One of my favorite things to do when building a PC for others is to squeeze as much power as I can in the smallest package. The AMD APU chips have made this a joy since building ITX sized HTPCs capable of gaming on a decent level only involves a good cooler. While the AMD APUs are very impressive when it comes to graphical capability, sometimes you just need the muscle of a dedicated graphics card. When HTPCs and small form factor computers need that muscle, especially if it’s an AMD A75 motherboard you’re using, the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC 1GB may be just what you need.
Features and Specifications
The GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC is factory overclocked from the standard 800/800 MHz (core/memory) speed to 820/900 MHz. As the card is built with DDR3 memory the 100 MHz boost in memory is the most important. If you recall from my APU review, memory speed for graphics cards in this performance segment makes the difference. The GIGABYTE HD 6670 has a very robust two slot cooling solution. This is helpful when using it for a quiet PC builds as the fan will often never make enough noise to notice.
As with many graphics cards in this price range and size, the order of the day is to provide an upgrade over integrated graphics processors. In addition to this, GIGABYTE also decided to ensure a variety of connections with 1 gold plated HDMI, 1 DVI, and 1 VGA connection. Often, entry level GPUs and motherboards will leave one of these off.
The GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC retails for $94.99 US at most retailers, but recent rebates may have it selling for less. We spotted it for $74.99 after rebate from NewEgg.
Whats in the Box?
The first think you should note about any AMD HD 6670 is there expected use is to accompany an AMD APU or usage as an upgrade from an IGP. As such you will not find anything in the way of accessories.
The GIGABYTE HD 6670 as stated above already has one of each of the three major monitor connectors. There really is no need to include any adapters. Even without an adapter, the card can still support two monitors using the DVI and HDMI connections. While an AMD HD 6670 does not support CrossfireX via external connection cable, it does support it via the PCIe bus with any APU. This means you will also not find any Crossfire bridge cables either.
Installation Notes
The installation of the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC was very easy as there are no PCIe power connectors. Thus the installation is the standard fair of pressing the card firmly into the PCI express slot and securing it with a single back panel screw or quick release if your case has one.
Even though this is a single slot card, it actually requires two slots to fit. This is important to remember when considering it for very small cases, or PCs with other installed expansion cards like a TV tuner. The GIGABYTE HD 6670 is a very short card though so depth is not so much an issue. While not the best option for ITX sized cases, it should be a nice fit for mini-ATX cases, or shorter box style micro-ATX cases.
Test System and Software
Our test system setup is as folllows…
APU Test Systems
- CPU: AMD A8-3850 AMD A6-3650
- Case: BitFenix Outlaw
- Motherboard: Gigabyte A75M-UD2H
- GPU: Gigabyte HD 6670 OC 1GB
- RAM: Kingston HyperX @ 1600 MHz 9-9-9-24 T1 2x2GB
- HDD: Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB
- PSU: Antec HCP 850W
- OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Software
- 3DMark11
- Cinebench 11.5
- Alien Vs. Predator benchmark
- Resident Evil 5 benchmark
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- FRAPS
- FurMark Burn-in
Now that we’ve established the testing parameters including software and hardware, let’s see what GIGABYTE’s HD 6670 OC 1GB can do!
Overclocking the GIGABYTE HD 6679 OC 1GB
Overclocking this card was very simple using only the AMD Catalyst Control Center. This was made possible by the cooler GIGABYTE used as well as the Hynix memory chips. The default overclock for this card is 820 MHz for the core and 900 Mhz (1800 MHz effective) for the DDR3 memory. I was able to push the memory to the limit CCC would allow of 1080 MHz (2160 MHz effective) and the core up to 880 MHz.
While I did attempt to run the GIGABYTE HD 6670 1GB at the maximum core speed CCC would allow of 900 MHz, I was not able to keep the card stable. Increasing the voltage to the PCIe bus proved to be ineffective as I do not believe the card was using all the power available at stock PCIe voltage. Cooling was also not to blame as even at 880 MHz I was only able to bring the core temperature up to AMD’s normal operational range. We will discuss this in detail soon enough, so lets dive right into the testing.
Synthetic Graphical Performance (3DMark11)
We will start with a synthetic test using 3DMark11 to gauge what we should expect as far as performance goes. Throughout these test I will be comparing the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC to the AMD A8-3850 APU on its own plus what is added in terms of performance when run in CrossfireX.
While CrossfireX is obviously going to be the best possible solution when available, there are some games and situations that will not support this feature. Alone the GIGABYTE HD 6670 gives a very health increase in performance over the A8-3850 IGP, the HD 6550. Keep in mind the A8-3850 has the most powerful IGP available today and it falls well behind the HD 6670 even at its stock settings.
Synthetic OpenGL Performance (Cinebench 11.5)
We will now look at the results of the OpenGL synthetic testing. This test is just as important as 3DMark11 since there are a variety of games and programs that run using OpenGL instead of the DirectX.
Note that OpenGL is not supported by CrossfireX. As such there is a very minor performance loss with CrossfireX. The HD 6670 on the other had provides a 32% performance increase at stock and 62.6% at 880/1080 MHz. If you are using a OpenGL program or playing any OpenGL based games, be sure to disable CrossfireX and let the HD 6670 handle the workload.
