PowerColor PCS+ HD7870 Myst Edition Pro Reviews

After looking at this card in a single GPU configuration back in January, it is interesting to see how and if this card has improved much in that time frame. Tucked into the product stack between the HD 7870 (Pitcairn) and HD 7950 (Tahiti), it seems that this card was built in limited quantities to fill this performance gap occupied by the GTX 660Ti. When you look at the hardware you get a Tahiti LE core that is less efficient than the Pitcairn core causing the power consumption and thermals to be higher than they should be on this GPU. The three heat pipe, direct contact design does cool the core decently enough with temperatures trending a bit higher than I saw with the single card but still acceptable at 81 °C stock and 76 °C overclocked (fan at 100%). Overclocking was not as good as on the single GPU I tested but still came in with respectable numbers that deliver higher FPS results or increased image quality settings. Visually the PowerColor HD 7870 Myst Edition is a good looking card using a black PCB equipped with PowerColor's own "Gold Power Kit" VRM components on board. The Myst Edition card uses a custom designed PCS+ direct contact heat pipe cooling system that is visible underneath the shroud. This gives the card some added visual appeal when looking at it through the side window when installed in the chassis.

The PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST uses the 'new' AMD Tahiti LE core that is found on Radeon HD 7900 GPUs and performs better than the AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition!

The PowerColor HD 7870 MYST is available for $259.99. The Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition can be had for $209.99 after a $20 mail in rebate. GTX 660 Ti cards start at $239.00 after a $30 mail in rebate. Compared to the reference Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition, the PowerColor HD 7870 MYST represents a step up in performance from both the Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition and the GTX 660 Ti. At the same time, it is very near the performance level of a Radeon HD 7950, which start at $274.99 after a $20 mail in rebate. You can achieve almost comparable performance for a lower price, and definitely faster than a stock GTX 660 Ti for the same price with this new video card. If it was the intent for this card to be a "GTX 660 Ti Killer" then it has been successful at carrying that out. If you are in the market for a card capable of delivering a great game play experience at 1920x1080 resolutions, then look no further than the PowerColor HD 7870 MYST as it provides near Radeon HD 7950 level performance for Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition pricing.

PowerColor is one of a handful of AMD partners to produce a special-edition Radeon HD 7870 card, dubbed Myst. The model-numbering is a misnomer as the card uses a cut-down Tahiti GPU that is ordinarily found on Radeon HD 7900 GPUs. Careful market segmentation means that other snips have to be made in order to hit a projected £180 price point. The upshot of various silicon finagling is performance that's around 10 per cent healthier than an honest-to-goodness Radeon HD 7870, powered by the well-balanced Pitcairn XT architecture. Using a meatier GPU, however, translates to the Myst's power consumption being markedly higher. Solid in terms of pure performance but a little lacking in other areas, notably power-draw and noise, the PowerColor HD 7870 Myst straddles a thin sliver of middle ground that limits its appeal to those who want to spend less than £200 on their next graphics card and don't mind sacrificing all-round excellence for pure gaming speed.

When I first saw news of the new 7870 models I thought it was pretty bad of AMD to not come up with a better name as it just causes confusion to the consumers. But they did it and for those in the know can get a great performing GPU at a steal. The performance is great with the card pulling numbers well above the Pitcairn based 7870′s and just below the Tahiti based 7950 GPUs. the overclocking potential of teh Tahiti LE is very strong and I cannot deny that it makes the card a even more powerful entity pending you want to spend the time to tweak some free performance from the card. The downsides are a lil problematic as those who do not know better could buy thsi to crossfire with their GHz edition card and be left in teh cold as this card will crossfire with any 7900 series card but not with Pitcairn based 7870′s. Anyone looking for a decent performance value card and doesnt need the bleeding edge top end card should give this one a serious thought as it can play most games on higher level graphics at HD resolutions or even pair it up with a 2nd for extreme graphics performance for the cost of a single high end GPU.

Looking deeper into the PowerColor PCS+ HD 7870 Myst Edition is an interesting exercise once you realize that it is put together using AMD's Tahiti core for its base rather than the Pitcairn core used on the HD 78XX cards that precede it in AMD's product stack. As a way to improve performance in the HD 7800 series without having to bin Pitcairn parts for guaranteed higher clock speeds it is a win. However it may provide some heartburn on the back end when customers have to distinguish between Tahiti LE and Pitcairn parts if and when deciding to run a Crossfire setup as the two are incompatible. Naming the Tahiti LE parts as a something in the HD 79XX range may have been a better idea. PowerColor has put together this card and priced it aggressively enough to put it right in between the GTX 660, HD 7950, and GTX 660Ti with the hope that it out performs the higher priced GTX 660Ti. Something it does in several of the game tests. Performance wise PowerColor's HD 7870 Myst Edition delivers excellent gaming performance in all of the tests at a resolution of 1920x1080 finishing ahead of the GTX 660 in all but one test. Two of the highlighted features include the Gold Power Kit power system and the PCS+ cooling solution. The cooling tests show that the PCS+ HD 7870 provided decent temperatures even with the smallish heat pipe direct contact cooling solution. A total of three heat pipes are employed to transfer the load to the aluminum fin array delivering maximum temperatures of 70 °C stock and 61 °C overclocked. Not bad when you look at it.