AMD Radeon HD 6670: review, review, specs

AMD and NVIDIA companies are constantly fighting for superiority in the current video card market, and in almost all price ranges. In some situations, one of the companies produced a certain product, which by its characteristics was much superior to its competitor, while in others almost similar products were produced, each of which had its own advantages and disadvantages. It was the last situation that occurred during the release of the series Radeon HD 6000 and GeForce 500.

What is the HD 6670?

Radeon HD 6670 is not the most productive model of the series, as it is far from being the first in the model line and there are more powerful models such as HD 6790 and others. This fee is a low-cost version designed for inexpensive gaming computers, which allows you to run most of the modern projects at medium or minimum settings. Radeon HD 6670 is the best option for lean gamers who prefer to rest periodically in front of the monitor, but do not constantly chase every novelty and do not want to make from their computer an "omnivorous" machine that can run absolutely everything that will be on it Is established.

If you initially consider this model in this way, everything immediately falls into place. Radeon HD 6670 is the perfect balance between two variants of video cards: multimedia middles and real game accelerators. Of course, these are absolutely different categories of products, since the latter require the highest possible performance, while the latter must be quiet and at the same time have compact dimensions in order to be able to be housed in a small building of various media centers and not to bother their owner with buzz during the rest.

The manufacturer, however, managed to make a combination of all the positive consumer qualities, resulting in a rather interesting card, extremely accurate for a specific category of buyers. According to reviews, if you are a person who does not play too often and does not chase some of the most modern graphics effects, the Radeon HD 6670 is perfect for you.

Architecture

This model came out as much as 15 months after its predecessor (HD 5570), which represents a rather significant time in this area. That is why it is worth initially considering what changes occurred in the design of this accelerator and how the manufacturer was able to improve the main characteristics.

Immediately worth noting is the fact that AMD Radeon HD 6670 decided not to limit itself to standard half-measures like the traditional increase in frequencies. Thus, the graphics card of the previous generation installed a graphics processor Redwood, while the new model is already based on the GPU Turks. This processor was initially positioned as a completely new one, and not just an updated version of the previous kernel.

Processors of previous models

To be more precise, the previous model used the Redwood processor, which has the HT index, which marked the older versions of the processors. In addition to this model, this core was also used in the production of the HD 5550 and HD 5570 models, but they also installed devices with the PRO index. From its older version, this version was characterized by an exceptionally low operating frequency, while an even younger LE version also had a reduced number of active core blocks.

Five graphical mini-clusters of SIMD, each of which includes 16 stream multiprocesses, served as the basis of the core. In other words, each of them contains five single stream processors, and this figure is indicated by AMD in the list of characteristics of its motherboard. Each such cluster, in turn, operates with four texture blocks.

What are the differences?

In fact, it turned out that eventually GPU Turks processor is almost identical in its architecture with this device. The structure of their work is almost the same, and the main difference in this case can be called a larger number of SIMD-blocks, the architecture of which has not changed, so the number of stream processors has been proportionally increased from 400 to 480. In addition, the total number of textures from 20 to 24, while the configuration of the blocks of rasterization remained the same, and their number still is 8 pieces.

On this, all the differences that relate directly to the computational part of the kernel are over. Memory controllers in AMD Radeon HD 6670, just like the old model, provide the communication of GDDR5 and core chips via a 128-bit bus, while the SIMD-blocking technology is completely identical. It should be noted that the core is also equipped with additional controllers Eyefinity, which are a unique technology of the manufacturer, designed to connect to one card simultaneously multiple monitors.

From generation to generation of video cards, the UVD unit undergoes gradual upgrading. Thus, support for MPEG-2 format was introduced to version 2.0, while in the transition to 2.2, minor adjustments have already been made that allow for more efficient and simple operation with different codecs. As for the Radeon HD 6670, the review showed that the new UVD 3.0 unit provides support for MPEG-4 ASP format, and is already capable of supporting Blu-ray 3D.

