Hardware ATI Radeon HD 6950 Review

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/12/16/ati-radeon-hd-6950-review/1

 

A good review. So a pretty decent card, but nothing groundbreaking? Seems about right if so.

And good to have that ATI/AMD business cleared up

 

Not a winner but a great buying option. Just loves when ATi make things right once in a while.

 

I'll wait and see what Nvidia can do. I want a decent folding card!

 

So you advise waiting around for the GTX560 then, even if this card is in your own words still mythical?

 

And the winner is!! HD5870... After 1 year and 3 months it's still not worth upgrading and it's still one of the top dogs (like a 8800GTX a few years ago)

 

Yes, and it makes sense, doesn't it?

If the performance of a 460 is anything to go by and if you look at the performance increases between 470/480 and 570/580, respectively, we might be in for another "big bang for little buck" card from the green team.
The 6950 seems like a solid card but we all know how quickly the next card comes around the corner, bitch-slaps the current king of the hill and goes on to take the crown, don't we?

 

The 460 will be tempting but the (preumed) lack of memory is a concern

 

Another interesting thing will be if the 'mythical' GTX560 forces a price drop of the GTX460 cards. They already run at £140 for a 1GB version with a twin fan cooler... a little price drop would see these as a good SLi option. How would 2xGTX460 stack up against these 6950 cards?

 

*Kind* of want.. Very tempted to pick one of these up as I desperately need a new graphics card, but I think I'll wait and see how Nvidia retaliate.

There IS such a thing as too much waiting, though - I've been wanting a new system over a year now and I've ended up waiting for Sandy Bridge. Knowing me, I'll end up waiting for LGA2011 and sticking with my Athlon 64 X2 5000+ for another age.

Someone make up my mind for me please!

 

What do these cards overclock like? Anyone seen any figures?

 

GTX 460SLI (1GB) (assuming the cards don't run out of memory) can outperform a GTX580, especially when they are overclocked (you are looking at roughly 10-20% better peformance when the 460's are clocked). An overclocked 580 should be able to match them though (at a cost of course).

You are looking at around 25-40% faster than a single HD6950 depending on the game in question and settings used.

In certain games above 1900x1080 the 460's will start to run out of memory and thus the 6950 will be the better choice for very high resolutions (although absolute performance may still be lacking).

TBH even though I currently own GTX460 in SLI, I probably would purchase either a GTX570 or HD6950/70 if I was purchasing a card now.

Instagib - Overclocking is currently a bit up in the air so to speak. Reviewers are either stuck at the CCC max (840mhz) or can't adjust voltages to see how far the 6950 can go. I have seen clocks as high as 875mhz but I don't really know if this is representative of the 6950 in general or just a poor clocking card.

The 6970 seems to hit its CCC max of 950mhz quite easily (hardwarecanucks), but again how representative this is I don't know.

 

the just-over-£200 spot has always been the sweet spot. with any card before it. 8800GTS 640MB was very close to 8800GTX at 2/3 of its price. gtx 260 was close to gtx 280 on their release, 5850 to 5870, now 6950 to 6970.


for overclocking, ATI cards since 5000 have been locked by CCC. you can only increase frequency up to a certain point before having to use tricks to by pass the restriction, but the tricks will cost you power management on the card. so realistically, unless you throw your warranty out of the window by using custom BIOS, running these cards overclocked pass its restrictions is foolish. i know 5870 runs at 850MHz, is locked at 900MHz. 6970 runs at 880MHz, is locked at 950MHz.

 

Sorting on min fps looks odd to me, where those number occur only a very small amount of time. Why not sort on average FPS , which give you a more real view of performance ?

 

its the mins that kill the game for me (its when the action happens) - most important figure

 

From a HD4850, the upgrade to this still isn't logical.

Owing to the fact that for almost $100 less the HD5850 and the HD6850 not to mention the GTX460 are only slightly slower (20%-ish?)

 

The Nvidia 560 is, at most, 3mths away, there are no games coming out that need the grunt of a 6950 yet, so it makes sense to at least wait until the 560 appears and then decide.....

A 560 is amost certainly going to be as fast as the 470 and at least as quick as a 6950 and most likely cheaper.

No brainer to wait just a few more months for Nvidia's response.

 

Greetings!

Doubtful.

PS:
What makes sense is wait for 28nm cards as long as your current card can handle the games you play.

 

560 is jan 20th the story goes....

28nm is likely q4

 

Why do i feel stupid for buying a 6870?