Review: HIS 6870 IceQ 1 Gig Video Card

It's a good time to be a PC gamer.  Why, you might ask?  Because video card manufacturers are upping the ante and producing better and better cards based on existing chipsets.  The drivers for said chipsets are mature and performance per dollar is high.  Cards are getting cooler and quiet in general but some excel in these arenas.  Case in point:  The HIS 6870 IceQ 1 gig.  This is a fantastic card at a fantastic value so let's dive right in.

Digital Hippos Hardware Corner Test Rig

Intel i5-2500k @ 4.3ghz
Corsair H50 CPU Water Cooling
Corsair AX850 Professional Series PSU
8 gig of Corsair XMS RAM
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 Motherboard
OCZ Vertex II SSD 120 gig Hard Drive 
HP 2170m 27" LCD Monitor @ 1920x1080
Antec 900 ATX Case
HIS HD6870 IceQ Video Card

Design

The HIS 6870 IceQ features a cooling system that is amazingly quiet and efficient.  I was extremely pleased with the build quality and how solid the card felt.  The case is sturdy and screams quality. There are plenty of connection options via 2 DVI ports or several HDMI options as well.  Overall, the card is extremely well designed and while it is quite large and lengthy (12"), the cooling and performance more than make up for it. The package also included DIRT3, which is a wonderful showpiece for what this card can do.  Also included is a DVI to VGA adapter and two molex to 6-pin PCI-E connectors.  Thanks to HIS for including all these additions that are sometimes thrown by the way side.

Performance

There is no doubt that the HIS 6870 IceQ is a well designed and well-built card but how does it run the latest games?  I'm happy to report that this card ran all the games I threw at it extremely well.  They went right for the kill and loaded up Battlefield 3 on this bad boy.  At ULTRA settings with 2x AA, the game was a tad bit choppy.  After turning off AA, the game ran extremely well.  I was a bit shocked, as BF3 is the hottest and one of the most demanding games today but the performance was nothing short of impressive, especially for a ~$200 card. The first impressions of performance were fantastic to say the least.

Yes, Battlefield 3 looks fantastic on this card.  No jokes here.

Ok, so maybe FPS is not your style.  We've got you covered.  I threw a plethora of other games at the HIS 6870 and I was amazed once again at how well the games ran.  TrackMania 2 Canyon, Witcher 2, Tomb Raider Underworld, and Diablo III all ran like a charm on max settings.  The only title that really strained this card on max settings, which wasn't quite a surprise, was Crysis Warhead which still spanks a lot of the highest end cards on Enthusiast settings.    A lot of games ran great with 4x AA @ 1920x1080 but sometimes I had to lower the AA settings to get a smooth 60 FPS (TURN VSYNC ON PEEPS!)  Overall, I was floored at how many games I ran and they all ran great.  If you are looking for a great card to get into PC gaming, this is an excellent choice in a wide array of games.

Tomb Raider Underworld + HIS 6870 IceQ = YES PLEASE

Temps and Overclocking

Testing this card and writing this review has been a rare pleasure.  I had some lower expectations for this card in terms of cooling, temps and overclocking but to the very end, I have been blown away.  The icing on the cake with this card starts was the temps.  Idle, I was around 40C which is fantastic for this much performance. When I was at gaming loads, I was only around 52C.  The IceQ cooler lived up to its name and delivered.  I thought I'd push this card and the temps, so using Afterburner, I cranked the core from 900mhz clear up to 975mhz. Gaming improvements were significant in Crysis Warhead; I was shocked.  Also, temps never went above 59C while overclocking.  I am sure there was more to squeeze out of this card but needless to say, you can squeeze even more performance out of this little baby with a few sliders.  A job well done to HIS for the IceQ cooling system that appeals to both stock speed gamers and those who want to push their cards to the limit.  Overall, the HIS 6870 IceQ is my favorite pick for the value market around ~$200.  Very highly recommended.