| MSI R6870 Hawk Graphics Card |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Hank Tolman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, 04 March 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MSI R6870 Hawk Video Card Review
Manufacturer: MSI (Micro-Star International Company, LTD) Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by MSI. Graphics cards have been improving at breakneck speeds over the last little while. The Radeon HD 5000 series allowed AMD and ATI to beat NVIDIA to the punch with DirectX-11 capable video cards. NVIDIA quickly responded with the GTX 400 series which started out hot and powerful, but came back to really define the price point with the GTX460 video card. Along came the GTX 500 series and the Radeon HD 6000 series to fill out some positions and give us a new card for the top end of the performance spectrum. By now, we have all heard about where the different cards lie in regards to performance and price. We are at the point now where there is a slight lull in the production of brand new equipment and manufacturers are focusing on putting their own spin on the different flavors to revitalize stuff that has been on the market a while. In early February, MSI took the Radeon HD 6870 design and made it their own in the MSI R6870 Hawk with the Twin Frozr III thermal design and the world's first look into propeller blade cooling technology. Benchmark Reviews is taking an in-depth look at the MSI R6870 Hawk and while testing this factory overclocked video card, we will be examining exactly what makes it unique in a world full of Radeon HD 6000 series cards. As always occurs after the launch of a new GPU, manufacturers take the reference design and add personal touches such as new cooling hardware, redesigned boards, and factory overclocking to make their design that much more appealing to the end user. MSI is no different and, being a leader in the computer hardware industry, they have to keep an ear to the ground to make sure they are in tune with what their customer base wants out of a video card. Like most video cards, users always want something fast, quiet, and cool. With this in mind, MSI designed the R6870 Hawk video card.
The Twin Frozr design is common among MSI products and boasts a dual-fan setup atop a heatsink and heatpipe configuration all covered with a plastic shroud. The ultimate goal of the Twin Frozr design is to make video cards much cooler than the reference design. Twin Frozr II is the common design throughout the newer Radeon HD and GeForce video cards being produced by MSI, but the MSI R6870 Hawk goes one step further. With the R6870 Hawk, MSI introduces the all-new Twin Frozr III design with Propeller Blade technology. The new design focuses on differences with the dual fans while keeping the heatsink/heatpipe combination pretty much the same. You have undoubtedly seen some benchmarks and comparisons that have included a Radeon HD 6870 Video Card. Many manufacturers even overclock the Radeon HD 6870 from its original 900MHz GPU clock to anywhere from 915MHz to 960MHz. Here at Benchmark Reviews, we are not surprised that the MSI R6870 Hawk fits right in line with its 930MHz GPU clock and 1050MHz Memory clock. With that in mind, the test results should come as no real surprise to our readers either. The key to this review is to discover the all new Twin Frozr III design and Propeller Blade technology to see if it can really accomplish what it sets out too. We also want to check out some new features of MSI afterburner that allow for the intense overclocking of the Vcore. Closer Look: MSI R6870 HawkQuite a bit has changed from the AMD reference design of the Radeon HD 6870 to the release of the MSI R6870 Hawk. Rather than going with the blower fan configuration that funnels air from the rear of the card out through the I/O panel like the reference design had, MSI opts for the time honored and proven dual-fan twin frozr design with their all-new propeller blade technology which we will discuss a little later.
Picture courtesy of Newegg.com MSI clearly outlines the main features of the R6870 Hawk on the front of the box. The picture of the stealth bomber gives off the idea of quiet speed, which is a goal of the propeller blade technology, also touted on the box. The accessory package you find is pretty standard. With the card you get two Molex-PCIe PSU adapters, three leads for your multi-meter, a mini to standard display port adapter, the driver and utility CD, the user manual, a quick installation guide, and a D-Sub adapter for anyone who spent a bunch of money on a video card just to use an analog display.
The driver and utility CD comes with a couple of interesting programs. The MSI overclocking utility is called Afterburner and it is an easy and useful way to push your GPU to its maximum potential. While Afterburner has offered Vcore tuning for a while, the newest version offers what MSI calls Triple Over-Voltage. After reading through all the disclaimers about how this voids your warranty and could ruin your video card, you can click an option that allows you to adjust the core voltage, the memory voltage, and the auxiliary voltage on your MSI video card. This is a useful feature with the R6870 Hawk specifically because of all the area covered on the board by the heatsink or other cooling features. You want to ensure the MOSFETs have enough cooling when adjusting the voltage because, while that may allow for an even higher overclock, these components don't always have a heatsink or aren't exposed to air flow and the extra voltage can cause them to overheat quickly. In addition to the voltage regulation, MSI afterburner offers the ability to overclock the GPU and Memory up to 15%. This means it isn't an open-ended overclock. MSI limits you as to how high you can take video card, but 15% is a good amount. You can save up to five different overclock profiles within Afterburner and you can manually adjust the fan speed as well. Afterburner also comes with a monitoring tool that allows you to keep track of temperatures, fan speeds (if you have it set to auto), and frame rates. You can even opt to have an on-screen display show up when you are playing your games.
