 1GB makes much of a difference unless you play at very high resolutions. HD6870 is not much faster than HD5850, maybe even slower in some games.

 

[Hayder_Master]

Dude, i know every one say 1Gb is enough, but for me i will say some games become use over 1Gb at 1080p, and maybe new games same thing, also the 2gb will be very useful if you think for crossfire.