GIGABYTE GV-R787OC
that the GIGABYTE card
is overclocked it speaks
well for their Windforce 3X
cooler.
Where software is
concerned, we have GPU
Tweak from ASUS vs.
EasyBoost from GIGABYTE.
We prefer GPU Tweak. Easy
Boost is simple and easy
enough to use but, GPU
Tweak once again looks the
part and has more features.
Add that to the ASUS
themed GPU-Z and you can
see that ASUS has put in a
little more care into their
VGA ecosystem.
Essentially we have two
very similar cards, with
little over a cosmetic
difference between them.
As such we decided to take
a look at the overclocked
performance and this
is where it got a little
interesting. In fact this is
probably where the HD7870
proves to be a valuable
purchase at least in a
gaming context.
The HD7870 is pretty
much an even match for
the HD7950, which despite
the recent price cuts still
retails for more. Given that
most people are more price
sensitive than they are to
performance, this makes
a huge difference. You can
essentially get HD7950 like
performance for $75 less
depending on where you
look. This isn’t anything to
snivel at as not only will you
have similar performance,
you’ll have a cooler running
card and one that draws
less power. Something
that is increasingly more
important to gamers and
power users alike.
For those who are
interested in Eye-Finity
you’ll definitely want to
consider the HD7900 series
cards if only because the
HD7870 just doesn’t have
the bandwidth or power
to push that many pixels
Issue 19 | 2012 The OverClocker 19