Afterburner was an interesting tool and one that allowed me to toy around a lot with the MSI R6870 Hawk. Although it limited my upside clock potential to 1000MHz, I was only able to get to about 975MHz stably anyway. The Afterburner software comes bundled with an MSI specific version of Furmark called Kombuster. With this, you can test the stability of and benchmark your overlock.
Taking a quick look at the outward appearance of the MSI R6870 Hawk, we can see a lot about it. The I/O panel includes all the standard ports that we found on the reference design, including two mini-display ports, a full sized HDMI port, and two dual-link DVI ports. The MSI R6870 Hawk supports the standard ATI Eyefinity three monitor setup, something that the NVIDIA side still hasn't embraced.
Going over some of the new features that MSI has brought out with the R6870 Hawk, we can see some interesting things. Just like any Radeon HD 6870 card, the R6870 Hawk has two PCIe 6-pin PSU inputs. This gives the card up to an additional 150W of power if needed. The R6870 Hawk has the option for the Crossfire configuration as well.
While we are top of the card, just beyond the CFX connector is a small switch. This is an interesting feature, a manual fan switch. Using this switch, you can manually adjust between "silent" and "performance" mode. Basically, the performance mode lets the fan run at high RPMs which can make it anything but silent. However, this will cause a lot more air to be pushed over the GPU and components for better cooling capability. Moving on down the top there are three connectors called V-check points for a multi-meter so you can hook up your own device if you don't trust GPU-Z, Afterburner, or another piece of software to give you an accurate reading on voltage. With these V-Check points you can take readings for GPU, Memory, and VDCC voltage. MSI R6870 Hawk Detailed FeaturesWhen we take off the cover here, we can see that MSI strayed significantly from the reference design when building the R6870 Hawk. They even deviated from their original R6870 design, which followed the reference design very closely. The non-Hawk R6870 uses the Twin Frozr II design and the reference design has a blower wheel near the end of the board that funneled air over the components and out the I/O panel through a full shroud. The R6870 Hawk goes with the dual-fan Twin Frozr III design which incorporates propeller blades on the dual fans.
The propeller blades are 13 short, grooved blades on the fan that allow for a 20% increase in airflow and increases the range of airflow over the board. These fans are set atop a nickel-plated copper heatsink that uses SuperPipe technology. With the increased airflow over the heatsink and the three 6mm and two 8mm heat-pipes drawing heat out of the GPU, MSI promises the ability of the Twin Frozr III to decrease GPU temperature by up to 21 degrees. The reference design and R6870 heatsink was extremely small in comparison and only had two 6mm and one 8mm heat-pipes. Just from looking at it, the claim of 21 degrees cooler seems extremely possible. That's not to mention the 7dB quieter that MSI also claims. 
While the reference design for the Radeon HD 6870 and the original R6870 switched up the placement of the voltage regulator modules, and used a 4-phase PWM design. The R6870 Hawk switches things back and bumps it up to an 8-phase design. The cooling method on the R6870 Hawk allows for better airflow where the VRM is situated now, and having it closer to the power supply section is always a good idea. The 8(+2) phase design should offer double the amount of current as the 4(+1) design used in the original R6870, up to 160A rather than 80A.
MSI went all out on the components used for the R6870 Hawk. On the front of the box, they tout these components as being Military Class II components. This includes using Hi-C Cap (Highly Conductive Capacitors) with a Tantalum cores that are very stable and can provide up to 15x less leakage. Also used are Super Ferrite Chokes that should provide up to a 10% improvement in efficiency and up to a 30% improvement in current capacity. Finally, the R6870 Hawk uses all solid-state capacitors which are more efficient, run cooler, and have a longer life span than the alternative.
On the back side of the board we have a little close-up so you can see the care that MSI took with solder quality and component placement. Some of the areas on the PCB can get rather crowded and any left-over solder or an out of place part can cause a short or other problem to occur and fry the card. Some residue in crowded areas of the board can be expected due to the different processes used to clean the solder off and mass production of cards, but overall, the board has an excellent design quality.
