The massive cooler strapped onto the HIS HD 7870 IceQ GHz Edition makes it look like a graphics card from 2005, when bigger was unashamedly better.

HIS has a reputation for employing unusual and efficient cooling solutions on its cards, and the HIS 6670 Fan 1GB GDDR5 is no exception.

Is the fastest single GPU from the AMD stable worth the extra cash?

This graphics card offers decent performance at a reasonable price

The HD 6850 is a very capable mid-range card

Great DX10 and competent DX11 performance make this an attractive card whichever way you slice it

Can 3D outputs and a few extra megahertz improve the 6870?

The 5770 is, in general, an odd prospect right now. On the one hand, you get functionality that supports DX11 and its suite of goodies, such as hardware tessellation and improved multi-threading support. However, as the first mid-ranger with true DX11 capability, we have to remind ourselves that it's just that: a mid-range card. The extra features offered by DX11 require a resource overhead, and when you add in anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, that's an awful lot for a sub £150 card to do.

This card offers a lot of grunt for your cash, but is it too much?

Two schorchingly fast GPU's limited by memory constraints

ATi updates the drivers for the 5750 with great effect