does the 7870 need to be overclocked for games from last year?

[ExoMale]

dont know exact model other than it has a red stripe on the top with 7800 across it with ghost on the very end, but i was generally curious.

 

[karik666]

Not really,run games on med/high settings still looks good,and should get you 30 to 50 fps.

 

[spolsh]

If it's got Ghost on it, it'll be an XFX card. (or at least it's got an XFX cooler on it)

 

[Chestnutphantom]

I would definitely overclock the card as you can't say no to free performance and if you break it you can easily pick up another one for 30-50 quid.

 

[Chestnutphantom]

just watch a Linus Tech Tips or JayTwoCents video on GPU overclocking and you will get the jist of it.

 

[ExoMale]

thanks for replies.

i understand to an extent how to overclock, i did it with my 750 i have till i turned it off and previous cards, i just wondered if the 7870 would actually require it pretty much straight away and from what i was reading its not a simple one to overclock due to voltage and reaching max clocks a bit early, ie 1200/1400 with 1.23v or something is meant to be the sweat spot and max most brands can do where as while my 750 runs of the slot and is at max power out the box i can do 1500/1600 for example or something above 15/16 from what i remember as i only did it for few seconds with no faults i have an OC version too, the 7870 meant to be better, just seems limited still.

oh and whatever difference it makes, this one i saw has an 8 + 6 pin connectors rather than 2 x 6 pins

 

[nashathedog]

Which 7870 it is will also matter, As well as the base 7870 they did a GHZ edition and one which used the gpu from the 7950/7970.

You probably think that you've already seen all there is to see about AMD Radeon HD 7870 graphics cards, but the Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard 2 GB that Club 3D recently launched is something special indeed. That's because this video card isn't based on the Pitcairn GPU like the other 7870 cards, but instead the Tahiti chip that's traditionally been used for the high-end Radeon HD 7950 and 7970. That makes the 7870 jokerCard faster but not more expensive than the standard HD 7870.

The Pitcairn GPU that's normally the foundation of the Radeon HD 7870 cards has 1280 shader units and a 256 bit memory bus. That GPU is made with 28nm transistors, and has about 2.8 billion of them. The Tahiti GPU in the 7950 and 7970 cards have 2048 shader units and a 384-bit memory bus, and with 4.3 billion transistors this GPU is definitely more powerful.