ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: Cheaper for price/features than Nvidia
Clean, clear videos from all sources!
Clean, clear video games - it even made Project 64 and Dolphin games look clean with more detailed textures!
Doubled the RAM that I had (560 Ti)
Free Games!

Cons: Photoshop 6 performance is not that great or smooth given the talk about AMD's compute performance. On my old 560 Ti, I could zoom in and out with ease and smoothness, on here it inches. I also did not like their desktop implementation. With Nvidia, you plug and play and it is clean and sharp. With the AMD, I had to figure some things out for quite some time before I was able to make it close to normal. I still thin Nvidia's desktop appearance is better, although the AMD obviously made things clear, cleaner and more detailed, just not as sharp on some things - but close.

Other Thoughts: This card does bring out more color or maybe it is the 2GB vs the 1GB that I had on Nvidia. Since Photoshop and videos are my main thing, I decided to go with a GTX 770 and I hope that I at least get what I got out of this one and then some. To me, the main things about this card that I loved was the clarity of the videos and pictures. This is the main thing that stood out to me. I just could not deal with the Photoshop going slower than the 560 Ti. When you are used to something and you get new, you want that and then some.

People talk about AMD's drivers not being great, but it is kind of true as it's presentation is not the greatest and some defects happen, but some Nvidias drivers will mess up - on maybe every 5th driver revision, but it still will. I think the desktop portion of their drivers should have been a little more simple. I like having a lot of control adjustments, but between the monitor, desktop and color, I kind of preferred it to be more simple. Nvidia is just plug and play, although I am not sure that Nvidia was giving us as much scan info as AMD since the 560 Ti appear to have slightly smaller graphics for the desktop.

When it comes to 3D, this card blows away the 560 Ti with cleaner, clearer and more detailed textures than before! On old N64 and Wii emus, the textures almost seemed as if they had been replaced with something better, not just enhanced. There was even a slight tessellation effects on some games! I loved it. However, on an old game (I always like to throw in old games to see any enhancements or performance improvements) like GTA;Sand Andreas, on the highest setting with a lot of activity on the screen, I would get slow down! On the 560 Ti all setting maxed - no slow down. I admit, when I had it before it was with 24GB Ram, then I tested it with 16GB, but come on. Practically every other non-DirectX 11 game ran almost too fast, but looked prefect, if not way better than before.

I was mostly going to keep this, but the Photoshop was the deal breaker. If the GTX 770 does not get the job done, then I may not like the current direction of these card from either brand and these compromises (energy savings) that goes into them. On the one hand it's good, on the other I like mine at full force while I am using it. Then again, maybe I just wanted the GTX because of it's class and because it is newer.

Pros: Prior to buying this Asus Card I have owned an ASUS ATI Radeon 9800, and a Sapphire Radeon 3850 and an Asus Radeon 5850. I have been loyal to Radeon since before AMD owned them and their technology has lasted and performed optimally for years. This card appears to be no different and I can assuredly say that two of them makes it all the more better. AMD provides ample support for their drivers and placing these guys in Crossfire is as simple as literally one click of a button. I play numerous games ranging from the Crisis series, to the Bioshock, to World of Warcraft, Battlefield and Call of Duty and I must say two of these can run them all on max settings (despite Ultra everything on Crysis 3 with medium settings for AA). In my room I do keep an air conditioner running at a solid 62 degrees to ensure cooling as well as multiple fans blowing on the cards from the side to ensure they remain cool. The highest temperatures I have seen are only 55 degrees Celsius! Amazing especially considering the Crossfire configuration. Overclocking them is a breeze and does provide a significant boost in several games with a slight increase of only 50MHz on the core clock speed. Absolutely amazing product that provides an excellent gaming performance, and I will definitely remain loyal to AMD/ATI in future graphics card purchases as well as ASUS as the distributor.

Cons: Honestly none, the cards are a little too close but that's due to ASUS's awesome cooling system as well as my motherboards pci-e slots.

Other Thoughts: ASRock 990fx Extreme9 AM3+ Mobo
AMD FX 8350 Vishera 8-core processor
16 GB Crucial Low Profile Desktop Ram
1 TB WD Caviar Black
2x ASUS Radeon 7870 Ghz edition
CM Storm Scout Lan Gaming case
Fans: 3 x 120mm + 2 x 140mm
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750W V2 High Performance PSU
Tt esports Challenger Illuminated Keyboarad
Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse

Pros: While this card worked it was great. Plays games on high settings.