Keeping all this information in mind, let's take a look at the official features and specifications published by AMD and MSI. AMD Radeon HD 6870 FeaturesThe AMD Radeon HD 6870 GPU contained in the MSI HD 6870 PCS+ video card has all of the major technologies that the Radeon 5xxx cards have had since last September. AMD has added several new features, however. The most important ones are: the new Morphological Anti-aliasing, the two DisplayPort 1.2 connections that support four monitors between them, 3rd generation UVD video acceleration, and AMD HD3D technology. In case you are just starting your research for a new graphics card, here is the complete list of standard GPU features, as supplied by AMD: Radeon HD 6870 Summary:
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|
Graphics Card |
GeForce GTS450 |
Radeon HD5770 |
GeForce GTX460SE |
Radeon HD6850 |
Radeon HD6870 |
|
GPU Cores |
240 |
800 |
288 |
960 |
1120 |
|
Core Clock (MHz) |
850 |
875 |
648 |
775 |
930 |
|
Shader Clock (MHz) |
1700 |
N/A |
1296 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Memory Clock (MHz) |
1000 |
1225 |
850 |
1000 |
1050 |
|
Memory Amount |
1024MB GDDR3 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1280MB GDDR5 |
|
Memory Interface |
128-bit |
256-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
256-bit |
- MSI GeForce GTS 460 N450GTS Cyclone (850 MHz GPU/1700 MHz Shader/1000 MHz vRAM - Forceware 266.58)
- PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 PCS+ (875 MHz GPU/1225 MHz vRAM - ATI Catalyst Driver 11.1)
- EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB (648MHz GPU/1296 MHz Shader/850 MHz vRAM - Forceware 266.58)
- MSI R6850 Radeon HD 6850 (775 MHz GPU/1000MHz vRAM - ATI Catalyst Driver 11.1)
- MSI R6870 Hawk Radeon HD 6870 (930 MHz GPU/1050MHz vRAM - ATI Catalyst Driver 11.1)
DX10: 3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 graphics card performance. FutureMark 3DMark Vantage is the latest addition the 3DMark benchmark series built by FutureMark corporation. Although 3DMark Vantage requires NVIDIA PhysX to be installed for program operation, only the CPU/Physics test relies on this technology.
3DMark Vantage offers benchmark tests focusing on GPU, CPU, and Physics performance. Benchmark Reviews uses the two GPU-specific tests for grading video card performance: Jane Nash and New Calico. These tests isolate graphical performance, and remove processor dependence from the benchmark results.
- 3DMark Vantage v1.02
- Extreme Settings: (Extreme Quality, 8x Multisample Anti-Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, 1:2 Scale)
3DMark Vantage GPU Test: Jane Nash
Of the two GPU tests 3DMark Vantage offers, the Jane Nash performance benchmark is slightly less demanding. In a short video scene the special agent escapes a secret lair by water, nearly losing her shirt in the process. Benchmark Reviews tests this DirectX-10 scene at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 resolutions, and uses Extreme quality settings with 8x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering. The 1:2 scale is utilized, and is the highest this test allows. By maximizing the processing levels of this test, the scene creates the highest level of graphical demand possible and sorts the strong from the weak.
3DMark Vantage GPU Test: New Calico
New Calico is the second GPU test in the 3DMark Vantage test suite. Of the two GPU tests, New Calico is the most demanding. In a short video scene featuring a galactic battleground, there is a massive display of busy objects across the screen. Benchmark Reviews tests this DirectX-10 scene at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 resolutions, and uses Extreme quality settings with 8x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering. The 1:2 scale is utilized, and is the highest this test allows. Using the highest graphics processing level available allows our test products to separate themselves and stand out (if possible).
|
Graphics Card |
GeForce GTS450 |
Radeon HD5770 |
GeForce GTX460SE |
Radeon HD6850 |
Radeon HD6870 |
|
GPU Cores |
240 |
800 |
288 |
960 |
1120 |
|
Core Clock (MHz) |
850 |
875 |
648 |
775 |
930 |
|
Shader Clock (MHz) |
1700 |
N/A |
1296 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Memory Clock (MHz) |
1000 |
1225 |
850 |
1000 |
1050 |
|
Memory Amount |
1024MB GDDR3 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1280MB GDDR5 |
|
Memory Interface |
128-bit |
256-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
256-bit |
Mafia II DX9+SSAO Benchmark Results
Mafia II is a single-player third-person action shooter developed by 2K Czech for 2K Games, and is the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven released in 2002. Players assumAe the life of World War II veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of small Sicilian family who immigrates to Empire Bay. Growing up in the slums of Empire Bay teaches Vito about crime, and he's forced to join the Army in lieu of jail time. After sustaining wounds in the war, Vito returns home and quickly finds trouble as he again partners with his childhood friend and accomplice Joe Barbaro. Vito and Joe combine their passion for fame and riches to take on the city, and work their way to the top in Mafia II.
