Introduction

Under most circumstances, I would be inclined to say that war is a bad thing. Going back through time, most wars are driven by greed and are hostile attempts to gain something that was not rightfully the warmonger’s in the first place. Of course, there are wars that are fights for freedom (aka “revolutionary wars”), but these seem to occur far less than the hostile invasion. During these hostile invasions, many of the aggressors reap what they call “the spoils of war”….a somewhat kind way of saying “things we stole while we were off burning cities to the ground.” When put that way, it hardly sound like “spoils.” But what about wars where casualties are not so drastic and the “spoils” benefit all in the end?

Processor wars have been going on since the beginning of computing. After a world war, leaving bloodied and beaten combatants for the throne, only Intel, AMD (and it’s division formerly known as Prince….uh….I mean ATI) and nVidia remain as true powers. nVidia? Yes, nVidia. The CPU isn’t the only processor in your system, the GPU is a powerful processing unit in its own right. More powerful at many tasks than your CPU, just in its architecture. As time goes on, we are seeing a greater blurring between the CPU and GPU, and more of the two processors working in unison. So, as these powers wage war on who can make the most powerful solution known, we see faster processing capable of things we only dreamt of just a few years ago, and it is happening at lower and lower pricing. This, my friends, is the “spoils of war.”

Equipped with AMD’s newest GPU, the Diamond HD 6870 XOC promises to, again, up the ante in the video card market. With an expected price point of $249.00 with a factory OC, the Diamond HD 6870 XOC hits squarely into the “Gamer’s Sweet Spot” and will be going head to head with offerings featuring nVidia’s GTX460 GPU. The Diamond HD 6870 retains many of the 5000 series innovations, such as Eyefinity and DX11, and also comes loaded with features and capabilities new to the market with AMD’s newest GPU. For the first time, we are seeing 3D support from AMD and, rather than requiring proprietary hardware, it will interface with many of today’s (and tomorrow’s) existing popular 3D hardware. AMD is also promising unmatched dollar for dollar performance from the 6800 series, and Diamond has taken this a step further with the HD 6870 XOC, by overclocking the GPU to 940Mhz.