Given the rather large similarity between Turks and Redwood, the total number of transistors on the new model's chip has risen slightly - up to 715 million (from 627 million, that is, an increase of about 14%). All this eventually led to the fact that the original area of this crystal also increased, which now amounts to 118 mm ² instead of 110 mm ² , as it was before.

If you believe the reviews, in its architecture, the Radeon HD 6670 is not far from its predecessor.

What are its advantages?

If we consider the advantages of this model, then it is worth noting the following:

• The total number of stream processors has been increased from 400 to 480 pieces, that is, the increase is 20%;
• The total number of textural blocks was increased from 20 to 24, that is, in this case, the increase is also 20%;
• The operating core frequency has risen from 775 to 800 MHz (here already an increase of only 3.2%).

Of course, such changes can hardly be called revolutionary, as a result of which the indicators of the overall rate of filling the scene or "mathematics" did not rise very noticeably. The positive aspect in this case is that such an increase in performance was achieved with a minimum increase in power consumption, which rose only by some 5 watts. As evidenced by the reviews, this video card, though positioned as a gaming accelerator, just like its predecessor, can be used without any additional power cords, which is extremely important for modern small-size systems.

Memory

In the memory subsystem, the changes are also insignificant. In the HD 5670 model, GDDR3 or GDDR5 chips were used, with the first variant being far from the most successful version, because the video cards in most cases were supplied to the OEM market, where it was necessary to attract inexperienced customers with loud names. A fairly narrow 128-bit bus does not interact well with GDDR3-format chips, since the bandwidth at 25 Gb / s is definitely not enough to ensure the proper operation of a really efficient graphics processor. In the case of GDDR5, the situation has improved significantly, and the total throughput has already risen to 64 Gb / s.

It is this version that uses to this day the AMD Radeon HD 6670, while the modifications equipped with slow memory of the GDDR3 format have been completely eliminated. The frequency characteristics of the microcircuits used on both models fully coincide and amount to 4000 MHz.

Cooling

It is quite amazing, but during the operation of simple applications, the temperature of the device can be 45 ^о С, which is a rather big result, since a rather good cooling system is used in a relatively compact accelerator. With active use, the processor begins to switch from low to full, and the same happens with memory chips, which explains the presence of such a temperature regime.

Extreme loads (testing)

In extreme conditions, the temperature is 72 ^о С, which already represents a very good result, especially considering that the fan speed only slightly exceeds 50% of the maximum possible value. Thus, about the video card AMD Radeon HD 6670 reviews of users often note exactly that it does not get warm and does not make much noise in the process of running even productive games and applications.

Despite the fact that the fan is characterized by a small diameter of the impeller, it is developed as easily as possible, and under extreme loads the noise level is only 33.7 dB. Of course, this does not make it possible to call the card noiseless, but the reviews say that it is very weakly audible.

Analogues

The Radeon HD 6670 graphics card has almost the same characteristics as the HD 6570, which is a cut version of the older model, but is positioned in the same way. In the latter case, the main bet is made on the most profitable for the consumer price-performance ratio of this device.

GeForce GT 440

It's also worth noting that manufacturers compare both their solutions to the competing model GeForce GT 440. Thus, according to the tests performed on the games of that time, this solution is approximately 15-40% more productive, depending on what exactly you give your Preference both in terms of games, and in terms of video card. At the same time, despite the budgetary performance of these devices, they were able to run even very, very demanding games of their time, which shows that most modern projects they can also run at least in minimum settings.

HD 6450

Some reviews claim that the HD 6450 has similar characteristics to the Radeon HD 6670, but in fact it is completely different devices. First of all it is worth noting the fact that it is based on the Caicos processor, which by its characteristics in terms of stream processors is exactly three times inferior to older models, since there are only 160 of them. Such a device will suffice only for some extremely simple Games, and then in low resolution.

In this case, the characteristics speak for themselves. It is worth noting that, in comparison with the Radeon HD 6670, experts' reviews of this device are often marked by an abundance of available options, since different memory and core frequencies are used here. If we talk directly about the internal filling of this device, then we can say that the device is absolutely identical in comparison with the older model, and the only difference in this case can be called only the working frequency of the core.