Mafia II is a DirectX 9 PC video game built on 2K Czech's proprietary Illusion game engine, which succeeds the LS3D game engine used in Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. In our Mafia-II Video Game Performance article, Benchmark Reviews explored characters and gameplay while illustrating how well this game delivers APEX PhysX features on both AMD and NVIDIA products. Thanks to APEX PhysX extensions that can be processed by the system's CPU, Mafia II offers gamers equal access to high-detail physics regardless of video card manufacturer. Equal access is not the same thing as equal performance, though.
With PhysX technology turned off, both AMD and NVIDIA are on a level playing field in this test. In contrast to many gaming scenes, where other-worldly characters and environments allow the designers to amp up the detail, Mafia II uses human beings wearing ordinary period-correct clothes and natural scenery. Just like how high end audio equipment is easiest to judge using that most familiar of sounds - the human voice, graphics hardware is really put to the test when rendering things that we have real experience with. The drape of a woolen overcoat is a deceptively simple construct; easy to understand and implement, but very difficult to get perfect.
|
Graphics Card |
GeForce GTS450 |
Radeon HD5770 |
GeForce GTX460SE |
Radeon HD6850 |
Radeon HD6870 |
|
GPU Cores |
240 |
800 |
288 |
960 |
1120 |
|
Core Clock (MHz) |
850 |
875 |
648 |
775 |
930 |
|
Shader Clock (MHz) |
1700 |
N/A |
1296 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Memory Clock (MHz) |
1000 |
1225 |
850 |
1000 |
1050 |
|
Memory Amount |
1024MB GDDR3 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1280MB GDDR5 |
|
Memory Interface |
128-bit |
256-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
256-bit |
Aliens vs. Predator Test Results
Rebellion, SEGA and Twentieth Century FOX have released the Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 Benchmark to the public. As with many of the already released DirectX 11 benchmarks, the Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 benchmark leverages your DirectX 11 hardware to provide an immersive game play experience through the use of DirectX 11 Tessellation and DirectX 11 Advanced Shadow features.
In Aliens vs. Predator, DirectX 11 Geometry Tessellation is applied in an effective manner to enhance and more accurately depict HR Giger's famous Alien design. Through the use of a variety of adaptive schemes, applying tessellation when and where it is necessary, the perfect blend of performance and visual fidelity is achieved with at most a 4% change in performance.
DirectX 11 hardware also allows for higher quality, smoother and more natural looking shadows as well. DirectX 11 Advanced Shadows allow for the rendering of high-quality shadows, with smoother, artifact-free penumbra regions, which otherwise could not be realized, again providing for a higher quality, more immersive gaming experience.
In our next section, Benchmark Reviews looks at one of the newest and most popular games, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game lacks a dedicated benchmarking tool, so we'll be using FRAPS to measure frame rates within portions of the game itself.
|
Graphics Card |
GeForce GTS450 |
Radeon HD5770 |
GeForce GTX460SE |
Radeon HD6850 |
Radeon HD6870 |
|
GPU Cores |
240 |
800 |
288 |
960 |
1120 |
|
Core Clock (MHz) |
850 |
875 |
648 |
775 |
930 |
|
Shader Clock (MHz) |
1700 |
N/A |
1296 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Memory Clock (MHz) |
1000 |
1225 |
850 |
1000 |
1050 |
|
Memory Amount |
1024MB GDDR3 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1280MB GDDR5 |
|
Memory Interface |
128-bit |
256-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
256-bit |
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Test Results
The Battlefield franchise has been known to demand a lot from PC graphics hardware. DICE (Digital Illusions CE) has incorporated their Frostbite-1.5 game engine with Destruction-2.0 feature set with Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 features destructible environments using Frostbit Destruction-2.0, and adds gravitational bullet drop effects for projectiles shot from weapons at a long distance. The Frostbite-1.5 game engine used on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 consists of DirectX-10 primary graphics, with improved performance and softened dynamic shadows added for DirectX-11 users. At the time Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was published, DICE was also working on the Frostbite-2.0 game engine. This upcoming engine will include native support for DirectX-10.1 and DirectX-11, as well as parallelized processing support for 2-8 parallel threads. This will improve performance for users with an Intel Core-i7 processor.
