Overclocking
Sapphire HD 7870 GHz OC Edition comes factory overclocked. The GPU and memory run at 1050MHz/1250MHz respectively, whereas reference clocks are at 1000MHz/1200MHz. We managed to hit 1150MHz GPU and 1420MHz for the memory.
Thermals, Noise and Power Consumption
Sapphire HD 7870 GHz OC Edition’s cooling turned out great – it’s quiet and does its job well. The fans are barely audible in idle mode, which was not surprising considering the heatsink size and the fact that it’s cooled by two fans at the same time. However, the cooler’s true strength showed when we stressed the card. Temperatures climbed up to 62°C, when the fans were still pleasantly quiet so we didn’t even notice them. Temperatures were about 5°C lower than on the reference HD 7870 but Sapphire’s card was much quieter. Our additional overclock increased temperature by 6°C but the fan didn’t speed up much so the card was still unobtrusive.