Cons: I have the flickering issue that others have had. After you try all the troubleshooting and figure out its just the hardware your 30 warranty is up. You must go through the manufacture. The flickering makes games unplayable, and after continuous play my card locked up and gave me a blue screen.

Other Thoughts: I will try to replace this product and get another because I believe its a good product for the ones that work.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Please contact me if you have not yet talked to us at ASUS Support. If you have any difficulties with an RMA through ASUS I am happy to help you in any way that I can. Feel free to email me at cl-jeremy@asus.com with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Regards,
Jeremy
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Runs everything at high to very high settings.

Cons: Gets a little hot 75C

Pros: -strong graphics. I've pretty much maxed Bioshock: Infinite with an acceptable framerate, and Crysis 1 does 60 FPS for much of the game.
-comes with easy-to-use software for overclocking, though I have not played with it
-software also shows temps and fan speeds
-runs pretty cool

Cons: -HUGE. This card had a little trouble fitting in my full-sized ATX tower, though I have some bad wire sprawl that gets in the way.

Other Thoughts: The overclocking software will probably add a few months to the life of the card, since it is now that much easier to do it without power cycling a lot.

Pros: nice card got everything I need on it nice deal came with four games plus it is really quiet even on 100% fan setting

Cons: this card was bought for the size and stats plus the reviews on it were pretty good just make sure you measure your case I have a gigabyte sumo 4112 I measured it and it just fit with some awkward movements to install it cant be anything between this card and case unless you want to remove hard drive bays the tool less back plate had to have the two tabs removed cause the graphics pcb support was in the way of them no big deal really

Other Thoughts: all in all I love this card got drivers from asus noticed it was stuttering like some of the reviews said so I downloaded from the amd site and problem was solved runs every game I own on maximum settings bought this cause my old xfx hd4850 was running a lil hot with GuildWars 2 not anymore just love this card once I had it installed stays very cool even under loads I have always liked asus products have bought a few laptops and motherboards over the years and I cant say enough about this card except buy it I know I would again !!

Pros: Um,, frigging incredible. Simple install . I've had ZERO issues.

Cons: Runs a little hotter than I like.

Other Thoughts: I bought the open box version of this card and do not regret it a bit. Everything was there except the pretty box the new ones come in. I replaced a pair of 3870x2's with this. Went from 4 gpus to just one and this thing beats the snot outta my old ones. FPS in Bad Company 2 are 75 to 80 FPS with everything cranked up and BF3 runs at 55 to 60 FPS with all settings on Ultra. this is in 1920 x 1080. Point of reference. I am running a QX9650 at 3.8 GHZ on a Rampage Formula X48 board. My system is old. All I did was uninstall my old drivers, shut down , pull out the old cards and put the new one in. Reboot installed latest drivers,, DRIVERS ONLY, then install GPU Tweak from the disk. NO ISSUES AT ALL. Works great. It does run a bit hotter than I would like, about 15C to 20C hotter than my old cards. I have seen 79C after a BF3 session but the fans ramp up as they should and it cools right back down. I could set the fans to run higher but I like the idea of only using what it needs for fan speed so I'm leaving it alone. I have not OC'd the card yet,, but I don't need to, it's awesome for my needs the way it is. I would love to Crossfire like I had my 3870x2's but for now, I don't see the need.

Pros: Runs stuff on ultra. When it works.

Cons: Crashes my PC after a weeks use

Other Thoughts: Don't buy it's to picky just by the xf 7870

Manufacturer Response:

Dear mb990,

I am sorry to hear that you had problems with your HD7870 graphics card. If you still have it, you have a 3 year warranty with us at ASUS that you are welcome to use to send it in to us to look at. Feel free to email me at cl-jeremy@asus.com if you have any questions, I am happy to help in any way that I can.

Regards,
Jeremy
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Amazingly i was able to run the Tomb Raider, and DmC at max it worked great

Cons: I DIDNT GET FARCRY 3

Other Thoughts: My system Specs:
ATi Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB
AMD Phenom II X4 965
3 x 1TB Harddrives
8GB Corsair Ram
1 x Blu-Ray Burner

Pros: Amazing Card!
2 Fans
Crossfire ready

Cons: Little bit on the large size. Fit in my mid tower with about 3/4 inch left between card and drive slots

Other Thoughts: Running this card on an Asus M5-A88M board and AMD's new Vishera 3.5gHz 8-core cpu and it is Amazing. Idle sits at about 17'C. Tried every game I own on max settings (Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, GW2, & BF3) and I Have yet to see higher that 48'C. Worth every single penny so far!