In our benchmark tests of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the first three minutes of action in the single-player raft night scene are captured with FRAPS. Relative to the online multiplayer action, these frame rate results are nearly identical to daytime maps with the same video settings.
|
Graphics Card |
GeForce GTS450 |
Radeon HD5770 |
GeForce GTX460SE |
Radeon HD6850 |
Radeon HD6870 |
|
GPU Cores |
240 |
800 |
288 |
960 |
1120 |
|
Core Clock (MHz) |
850 |
875 |
648 |
775 |
930 |
|
Shader Clock (MHz) |
1700 |
N/A |
1296 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Memory Clock (MHz) |
1000 |
1225 |
850 |
1000 |
1050 |
|
Memory Amount |
1024MB GDDR3 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1024MB GDDR5 |
1280MB GDDR5 |
|
Memory Interface |
128-bit |
256-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
256-bit |
DiRT-2 Demo DX11 Benchmark Results
DiRT-2 features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. This World Tour has players competing in aggressive multi-car, and intense solo races at extraordinary new locations. Everything from canyon racing and jungle trails to city stadium-based events. Span the globe as players unlock tours in stunning locations spread across the face of the world. USA, Japan, Malaysia, Baja Mexico, Croatia, London, and more venues await, as players climb to the pinnacle of modern competitive off-road racing.
Multiple disciplines are featured; encompassing the very best that modern off-roading has to offer. Powered by the third generation of the EGOTM Engine's award-winning racing game technology, DiRT-2 benefits from tuned-up car-handling physics and new damaged engine effects. It showcases a spectacular new level of visual fidelity, with cars and tracks twice as detailed as those seen in GRID. The DiRT-2 garage houses a collection of officially licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles, specifically selected to deliver aggressive and fast paced racing. Covering seven vehicle classes, players are given the keys to powerful vehicles right away. In DiRT-2 the opening drive is the Group N Subaru, essentially making the ultimate car from the original game the starting point in the sequel, and the rides just get even more impressive as you rack up points.
The primary contribution that DirectX-11 makes to the DiRT-2 Demo benchmark is in the way water is displayed when a car is passing through it, and in the way cloth items are rendered. The water graphics are pretty obvious, and there are several places in the Moroccan race scene where cars are plowing through large and small puddles. Each one is unique, and they are all believable, especially when more than one car is in the scene. The cloth effects are not as obvious, except in the slower-moving menu screens; when there is a race on, there's precious little time to notice the realistic furls in a course-side flag. I should also note that the flags are much more noticeable in the actual game than in the demo, so they do add a little more to the realism there, that is absent from the benchmark.
On a side note, I appreciate the fact that the demo's built-in benchmark has variable game play. I know its lame, but I most always watch it intently, just to see how well "my" car is being driven. So far, my finest telekinetic efforts have yielded a best finish of second place!
Graphics Card
GeForce GTS450
Radeon HD5770
GeForce GTX460SE
Radeon HD6850
Radeon HD6870
GPU Cores
240
800
288
960
1120
Core Clock (MHz)
850
875
648
775
930
Shader Clock (MHz)
1700
N/A
1296
N/A
N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)
1000
1225
850
1000
1050
Memory Amount
1024MB GDDR3
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Memory Interface
128-bit
256-bit
192-bit
256-bit
256-bit
Lost Planet 2 DX11 Benchmark Results
A decade has passed since the first game, and the face of E.D.N. III has changed dramatically. Terra forming efforts have been successful and the ice has begun to melt, giving way to lush tropical jungles and harsh unforgiving deserts. Players will enter this new environment and follow the exploits of their own customized snow pirate on their quest to seize control of the changing planet.
- 4-player co-op action: Team up to battle the giant Akrid in explosive 4 player co-operative play. Teamwork is the player's key to victory as the team is dependent on each to succeed and survive.
- Single-player game evolves based on players decisions and actions
- Deep level of character customization: Players will have hundreds of different ways to customize their look to truly help them define their character on the battlefield both on- and offline. Certain weapons can also be customized to suit individual player style.
- Beautiful massive environments: Capcom's advanced graphics engine, MT Framework 2.0, will bring the game to life with the next step in 3D fidelity and performance.
- Massive scale of enemies: Players skill on the battlefield and work as a team will be tested like never before against the giant Akrid. Players will utilize teamwork tactics, new weapons and a variety of vital suits (VS) to fight these larger-than-life bosses.
- Rewards System- Players will receive rewards for assisting teammates and contributing to the team's success
- Multiplayer modes and online ranking system
- Exciting new VS features- Based on fan feedback, the team has implemented an unbelievable variety of Vital Suits and new ways to combat VS overall. The new VS sytem will have a powerful impact on the way the player takes to the war zone in Lost Planet 2
Test A:
The primary purpose of Test A is to give an indication of typical game play performance of the PC running Lost Planet 2 (i.e. if you can run Mode A smoothly, the game will be playable at a similar condition). In this test, the character's motion is randomized to give a slightly different outcome each time.
Test B:
The primary purpose of Test B is to push the PC to its limits and to evaluate the maximum performance of the PC. It utilizes many functions of Direct X11 resulting in a very performance-orientated, very demanding benchmark mode.
