HIS Radeon HD 7870 IceQ X Turbo X 2GB Graphics Card

We haven’t taken a look at a HIS card in quite some time, but it’s generally good news when we do and when we see a card such as the 7870 getting some specialist treatment, it always makes us happy.

We’re big fans of the 7800 series as they offer some solid performance for a fantastic price point, and when the likes of HIS come along and slap their patented IceQ X cooler upon it and also give it some Turbo X treatment, you know it can only mean good things and can squeeze out extra performance that this card is simply waiting for.

When overclocking a card like this, a custom cooler is a must-have as overclocking requires higher temperatures, and the stock cooler simply can’t keep up when you push things beyond its capabilities. The IceQ X cooler does a fantastic job of keeping temperatures down, even when stressed to the max in terms of core clock and memory speeds. Not only did we witness low temperatures, but also saw this card as a strong contender when it came to acoustics and power consumption.

While we got good temperatures, acoustics and power consumption, the card wasn’t hindered when it came down to sheer performance, and some solid results were seen over the reference AMD 7870, though the non-turbo IceQ model 7870 did show some similar numbers, and though we double and even triple checked everything, we can’t see why the performance figures were so similar.

No word on retail pricing at the moment, but from past experience, HIS have always demanded a slight premium, but quality and sheer performance do come at a cost. Similar 7870 cards are currently available around the $360 mark, and we can see this particular card coming in around the $389 price point, which is great value for money, considering the extra performance and great properties of the cooler that we already spoke about.

The only gripe we had with this card, is down to how similar the performance levels are compared to the Radeon HD 7870 IceQ non-turbo version, which does sport a slightly different, much larger cooler, and we will have the testing under-way on that card very soon, so expect to see the review in the coming week.

As said, we are big fans of the 7800 series cards due to their price vs performance ratio that they offer, and this card proves our point perfectly, as it offers even more performance than you’d expect, and hopefully will come in at our expected price point, making it one of the best 7870’s we’ve tested.