AMD Radeon HD 7870 And 7850 Review: Pitcairn Gets Benchmarked

Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda’s incredibly popular The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim recently received a significant patch that put more of an emphasis on graphics performance. Let’s begin with 8x MSAA in conjunction with FXAA to smooth out the edges of foliage:

The new 7800-series boards do well in this game, both outrunning AMD’s Radeon HD 6970.

This is one of those titles where AMD’s Adaptive AA feature really interested us. Because there are so many transparent textures on leaves, branches, and plants, applying Adaptive AA could make a profound impact on graphics quality.

We’re also able to test Nvidia’s Transparent AA technology, which similarly anti-aliases transparent textures.

With Adaptive AA enabled, AMD’s Radeon HD 7800-series cards compare much more favorably to the Radeon HD 6900-series boards. In fact, both 7800s blow right past the fastest card in our charts, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580.

To be fair, Nvidia’s TrSSAA looks a little better than AMD’s Adaptive AA in this game. Notice also that the Radeon HD 7800s are faster when Adaptive AA is turned on compared to MSAA with FXAA in the charts up top. Strange though that may be, we confirmed it through multiple iterations of our benchmark. We also took screen shots that prove the 7800’s Adaptive AA yields the same output quality as the 6900s, despite the performance difference.

  • hardcore_gamer
    Wow..7870 has nearly half the power-draw of GTX 570 and performs better . IMO this is the most impressive card in GCN line up so far.
    Reply
  • ilysaml
    Watch the benches well, the HD 7870 almost beating the GTX 580.
    Reply
  • alex3064
    what date is this 7850/7870 actually launched
    Reply
  • esrever
    AMD saved the best for last it seems. Although a bit over priced, these cards are amazing performance/watt with all the new features. Nice to see the 7870 take a few blows at the 580 in a few games. Can't wait to see what kepler can do as well!
    Reply
  • alex3064
    alex3064what date is this 7850/7870 actually launchedi mean when will it be launched in market
    Reply
  • theuniquegamer
    impressive performance of 7870 (i was disappointed by the 7770's performance )And what about microshuttering? Is it present in 7870 CF?
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    ilysamlWatch the benches well, the HD 7870 almost beating the GTX 580.
    Looking at the performance graphs, 7870 performs very close to 7950 which has 40% more SPs and a 384 bit memory interface. I think AMD reduced the performance of 79xx series on purpose so that they can release a better card just before the launch of Kepler.
    Reply
  • _Pez_
    the 7870 is quite impressive. O.O almost the same gaming capability of the 580 for 350. OMG!
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    alex3064i mean when will it be launched in market
    It is there in the first page. "you won’t be able to buy the card until at least March 19th, AMD tells us."
    Reply
  • Onikage
    7870 is a sensational card !!! even at this given price!!!
    what a card !!!
    DAY 1 BUY !
    Reply