Graphics Card
GeForce GTS450
Radeon HD5770
GeForce GTX460SE
Radeon HD6850
Radeon HD6870
GPU Cores
240
800
288
960
1120
Core Clock (MHz)
850
875
648
775
930
Shader Clock (MHz)
1700
N/A
1296
N/A
N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)
1000
1225
850
1000
1050
Memory Amount
1024MB GDDR3
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Memory Interface
128-bit
256-bit
192-bit
256-bit
256-bit
Unigine Heaven 2.2 Benchmark Results
The Unigine "Heaven 2.2" benchmark is a free, publicly available, tool that grants the power to unleash the graphics capabilities in DirectX 11 for Windows 7 or updated Vista Operating Systems. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode, emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.
The distinguishing feature in the Unigine Heaven benchmark is a hardware tessellation that is a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that developers can gain a more detailed look of their games almost free of charge in terms of performance. Thanks to this procedure, the elaboration of the rendered image finally approaches the boundary of veridical visual perception. The "Heaven" benchmark excels at the following key features:
- Native support of OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX-10 and DirectX-11
- Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
- Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
- Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
- Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physical fidelity
- Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
- ATI Eyefinity support
Graphics Card
GeForce GTS450
Radeon HD5770
GeForce GTX460SE
Radeon HD6850
Radeon HD6870
GPU Cores
240
800
288
960
1120
Core Clock (MHz)
850
875
648
775
930
Shader Clock (MHz)
1700
N/A
1296
N/A
N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)
1000
1225
850
1000
1050
Memory Amount
1024MB GDDR3
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Memory Interface
128-bit
256-bit
192-bit
256-bit
256-bit
MSI R6870 Hawk Temperatures
It's hard to know exactly when the first video card got overclocked, and by whom. What we do know is that it's hard to imagine a computer enthusiast or gamer today that doesn't overclock their hardware. Of course, not every video card has the head room. Some products run so hot that they can't suffer any higher temperatures than they generate straight from the factory. This is why we measure the operating temperature of the video card products we test.
Before stressing the video card to its extremes, I want to get a good baseline for how the card runs at idle. I use GPU-Z to measure the temperature reported by the GPU to get this number. After that's taken care of I want to really stress the card. I use FurMark to do this. It is important to remember that, with FurMark, we will get temperature and power consumption numbers that are probably far above anything a game could produce. I run FurMark at full blast on the stress settings with everything turned all the way for 20 minutes before checking the temps. At the same time, the idle temps were taken after sitting at the desktop for 20 min after a cool start up. While checking the temperatures, the ambient room temperature remained stable at 22C. I use an open-air test bench for testing, so air restriction is not a problem.
Now, the MSI R6870 Hawk touts up to 21 degree cooler temperatures than the reference design. When Olin tested the Radeon HD 6870 reference design with ambient temperatures of 20C, he found idle temps of 39C and load temps of 74C. Keeping in mind that my ambien temperature is a couple of degrees warmer, these are the numbers I got.
Load
Fan Speed
GPU Temperature
Idle
AUTO
36C
Furmark
AUTO
64C
Furmark
100% - Manual
56C
At idle, the MSI R6870 Hawk comes in at a cool 35C. A very cool 36C. That's a very low temperature, and it looks like the Twin Frozr III with propeller blade design is starting off successfully. To add to that, with FurMark running at full blast, and the Twin Frozr III dual-fans running on auto-pilot, the temperature of the card reaches a mere 64C. That's 10C lower than the reference design already and, to be honest, I couldn't hear the fan over the natural noises of my office. Because I couldn't hear the fan unless I put my ear next to it, I decided to crank it up to 100%, just to see how loud it was and if it made a significant difference in the temperature. The fan was significantly louder when turned up to 100%. That being said, it wasn't unbearably so. At 100% fan speed, the MSI R6870 came in at 56C. That's 18C cooler than the reference design. Add in the 2C extra ambient room temperature and we are coming within spitting range of that 21 degree difference MSI called for. Very impressive. Let's see how it does while overclocked.
Load
Fan Speed
GPU Temperature
Idle
AUTO
39C
Furmark
AUTO
69C
Furmark
100% - Manual
61C
With MSI Afterburner now offering in-depth ability to overvolt the GPU and the memory, we were able to achieve a good overclock on the MSI R6870 Hawk of 1000MHz on the clock speed and 1170MHz on the memory clocks. We'll talk more about how in a second, but what is amazing is that the idle temperatures only rose by 3C over the stock clock speeds. At load and auto fan settings, the temperature rose 5C, the same with the fan on 100%. That's still 13C cooler than the reference design. Keep in mind that I didn't test the reference design, so there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. That being said, the MSI R6870 Hawk is an extremely cool running card, great for overclocking and gaming.
