Radeon HD 6870: _12_'s record in 3DMark 2011

Back in 2010, the Radeon HD 6800 series received a highly mixed reception, and for good reason. While it's common now for AMD to launch new product lines with mid-range graphics cards, this wasn't immediately understood by everyone in 2010, despite the company's own publications on the shift in its GPU lineup strategy.

Upon release, the Radeon HD 6870 proved slower than the previous generation's flagship, the Radeon HD 5870. AMD did release a true successor, the Radeon HD 6970, but it arrived two months after the HD 6870.

Frankly, the Radeon HD 6000 series wasn't AMD's most successful or popular lineup, especially coming after the incredibly well-received HD 5000 generation.

Overclockers are an adventurous bunch, though, and Russian enthusiast under the nickname _12_ took what appears to be a reference ASUS Radeon HD 6870 graphics card and pushed it to a record-breaking score in the 3DMark 2011 model ranking.

A score of 8057 "parrots" earned the overclocker first place in the Radeon HD 6870 model ranking.

Fortunately, the overclocker provided a detailed comment with his result, revealing some key specifics of the record-breaking run:

The Radeon HD 6870 graphics card underwent GPU voltage modifications to 1.6 volts, allowing for 1350 MHz, and video memory voltage to 1.82 volts, resulting in an effective frequency of 5000 MHz.

— _12_

The Russian's test rig featured the following components:

Processor: Intel Core i9-9900K, overclocked to 6000MHz
Thermal paste: GELID GC-Extreme everywhere
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Gene
RAM: HyperX Predator
Power Supply: Corsair AX1600i
SSD: HyperX Savage 240 GB

Source: HWBot result page