MSI's R6870 Hawk Review

Videocards/VGA Reviews by petervandamned @ 2011-10-17

In this review we take a closer look at this AMD based HD6870 video card. Sporting a non reference design PCB and a specially built Twin Frozr III Cooler. For extra and stable power the 8+2 Phase VRM design make this Hawk card stands out from the 6870 cards. MSI provides this card with a dual speed fan switch. Retaling at a price around € 180, it's not even that more expensive regarding reference HD6870's. Interestingly enough the MSI 6870 Hawk can be found cheaper then some competitors versions.

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What's under your hood?

Before we remove the Twin Frozr III cooler. One word of advice. Be very carefull and take your time !

Normally it's an easy job to remove the cooler, but one wrong handling and you could damage the card.

 

 

Only 4 springs and screws hold this massive 5 heat pipe cooler ! A bit too much paste here, maybe the previous reviewer was a bit too generous when reapplying :)

 

 

I cleaned the GPU core as I didn't dare to put it back like this. Just a 5 mins job removing and another 15 mins of drying the purifier. 

 

 

End result is like a mirror:

 

 

Now we can have a good look at the almost naked video card.

They can't be overlooked, them big ass SFCs Wait what did you say ? SFCs? 

Super Ferrite Choke's

Simply explained, these allow for  10% better power efficiency and 30% higher current capacity. Also they run far cooler in reards to regular ones on the referenc design cards. These can help to increase the overclocking capabilities big time. And don't they look great? 

 

 

MSI is using Hi-C Cap (Tantalum core) with extremely high conductivity and 15x less leakage. This is the same material which is used on Space Shuttles. Marketing talk here?

 

 

Time to assemble a complete system and start testing this video card ->

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