Overclocking
Since Afterburner got its upgrade, overclocking has become a lot less limited. With the 8-phase power control on the MSI R6870 Hawk, the potential upside is very good. I loaded up Afterburner to get into overclocking the MSI R6870 Hawk and I had a lot of fun with it.
I increased the auxiliary voltage and memory voltage for the MSI R6870 Hawk using Afterburner by the maximum available values. For the GPU core voltage I slowly increased until I reached a value of 920. Anything above this seemed to have a detrimental impact on the performance of the card, even if it did run stably. In the end, I was able to achieve a very nice result with the overclocking. The MSI R6870 Hawk reached a GPU core clock speed of 1000MHz, up from the already OC'd 930MHz it came with and the 900MHz reference design clock. That constitutes an increase of about 7%. With the memory, I was able to achieve stability at 1170MHz, up from 1050MHz, which is standard for the Radeon HD 6870. That increase is about 11.5%.
All the overclocking in world may be fun and exciting, but if it doesn't translate into increased performance, then what was the point? The increase in clock speed I was able to pull out of the MSI R6870 Hawk translated into a few extra FPS in most of our benchmarks.
Normal
Overclocked
3DMark Vantage: Nash
28
30
3DMark Vantage: Calico
21
23
Mafia II
51
55
Alien vs. Predator
29
31
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
59
64
Dirt 2
86
92
Lost Planet 2
40
43
Heaven
17
18
MSI Hawk Final Thoughts
You know, the release of the Barts GPU was a little less than stellar. The 6xxx series didn't come in with quite the same fanfare as the 5xxx series. There was a lot of skepticism, especially around the naming convention. Even so, the specifications for the new line of Barts GPUs were great. After being around now for a while, things have calmed down and the Radeon HD 6870 has settled into its niche. It occupys a great place in AMDs GPU line-up, allowing for buyers to have something in the in-between range to work with. And now that the prices have come down just a little, things are looking great for the AMD Radeon HD 6870.
There are a lot of Radeon HD 6870 cards out there. One of the great things about the Barts GPU is the ability to be factory overclocked very well. Coming straight from the manufacturer we have a wide of core clock speeds on the Radeon HD 6870. MSI would be remiss not to send out their own overclocked versions as well, and so they have. Originally releasing the MSI R6870 card with the tried and true Twin Frozr II design and with clock speeds and no real changes to the reference design, MSI got out of the gate with the Radeon HD 6870. After some time on the market, MSI released another R6870 card, the Hawk.
The MSI R6870 Hawk not only released with a completely redesigned PCB, but the new fan/heatsink combo is another upgrade from previous versions. The Twin Frozr design has worked out very well for MSI. A lot of their cards have used the design, and at least seven of their most current offerings include the Twin Frozr II design. With the release of the MSI R6870 Hawk, MSI also released their Twin Frozr III design for their GPU coolers with their latest propeller blade technology. As we talked about earlier, the blades are curved and shaped so as to provide a lot of airflow with less noise. In my experience testing the MSI R6870 Hawk, they have been successful.
MSI R6870 Conclusion
IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate.
We have all seen benchmark from the Radeon HD 6870 video cards, so the performances here shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The key here are the features of the MSI R6870 Hawk when compared to the Radeon HD 6870 reference design, or even the MSI R6870.
As far as performance is concerned, the MSI R6870 Hawk is right where it should be, just ahead of the Radeon HD 6850. The real performance show with the MSI R6870 Hawk is in the cooling. With the Twin Frozr III design touting 21 degrees lower temperature than the reference design, there was a lot being expected from the MSI R6870 Hawk. The fact of the matter is, after our testing, the MSI R6870 Hawk came in at 18 degrees cooler than the reference design, which was tested in a 2 degree cooler room. That puts overall temperatures about 20 degrees cooler than the reference design. I'd call that a win.
In the appearance category, I have to admit that I personally like the look of the MSI R6870 Hawk. The Twin Frozer III cooling solution does make it a little bit longer than the reference design, however. If you have a small case, or you are tight on space for a GPU, you'd better make sure the 10" MSI R6870 Hawk will fit. The plastic covering of the MSI R6870 Hawk is painted gray, giving it a slick look alongside the big propeller blade fans.
The quality of construction on the MSI R6870 Hawk is excellent. MSI takes the 4+1 phase PWM from the reference design, and MSI R6870 design, and enhances it to a 8+2 phase PWM for the MSI R6870 Hawk. This allows for a lot more amperage to be pushed through the board, and helps with the new voltage regulation and controls found in the Afterburner software. Additionally, MSI moved the PWM to the other side of the PCB where it will benefit more from the cooling.
