Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHZ OC 2 GB 256 -bit GDDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 100354OC-2L

I recently built my first gaming rig, and the Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition was my choice of card. I was lucky enough to get the card for $199.99, which ultimately made me choose this card over the EVGA GTX 760, and I could not be more pleased!Installation: This was my first time installing a GPU, and besides the fact it was a little tall on the horizontal side and covered my first PC-I Slot (which is expected of higher-end GPU's), and I had to mount it upside down in my case because it wouldn't fit regularly, I think it went pretty well. I had just done cable re-management the day before specifically for the GPU. Popped it in, and routed the cables through the back to my PSU no problem at all!Design: In the picture, the card looks like it has a bright teal, however on the actual card, it's regular blue. The card has two fans, and are pretty quiet, I never hear them even with my 5 fans spinning in my case along with the CPU cooler even during game sessions! Card had to be placed upside down in my case, but I blame the case for this as I had to do the same with my other PCI components.Setup: Setup was a breeze, I just went to AMD's website and downloaded the Catalyst software. Once I downloaded it, everything worked amazingly. Now that Mantle is out, I'm sure it runs even better.Gaming: Now, what everyone cares about. This is my first GPU, so it's my first experience, but so far, it's been absolutely great. Anything I've thrown at it I've gotten 60+ FPS and even over 1k FPS on certain low-powered games. I play a lot of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and get 560FPS in some areas. Skyrim defaults to Ultra High settings without any mods (although I will be adding some in the near future). I have yet to try Battlefield 4 on the card, but I will here in the near future.Overall, I think this is a great card, and I am very satisfied with my purchase. It's quiet, fast, and packs a hell of a punch for the $199.99 price tag I got it at. I recommend this card to anyone building their first gaming rig.My PC specs:Case: NZXT Phantom Full Tower (Black)CPU: Intel i5 4670kRAM: 8GB Kingston HyperX Blu @ 1600MhzMotherboard: Gigabyte H87-D3HGPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz OC Edition 2GBPSU: Corsair CX600MSound card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMouse: Corsair M65Keyboard: Microsoft 400Monitor: Asus VS239H-P IPS

The card was very fast but the first day I had it, I started getting blue screens in GW2. I tried driver cleaners, multiple driver versions, etc. I still kept getting random resets and blue screens, so I had to send it back. I knew this card had problems in the past, and I did receive a newer model (based on the serial number), but I just don't have time anymore to trouble shoot ATI drivers. I returned it and got a Gigabyte GTX660, and although it's a tad bit slower than the 7870, I've yet to have any crashes or problems. It's too bad because I used to be the biggest ATI fanboy. :/

I previously owned an ADM HD 6950 (believe it was OC). It was trying its best, but it was little older and it was just barely doing what I was asking it to do. I play a lot of online games (Smite, Guns of Icarus, WoW, Payday 2) and it was time to upgrade.This card was recommended to me by a trusted gaming buddy that uses the same device in his new computer. When I got it, I was very surprise to find how much smaller it was to my 6900 series. It is a good 30% shorter, which is nice to help on space and maintaining good air flow.The only bad things that are worth mentioning (if they are bad) are:1. The 7870 has been on the market for over year (last March). The Sapphire has been out since January, and that means that it will have to upgraded a year or two early compared to if I bought a top of the line card. That kind of works out for me, b/c at that time it will be time to change my motherboard (Asus Sabertooth P67) currently it has been discontinued. However, it is still a great board and it serves my purposes well. Also, it will be probably time to upgrade my Intel processor (i7 3.50 Ghz).2. The second kind of con is that it runs a little hotter than I would have thought. When moving at full graphics, it runs at about 52 degrees C. I would have imagined this smaller card, and with the big heat sinks and copper tubing that it has, it would have run a little cooler than that. I have my side panel opened too, and it still run this hot. Just as hot as my old 6900 series.All and all, I still love this card. I will be in my machine for the next (at least 2-3 years). Also, the price point is not too bad, between $150-$220 currently, depending on where you look.

i got this to play starcraft. runs great and its quiet but after about 2 hours of gaming, the temperature goes way up to about 80 degrees. the fan was on full speed. had to return this, kind of unfortunate.