| HIS Radeon HD 6870 IceQ Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |
| Written by Steve Hearst | |
| Wednesday, 09 November 2011 | |
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HIS Radeon HD 6870 IceQ 1GB Video Card
Manufacturer: HIS Digital Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by HIS. The holiday season is fast approaching and there is still no official word on the next generation GPU's other than TSMC starting volume production. What does that mean? Well, it looks like we will be waiting until next year before any more new video cards from either camp are released. This stop gap between generations gives AIB partners a chance to tweak and perfect their designs and introduce some different models to keep the market active. Today Benchmark Reviews will be looking at the HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB, a modern video card with a classic HIS design. As aftermarket designs go, this looks like a real beast of a card but there is no factory overclock on this model. The cooler is a mixture of the HIS IceQ X fin array and a shroud that looks similar to a reference card shroud with a twist. HIS have dubbed the radial fan a 'Black Hole Impeller' because it is able to draw in air from both sides as it is raised slightly from the PCB. The main question is what difference will this make to operating temperatures and overclocking potential; and that is exactly what we intend to find out.
A lot of people are speculating that the PC and PC gaming industry is dying but I beg to differ. I think the Tablet/Smartphone era is just a novelty phase. One problem lies with power delivery, and we all know that today's batteries just don't cut it when we want to use our devices for extended periods (as demonstrated beautifully by the iPhone 4S). No matter how many unique apps or games are available, it is all for nothing if you can't run them for more than a few hours before you need to recharge. Then there is the problem of size, scale and control; these devices once again are not going to cut it unless they evolve to become more like a PC. So here we are again, back at square one with the faithful old PC. Don't even get me started on consoles. Enough with the rambling, let's get on with the review, shall we.
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