Another nice feature of this card, that helps out with the cooling and overclocking, is a little fan switch on top of the card near the crossfire port. We have seen fan controls on case fans and even power supply fans for a while, but now you can easily choose between silence and performance on you GPU fan. Do you want good graphics but a quiet card? Or would you prefer to overclock your card as far as you can, without regard for noise?
Overall, the MSI R6870 Hawk has made significant changes to the original R6870, which followed the Radeon HD 6870 reference design very closely. Things like the 8+2 phase PWM and the new Twin Frozr III design with propeller blade technology undoubtedly make this card cost more to produce. That being said, the MSI R6870 Hawk rings in for $234.99 at Newegg.com right now. That's just $10 more than the non-overclocked R6870 with Twin Frozr II technology. In fact, if you are into mail-in-rebates, as of 3 March 2011, both cards cost exactly same, sans shipping.
I'd say that even at $10 more, the MSI R6870 Hawk is a great deal and an excellent value. The factory overclock is one thing, but the massive cooling ability and redesigned PCB make the R6870 Hawk an excellent candidate for overclocking even further. That's all on top of the fact that it can easily play the games we used in our test bed, albeit maybe not at the highest settings.
Pros:
+ Extremely Cool Performance
+ Newly designed Twin Frozr III cooling technology
+ 8+2 phase PWM components
+ Enhanced Voltage Control, great for Overclocking
+ Solid components, all Solid State Caps
Cons:
- Can be a little loud when fan is at full throttle
- Tessellation performance still lags behind Fermi
Ratings:
- Performance: 8.95
- Appearance: 9.00
- Construction: 9.50
- Functionality: 9.00
- Value: 9.25
Final Score: 9.15 out of 10.
Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.
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Graphics Card
GeForce GTS450
Radeon HD5770
GeForce GTX460SE
Radeon HD6850
Radeon HD6870
GPU Cores
240
800
288
960
1120
Core Clock (MHz)
850
875
648
775
930
Shader Clock (MHz)
1700
N/A
1296
N/A
N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)
1000
1225
850
1000
1050
Memory Amount
1024MB GDDR3
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Memory Interface
128-bit
256-bit
192-bit
256-bit
256-bit
Lost Planet 2 DX11 Benchmark Results
Graphics Card
GeForce GTS450
Radeon HD5770
GeForce GTX460SE
Radeon HD6850
Radeon HD6870
GPU Cores
240
800
288
960
1120
Core Clock (MHz)
850
875
648
775
930
Shader Clock (MHz)
1700
N/A
1296
N/A
N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)
1000
1225
850
1000
1050
Memory Amount
1024MB GDDR3
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Memory Interface
128-bit
256-bit
192-bit
256-bit
256-bit
Graphics Card
GeForce GTS450
Radeon HD5770
GeForce GTX460SE
Radeon HD6850
Radeon HD6870
GPU Cores
240
800
288
960
1120
Core Clock (MHz)
850
875
648
775
930
Shader Clock (MHz)
1700
N/A
1296
N/A
N/A
Memory Clock (MHz)
1000
1225
850
1000
1050
Memory Amount
1024MB GDDR3
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1024MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Memory Interface
128-bit
256-bit
192-bit
256-bit
256-bit
Load
Fan Speed
GPU Temperature
Idle
AUTO
36C
Furmark
AUTO
64C
Furmark
100% - Manual
56C
Load
Fan Speed
GPU Temperature
Idle
AUTO
39C
Furmark
AUTO
69C
Furmark
100% - Manual
61C
Normal
Overclocked
3DMark Vantage: Nash
28
30
3DMark Vantage: Calico
21
23
Mafia II
51
55
Alien vs. Predator
29
31
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
59
64
Dirt 2
86
92
Lost Planet 2
40
43
Heaven
17
18
+ Newly designed Twin Frozr III cooling technology
+ Solid components, all Solid State Caps
- Tessellation performance still lags behind Fermi
Comments
Yeah, they're flashing across brands too. They claim that they get the benefits built into the higher priced cards for less money. The BIOS on this card is popular. I expect to see cards come with unique identifier chips built-in in the future to prevent this.
I like MSI's cooler design and have it on two Fermi based cards now. They do run quieter and certainly much cooler too.
Also, @dev, thanks for pointing out that I forgot to change the GPU cores for the GTS 450 when I changed the chart, it should be 192 instead of 240. The GTX 460SE specs are right though, even if I didn't round them up like a lot of sites do.
##evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1366-TR&family=GeForce%20400%20Series%20Family&sw=
Next time, try to look past a single typographical error, there are many in this review, to be sure.