Real World Gaming Performance (Resident Evil 5 & Alien Vs. Predator)
This time we will do some testing across DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 using two different games. The first is Resident Evil 5 which was testing at standard settings (all high with VSync disabled and no Motion Blur) at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 using the “Variable Benchmark”. This ensures that the game is being testing as close to real world as possible.
Alien Vs. Predator was testing at its standard settings at the same resolution. This means the textures were at medium, shadows on high, all DX11 features enabled, no AA, and AF at 16.
While the HD 6670 supports DX11, it struggles with performance when all of the DX11 features are enabled. I am sure with some minor tweaks such as bringing down the Antistropic Filtering and using medium shadows could help performance; however, you would get much better results simply running games like this in DX10 mode using Crossfire.
While CrossfireX with the A8-3850 + HD 6670 gives great results in DX10 mode, it struggles with DX9. Once again note that these results were from the originally released drivers and you may see better results with AMD 11.11 Catalyst drivers as of now. Even without CrossfireX, the HD 6670 gives more than playable results at stock clocks and even better once overclocked further falling just shy of a 60 FPS average. While a slightly older title, I think Resident Evil is a good representation of most game engines with few exceptions.
Real World Gaming Performance (Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Now we are going to look at a current game using a heavily modified version of an older game engine which is very common practice in games. These test were done at the system recommended settings of Ultra. Yes I was just as surprised Ultra Settings were recommended and I do not believe using Ultra is a good idea. I also attempted to follow the exact same path and perform the same tasks in game using FRAPS over the course of 10 minutes of gameplay.
Keep in mind this is a different type of workload than Resident Evil 5 in DX9. RE5 uses small environments with large numbers of moving objects taxing the GPU as it processes the changes in light and shadow. Skyrim on the other hand spends a lot of time in large scale environments with few moving objects which taxes the memory buffer.
You can see that the overclock does provide an average of 11.88% performance improvement at maximum frame rate and average frame rate, but suffers a loss at minimum. Gameplay did feel sluggish, but not enough to be annoying. I believe at High or Medium settings the HD 6670 could easily be playable in the low 50’s in FPS.
I ensured combat was involved in all test runs, but I was attacked in the same location by different things each run. This is the nature of the game and real world testing so I place more stock in the average frame rate here. The drop in minimum frame rate is literally the difference between being attacked by a group of 3 Orc raiders and 5 Nord bandits. It would seem any increase in the number of NPCs only affected the minimum frame rate as the average and maximum remained uniform (12% and 11.76% respectively).
Temperature
The final piece to the puzzle here is the temperature of this card during idle and during heavy workloads. These results only relate to the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC temperature. These test were done in the BitFenix Outlaw (review coming soon) with no additional fans and one extra expansion slot cover removed.
These temperatures are actually quite amazing. The normal operational temperature for an AMD 6000 series GPU is between 45 °C and 72 ºC. It is also stated these chips can rise to as high as 90 ºC without damage. Even when overclocked 60 MHz above the factor overclock of 820 MHz, the temperature of the core is only 50 °C with the fan speed maxing out at 45%. I believe this card is capable of operating with the fan removed completely for a silent build, although the fan on the GIGABYTE HD 6670 is not even as loud as the single case fan on the BitFenix.
Final Thoughts
Even though the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC is very impressive doing what it was built to do, let’s not kid ourselves here. When pushing for the best graphics in DX11 with advanced shadows and Tessellation, the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC will not cut it. Even with CrossfireX, you are likely not to get a full DX11 title to play well. The money that would need to be spent on a good CPU cooler to overclock both the APU and the HD 6670 would be better spent on a higher end card. However, the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC is the most powerful GPU that supports Dual Graphics for CrossfireX on the A75 platform and an APU.
When taking Hybrid Graphics with an APU out of the equation, one major weakness is the price. Going up just one notch up to an AMD HD 6750 or nvidia GT 440 can give you nearly twice the power for right at $100. While CrossfireX with an A8-3850 and a GIGABYTE HD 6670 can give you close to the same performance as a HD 6750, it is not as reliable due to driver and game support issues. Keep in mind though that the AMD HD 6750 and Nvidia GT 440 are louder, hotter, and more power hungry GPU solutions overall.
The HD 6670 was built to have a hard life as it is the defining line between what GPUs are entry level and which ones are mid-range. While this would normal leave a card in a bad position, the GIGABYTE HD 6670 OC does enough extra to pull itself out of the shadows. When you consider Hybrid CrossfireX, the ease of overclocking further, low temperatures, low noise, and low power use, it quickly becomes the only GPU upgrade option for an AMD APU system. And with triple monitor support onboard, it also has a great life as a productivity booster when coupled with three displays.
While the MSRP is $94.99, you can easily find this card with rebates, on sale, or paired with an APU for around $20 cheaper. At $74.99, it is a very attractive upgrade option for your small form factor PC or HTPC and of course, your A75 platform when mated to an AMD APU.
Pros:
- Can Scale Well in Hybrid CrossfireX
- Factory Overclock
- Overclocks even further with Little effort
- Low Noise and temperatures
- 3 Year Warranty
Cons:
- CCC Limits Memory overclock to 1080 MHz
- Priced too High when not on Sale and without Rebate
- Two slot Cooler design is Unnecessary
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10.0
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