PowerColor HD6670 and HD6790 Review

Seeing light after the release of the higher-end HD6xxx series AMD (formerly ATI) Radeon graphics cards, the mid-range and entry-level cards came into the scene to offer good action for gamers with less flexible budgets. We dive right in and take this cards for a benchmark session, but not too much because we’re giving you guys a chance to win these cards.

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As mentioned already, we have the Radeon HD6790 and HD6670 in our test bench for today. These cards are aimed to target the more budget concerned gamers or people who just need a something with more punch. We have reference-based cards from PowerColor and aside from sporting a different cooling solution and PCB layout; they maintain their reference clock speeds.

The HD6670 is built around the Turks core, a mainstream chip designed for all-around use whilst the HD6790 sports the Barts LE core, a castrated version of those in the higher HD68xx models. See the chart below for a quick-spec:

Â	Radeon HD6670	Radeon HD6790
Graphics Processor	Turks	Barts LE
Shaders	480	800
ROPs	8	32
Memory	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5
Memory Bus	128-bit	256-bit
Core Clock	800Mhz	840Mhz
Memory Clock	1000Mhz	1050Mhz
Price (Phil. ₱)	₱4200	₱5800

PACKAGING

HD6790

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Package Contents:

• PowerColor HD6790 graphics card
• DVI-to-VGA adapter
• Driver Installation disc
• Manual

 

HD6670

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Package Contents:

• PowerColor HD6670 graphics card
• Driver Installation disc
• Manual

CLOSER LOOK

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HD6790

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PowerColor uses a dual-slot configuration with a 3-heatpipe cooler. The 6-pin PCI-e power connector is located in the back. During testing, the power pin clip tends to snag against the shroud during removal. Not a deal breaker but tends to become a problem in tighter cases.

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The base of the cooler is rough and the RAMs are passively cooled. The memories are supplied by Elpida.

HD6670

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Although employing a single slot bracket, the card needs 2 slots of space due to the cooler height. No PCI-e power input needed here as all the cards juice is taken from the PCI-e slot.

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The same as the card before, this one has a rough  contact with the cooler. Although heat output should be dissipated effectively, better contact would’ve helped at higher temps. We see the memories here are from Hynix.

PERFORMANCE

Setup:

Processor:               AMD Phenom II X4 B55 3.2GHz

Motherboard:          MSI 785GT-E63

Memory:                 Kingston ValueRAM DDR2-800

Video Card:            PowerColor Radeon HD6670, HD6790, Sapphire HD6850

Display:                  LG E2350V

Power Supply:         Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-P 600watts modular

Hard Drive:             1 x Seagate 7200.12 1TB SATA

Case:                      Coolermaster HAF 922

OS :                        Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

And no we’re not using the i7 2600K or SSDs in these tests to simulate more realistic situations for these cards.

We ran local fan-favorite games namely Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Crysis 2,Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Deus Ex Human Revolution and Shift 2: Unleashed. We take each game for three play-throughs and record performance using Fraps and average out the results.

HD6670 Performance

(FPS – higher is better)

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I opted to test the HD6670 at 1440×900 rather than the initial 1600×900 to compensate monitor resolution preference in its price bracket.

HD6790 Performance

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HD6850 Performance

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• COD:MW2 – Max in-game settings (Mission – End Game)
• COD: BlackOps – Max in-game settings, 8X AA (Mission – Victor Charlie)
• Crysis 2 – Gamer mode (Mission – Power Out)
• Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition – Max in-game setting
• Deus Ex Human Revolution – SSAO and Tesselation Normal, all other settings Max
• Shift 2 Unleashed – Max in-game settings (Japanese Retro – Tokyo Docks Night Race)

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As for temperatures, again due to time constraints we are not able to create a scientific test for the temperature. So monitoring with HWmonitor, we spot idle temps at around 40-42*C~ with the fans set to Auto and the room temp at around 29-30*C~. Amping up the card OCCTPT, the card gets to a toasty 68*C – 77*C with the fans still set to Auto. A more realistic test is carried out with Crysis 2 and we hover at the 59*C mark. Fan noise was tolerable up to 70-80% but cranking it up to 90%+ and you’ll start to notice the whirring more.

Same process for the HD6790 yields higher numbers as expected but with idle temps around the same numbers as the HD6670. OCCTPT max temps went up to 81*C, again this is in auto. Crysis 2 fared well at around 63*C.

We didn’t overclock any of these cards as detailed later on this article. Like you didn’t know already.

CONCLUSION

Basing off our charts, we can clearly say that both the HD6670 and HD6790 are able cards that deliver playable frame-rates at the majority of our titles. So starting things off with performance, both cards were good performers easily managing modern games at high eye-candy levels and still delivering playable framerates, though I’d still suggest you’d bring them down a bit to get a smoother experience. Let’s get more specific.

PowerColor’s HD6670, for its size, gave out big numbers and though we did not include it, this DirectX11 card was able to get roughly around 20fps in Unigine 2.1 at 1920×1080 with maxed out details, normal tessellation and 8X AA. But that brings us to the point that even though this card is a DX11 card, considering the performance it will give when DX11 detail is enabled, performance goes down and if you really want all that eye-candy, something in the higher end of the market is recommended. Despite that, this card’s capable enough to drive multiple-monitor for professional and productivity use. And given its low power consumption, it easier on the bills.

The HD6790 performed decently even coming close to its big brother the HD6850, if overclocked it might give even give it a run for its spot. Unlike its smaller sibling, this card can take more eye candy and delivery nicely.

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Wrapping things up, we come down to value and as this is the GPU market, there’s always plenty of competition. The HD6670 butts head with older models such as the GTS 450 and if its still around, the HD5670. The GTS 450 has more performance but this is accompanied by higher power draw and the HD5670 is practically the HD6670 beefed up. Also add to that the fact that we’ll be seeing HD7xxx soon, you’ll see more price cuts for those older parts. The HD6790 sees competition with the GTX 550 Ti. As expected from a Fermi, it also brings good performance but with higher noise and power draw versus the HD6790. Coupled with its silent cooler, this card’s a good choice for people that want HTPCs with a bit more kick, given that your case fits it.

All in all, both cards offer great value for money and in the ever changing GPU market, expect to see a refresh when the HD7xxx series drops. Still, it’ll take a few more months until the HD6670 and HD6790 meet their Southern Island successor. For the time being, it will probably come down to your personal preference if you opt to go with Team Red and get these cards.

Get a chance to win these cards!

And that’s the reason why we didn’t do an overclocking session (which is really against my dearest wishes). In celebration of our 3rd anniversary, we’re giving away both video cards. See more info here: http://www.back2gaming.com/blog/back2gaming-3rd-year-anniversary-we-be-giving-stuff-away/ .

Thanks to PowerColor for providing us with the review samples/prizes.