I got my card today for my second system. Since my old system died another time, i changed to another board and decided to sell the old 6950 so i can use the Hawk 7870 on my HTPC (and backup gamer PC), since its a way better card. I dont care its power, i got it for quality reasons. I will not underclock however because thats pointless. It will downclock and undervolt itself at low load and may achieve a very high life expectation when the temps are very cool.
Now when i look at that massive and really sturdy card, with a metal backplate attached it surely feels impressive. It even got a card cover which is made with metal instead of plastic which is certainly a good sign of quality. At the back the already well known GPU reactor, that is not important to me but i wont remove since its main purpose is to provide more clean power so its even useful when used for HTPC purpose. Dont even need to remove the cooler in order to be able to gaze at the golden choke. I guess there surely is many outstanding pieces inside which is a good sign for high endurability and stability.
Finally the test of time will show me the truth but i rarely had a card dying on me (if so, the card was defective right out of the box, which is a manufacturing failure). The MB or PSU is more prone to failures. Its still a good feeling when a card might be made of great quality, which is pretty certain. However, i suggest to use some sort of
GPU holder when the card is horizontally mounted, because it might "only" be a mid range GPU but its a pretty heavy card which does just barely fit inside 2 slots and only when the reactor is removed.
