AMD Radeon HD 7870 & 7850 Reviews Roundup

We finally reach the third stop in AMD's Southern Islands 28nm GPU tour which thus far saw us experiencing the power of Tahiti and Cape Verde-based Radeon cards. Now we prepare to face Pitcairn and the new Radeon HD 7870 and 7850 cards, which boast half or fewer total compute inits compared to the HD 7970. Hit our review coverage of both cards to see if it means the initial Pitcairn offerings are only half as powerful as the higher-end cards.

We've mentioned a lot about our thoughts on the HD 7700 series as a whole along with the general thought process on each model and like we've said every time, while AMD has the HD 6800 series at a similar price point, the HD 7700 series continues to lose its shine as it sits slower.

The HD 7800 series and HD 7900 series on the other hand don't have any competition within their own camp giving us a price point from AMD that isn't offered at the moment. So far we've seen the HD 7850 hits that $249 price tag perfectly. Now we want to find out if the extra $100 associated with the HD 7870 is worth the jump up.

While the HD 7700 series left us feeling overall pretty flat, the same can't be said for AMD's new HD 7900 series which offered us awesome performance. Along with strong numbers, though, we saw the new 28nm based cards run cooler, quieter and draw less power at both idle and load - they impressed us a lot.

We've got our fingers crossed that the HD 7800 series sits more in line with the HD 7900 series than it does the HD 7700 series. Considering AMD also have no older previous generation video cards at the $249 price point for the HD 7850 and $349 price point for the HD 7870, we're already off to a better start.

The new Radeon HD 7850 is a mid-range video card based on the latest GPU architecture from AMD, dubbed "Graphics Core Next" or simply "GCN," which supports the new PCI Express 3.0 connection and the latest DirectX version (11.1). Let's compare it to its main competitor, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

The new Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition is targeted to users who want a high-end video card but don't want to pay an arm and a leg to buy one. Let's take a look at its performance.

So while the Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 are being labeled as the world's fastest GPUs, and the Radeon HD 7700 is the fastest GPU for everyone, the HD 7800s are where many of our readers will look when upgrading their machines while staying within a budget.

AMD’s latest generation GPU series is really starting to take shape now. Having been blown away by the performance of the Radeon HD 7900 series and then let down by the steep pricing of the HD 7700 series, we are keen to see what AMD has to offer with the new HD 7800 series.

Today marks the release of the 'Pitcairn' GPUs which make up the the Radeon HD 7800 series. As you would expect the series consists of two GPUs: the Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850, designed to occupy the ample $200 to $400 range.

At long last, AMD has filled the gaping hole in its next-generation Radeon lineup. A new pair of graphics cards bas come to slot in right between the high-end Radeon HD 7900 series and the decidedly less high-end 7700 series, offering gamers some fresh meat at $249. And today's arrivals have the potential to be AMD's most compelling next-gen offerings yet.

Today AMD launch the 7800 series and allow us to look at their reference cards with partner availability to come later (around March 19th). With the same features as the 7900 series yet a significantly lower price today we find how well they compete with the 7950 and 6870 while looking in detail at the comparison with NVIDIAs GTX 560 Ti and GTX 570.

Here we are, less than three weeks removed from the launch of the Radeon HD 7700 series, and AMD is already at it again. Today we'll be showing you the first two members of the Radeon HD 7800 series of graphics cards, the Radeon HD 7870 GHz and Radeon HD 7850. These two graphics cards are based on yet another new GPU design, which features AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, or GCN. Whereas the high-end Radeon HD 7900 series cards feature AMD's Tahiti GPU and the more mainstream Radeon HD 7700 series is based on the company's Cape Verde GPU, the new Radeon HD 7800 series is built around a GPU codenamed Pitcairn...

Hardware Canucks is pleased to present our review of the new AMD Radeon HD 7870 & HD 7850 video cards.

We review the AMD Radeon HD 7850 and 7870. These two new mid-range cards are going to shift the dynamics in the graphics arena alright, as the entire package including performance is very impressive for the 7800 series. A product series that is to replace the 6800-series performance-wise, it is based on AMD's 28nm process and of course the latest Graphics Core Next GPU architecture.

AMD is going to fill the 250 to 250 USD segment with two products perfectly capable of battling with the GeForce GTX 570 and GTX 580. Read our review right here

Today AMD released their new Radeon HD 7800 Series, which is based on their new 28 nm Pitcairn graphics processor. The HD 7850 and HD 7870 offer a significant performance increase over the previous generation - up to 40% faster in our testing. Power consumption is also at a new record low, putting these cards in the leading performance per Watt spot.

There's a big hole in between AMD's $450 Radeon HD 7950 and its $160 Radeon HD 7700. Today, the company introduces Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 to fill that gap, and they push a lot more performance than we expected. But are they really ready for prime time?

AMD is introducing the performance mainstream Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850 today. We'll look at performance compared to the competition and talk about pricing and explore value. If you are in the market for a video card between $249 and $349 these video cards will likely need to be on your short list.

In 2009-2010, AMD launched the entire 4 chip Evergreen series in 6 months. By previous standards this was a quick pace for a new design, especially since AMD had not previously attempted a 4 chip launch in such a manner. Now in 2012 AMD's Southern Islands team is hard at work at wrapping up their own launch with new aspirations on quickness. Evergreen may have launched 4 chips in 6 months, but this month AMD will be completing the 3 chip Southern Islands launch in half the time 3 chips in a mere 3 months.