Hardware ATI Radeon HD 6870 Review

i understand this is a reference card review, not related to manufacturers, but could i raise a small question:

how many manufacturers have included a mini-DP to DisplayPort adaptor?

it's madness they've changed to mini-DP if they didn't include a mini-DP to DP adaptor. it's a very important question for me to be able to get an answer when considering to purchase a 6970.

 

This is something I also want to know. It makes no sense to have 2 mini-displayports. They should at least have one normal displayport.

 

It varies from manufacture to manufacture but so far from what I have seen they ALL give some form of an adapter to go from mini to standard and some include an additional mini to hdmi or mini to dvi.

 

yes... you!!

I gave some very valid and solid reasons for why Crysis should still be on the benchmarks!!!

When you ask what's the most resource hungry, visualy stunning videogame on the market, there's not other answer.. its Crysis.. like or not, if you hate the plot, if you hate the history telling... if you find it like an average shooter... doesnt matter... its still the best looking resource hungry videogame ever made!!

 

miniDP to HDMI or DVI are useless, no manufacturer will put in active converters, passive ones are useless for eyefinity and useless on proper displays.

miniDP to DP is the one needed. almost all DisplayPort monitors (Dell and HP as far as i can see, Apple is not aimed at PC users) will provide a displayport cable, standard sized. so by that logic, all manufacturers should provide a mini-DP to DisplayPort converter.

IMHO, best port arrangement should be: two DVI like now, normal sized DP, mini-DP and a mini-HDMI.
mini-HDMI because nVidia's doing it, and DVI to HDMI converters are planty. while mini-displayport to standard DP is very, very hard to find, the only one i've found is £13!

 

Does mini hdmi do everything the big one does?

 

yes

 

I am still using an HD4870 x2 - But I want a replacement that will better its DX10 performance
and offer DX11 - at the moment the HD5870 does not quite make that specification ( equals in DX10 )
However the HD5970 is still a bit pricey so I hope the price might come down a bit . The HD 6870 looks like a direct replacement for the HD4870x2 or the GTX 470 standard - The GTX 470 AMP looks a bit better.
I will be waiting for the HD 6990 before I shell out !!!
By the way would the review writers please use "an" before the letter H . i.e" an HD 6870" not "a HD6870"
"An" should precede any vowel sound . H isn't a vowel but it produces a vowel sound as do the letters F,L, M, N, R ,S , and of course X !! This happens when you intend to say the letter on its own rather that in a word or name. ( the vowels produce vowel sounds as well !! ) - Thank you !!

 

I think the defensive stances are unnecessary. We're all reading Bit-Tech regularly because it's good, well written, 99% unbiased, and the forums are full of real tech heads and more mature posters. To ask for I provements is not slapping BT in the face, it's a natural positive comment to make when you like something and would like to see more of it. There is no question that more games could be used (Crysis being one), more benchmark utilities could be used, and more cards for comparison could be used.

The write-ups are what we enjoy and I can't think of any examples of bias toward Nvidia or towards ATi, although I noted on one other site they accused BT of ATi fanboisism regarding this particular review ... however I think that could have been posted on an Nvidia biased forum.

We realise that when a new card arrives there are tight deadlines to keep otherwise other sites steal the thunder, maybe further expansion on the tests could be achieved further down the line. Increasing the games used and cards for comparison would improve the reviews for sure, that's nothing to be defensive against, it's only suggestions for improvement after all, chill!

 

Cool thanks. I like HDMI. I had an nVidia 8800GTX which didn't have it so I've only realised it's usefulness since I upgraded to an HD 5870 recently. I have it going in to my monitor with DVI, but an HDMI going in to my big TV too. So now I can use my computer on my nice high res monitor and then switch it to the TV when I go to bed and have my computer play a film or whatever.

 

What's with all this mini nonsense though?? Can't we just have regular ports for regular cables?

 

You're obviously not English , "an HD6970" is not grammatically correct.

 

I still have my old 4870 512mb, man upgrading to the 69XX series should be like putting my computer on cocaine and meth at the same time!

pitty my old E8400 might not handle it

 

Do you mean the image on the right? The one on the left looks far worse.

Grammar fix.

Pedantry! I'm just trying to help really.

 

The Diamond 6870 (both stock and oc edition) does not offer 2 dual link dvi ports as advertised so there goes my theory, bummer.. oh well.

 

Shame, but at least you know...

 

ya I had two reviewers confirm and that Diamonds been notified to correct this statement/website unless somehow the two reviewers are both wrong, its not impossible but unlikely as they said they tried hooking up a 30" 2560x1600 display and that it only worked on one of the two DVI ports instead of both. Still its to bad but ya like you said now I know so Im ordering a couple XFX 6870

 

Yup ;-)

DVI, HDMI, and i guess DP, as we're on the professional level here.
You need two the same? get an adapter

 

I Buy 3 Sapphire HD6870 1GB you guys triple crossfire in this version ... ?


Tnks

 

Actually he's totally correct. Some more examples are: "an hour" instead of "a hour", or "an honour" instead of "a honour".