Review AMD Radeon HD 6870 CrossfireX: More Performance for Less

Conclusions

Now that’s what we call some significant improvements! In some cases, an additional Radeon HD 6870 card will increase gaming performance by nearly double the original amount (up to 90%). Impressive indeed. Games that were previously rendered at less than 30 FPS, such as Metro 2033, can now run at a frame rate well above that safe mark.

A closer look at the result graphs reveals that DirectX 11-based games scale very well with CrossfireX enabled. We noted more than 80% performance increase in these games. While the difference isn’t that huge in DirectX 9 and DirectX 10-based softwares, it’s still significant nonetheless.

AMD Radeon HD 6870 CrossfireX VS AMD (ATI) Radeon HD 5970

The AMD (ATI) Radeon HD 5970 currently sells for US$ 499, while two Radeon HD 6870 cards will only set you back around US$ 478. As you can see from the results, two Radeon HD 6870s in CrossfireX clearly outperform the HD 5970 in all our tests. Suffice to say, with two HD 6870s, you can enjoy a level of performance greater than what is offered by AMD’s current highest-end product, the HD 5970. Besides, as a second-gen DirectX 11 graphics card, the HD 6870 is also equipped with an array of new features. You still need appropriate CrossfireX support from your system though, and some room inside the casing to contain the additional card.