Hardware ATI Radeon HD 6950 Review

MSI afterburner allows clocks past the CCC limit - profiles could also be set for correct 2D clocks. My old HD5870 used to run quite happily at 1000 on the core. The same can be said for the HD69xx series as Guru3d pushed the HD6950 up to 873mhz on the core using afterburner.

How the power management will affect overclocking though (especially through software like afterburner) will be interesting though. Perhaps we will see the -20%/+20% feature added into a future revision of afterburner.

Memeroot - minimum framerates are important but only if they are provided as more than just an absolute number. A single number doesn't tell us alot about the actual gaming experience as the minimum could be a outlier rather than the norm (say for example when the game saves on the fly causing a random yet normally unseen minimum).

The only way to get a good picture of minimums is to look at framerate plotted on a line graph against time (for the set benchmark period). Perhaps Bit could start adding this (at least for one resolution - say 1920x1080) as the data is easily available from the Fraps log files.

This is one good thing about the HardOCP reviews, they include this sort of data for both their normal run throughs and the "apples to apples" tests they run.

 

a possible typo in the last paragraph

Could it be that you mean the 6970 2GB?

Also, why is the "discuss in the forums" button on the bottom of the "comments" page?

 

5870 is nearly below £200 on some websites

overclockers have it for £187 on a weekly sale

makes this card look crap value to be honest

scan are at £206

both are in stock

both are £20 + below the 6950 both perform the same

cheapest 6950 is xfx on scan at £226
cheapest 6950 is his on overclockers at £219

5870 is cheaper than both of them yet performs the same I don't see how this gets an 8 on review. 9 on value? if you can get the same performance for £30 less how can a card get a 9 on value

maybe a re review in February when the 5870s have disappeared but as it stands you would have to be crazy to buy a 6950 over the 2 cheaper 5870s

id of given the card a 5 outta 10 maybe 6 at best

performance is the same as a year + old card no matter how much it cost at release thats not a sign of progress

and if noise isnt a huge issue which its not to some people the 480 is around £250 on overclockers and performs a fair deal faster than this card across most of the games tested yes it has heat and noise issues but they are not always relevant to everyone

feel like the entire 68 and 69 series has been duds so far they have let a years lead slip through there hands, i have read somewere they are all ment to crossfire well but most people wont spend £400 for crossfired 6870s. they want the best single card solution and the 6 series can not claim to be the best card for any price bracket. Its the best in thermals and noise in those brackets but thats not always a concern to everyone.

Considering you recommend a custom 470 why wasn't that tested against the 6950, i know you have always said you do reference models only but you recommend the 470 amp edition so were does it lye in performance wise compared to the cards here and that card isn't hot or noisy

 

^^^This! Unless your building/buying a unit right now or have a gpu die on you in the next 9/10 months or so I can see no good reason for up grading to any card from either side at the moment.

 

@rollo

Could it be the 5870 is not long for this world?

 

Battlefield 3 will hopefully provide reason enough for me to upgrade from my 4850 to a 560 or 6950...)

 

the trick i speak of is to edit INI file in Afterbuner, so that when you set anything pass CCC limitations, it won't reset to previous speed. but your card will be forever stuck at full 3D overclocked speed. then, according to you, a 2D profile need to be set which is another added step over what needs to be done on nvidia cards.

i am just pointing out that overclocking should not be considered a feature on these ATI cards, because that amount of tweaking is simply too much. great for benchmarks, for every day use, just asking for trouble. what happens if Afterbuner crashes?

besides, 6950 to 873MHz won't even scratch 6970, my esitmate is that CCC locks overclock to 900MHz, which still won't be 6970's performance.



with point on minimal FPS. it's most important value of any in-game benchmark. even over 5 minutes, it only dipped for that half second, it should still be noted and compared. besides, if there has been a save point during benchmark, surely all cards should have roughly same minimal FPS?

 

The GTX 570 is in stock and available for £260. With discount vouchers and cash back referral this can be brought down to £242. Decision made.

 

where????

 

So you guys don't recommend this card because Nvidia may come out with something? Awesome.....I just find it a bit ironic that you guys think Nvidia will easily trump the 6950, but were optimistic that AMD wouldn't be able to surpass the GTX 570.

Just my critique.

 

bump

where????

 

without trying to sound a bit of a ati fanboy most of these reviews ive seen has been with old drivers, bit tech are useing 10.9 three months out of date. would like to see a review of the 6970 & 6950 with 10.12 drivers

 

Dabs, but all the £260 ones have been sold now. Some at £270 which would be just over £250 after vouchers and cash back.

 

Creating a 2D profile is considered too much tweaking?! It took me all of a minute to set up.... I am on Bit-tech arn't I?

Why shouldn't overclocking be considered a feature on these HD69xx cards? Half the fun of being a hardware enthusiast is the ability to tweak and play around with overclocking. Heck neither my desktop OR my laptop are running stock.....

An absolute minimum framerate (recorded as the lowest framerate hit during a gaming period) doesn't mean alot without a frame of reference. The only way to do this would be to plot minimum framerates over time (Fraps does this as well). A plot of minimums over time would be an extremely useful addition to any review / benchmark.

 

We used the special pre-release driver that we obtained from ATI for testing the 6970 and 6950. This was the most up to date driver we could have used and was basically just the pre WHQL version of 10.12

 

I think I'll stick with my 5870 for another round of refreshes - not enough gains to justify the expense of a new card!

 

There seems to be a stupid obsession with buying the latest newest thing. I'm slightly confused to see such a value score for this card, when it performs just like the 5870. Why should anyone buy the 6950 for £240 vs £180 for the 5870? The 2GB on this card will only come into its own at high resolutions. If the 6950 is better in DX11 then fine.

I love your reviews, Bit-tech, but please, don't get into the habit of recommending hardware, just because it's "new". Rollo, you're spot on with your comments.

 

5870 is a fantastic card, great value for money at the moment.

BUT, if you look ahead, where there is a demand for more tessellation and higher resolution, you'll see 5870 struggle, and 6950 come out on top.

 

I don't really see the point in this card. Its only a little faster than a 6870, you might as well just get one of those and overclock it, saving yourself some money. If that's not enough grunt then grab the 570. The in-between ground just doesn't seem worth it.

 

Nvidia focus group Rollo?