Hey all, As I said in the title, I'm currently trying to choose between these 2 graphics card types. I have just over £200 left in my budget for a card, and decided after much review searching a 6950 would be my best option for gaming. (SWTOR, BF3 in the future) I heard lots of good thing about the MSI Twin FrozR cards so automatically was drawn to them, but I have noticed others copying their cooler design, so I'm wondering how those cards compare to the MSI card. Since the MSI is more expensive, I just need proof that it's worth the extra cash. I was thinking between these 2. Sapphire 6950 Dual fan MSI Twin FrozR III 6950 I understand the MSI card comes with a factory overclock, but is there any actual preformance difference? but I can push the Sapphire card up to that aswell right? I'm just trying to see the justice in paying an extra £10 for the MSI card. When looking at comments on aria, people say the Sapphire card is a reference card, whereas the MSI is not. does this make a difference? Also people talk of unlocking the Sapphire version on overclockers UK to a 6970, does that mean by buying that I could up the cards power to the level of £50+ more 6970?
I would get the cheaper card and then OC (should be able to get roughly the same clocks). The reference cards are the only ones that can be unlocked and that isn't possible any more
Just a slight correction; only the revision 1 reference cards could be unlocked (or at least be considered guaranteed to have a chance of unlocking). Any other model was completely pot luck. Most, if not all current HD6950's can not be unlocked. Unlocking in general is a bit overrated as it is the clocks and not the shaders that make the HD6970 noticable faster than the HD6950. Out of the two listed I would be tempted by the Sapphire HD6950 as it comes complete with the Dirt 3. IIRC both of the models have voltage control (Sapphire through Trixx) so both should overclock quite well.
Im using a sapphire hd6950 2gb at the moment (overclocked, not unlocked) 930 on the core and 1375 on the memory. runs very nice and the only games that are extremely taxing on it are crysis, metro 2033 & crysis 2 (I actually get a solid 50-60fps with dx11, high res textures and everything set to ultra apart from objects which is set to extreme....the gain from setting it to ultra is not noticeable and all it does it make the game run at 35fps
Ok, thank you for the replys. Would the Sapphire card be running at similar tempertures as the MSI card aswell then? It's good to know that it will run the games well aswell. How would it fair with BF3 do you guys think?
don't know much about the msi temps but the most demanding game I've played is crysis and metro. my overclocked sapphire doesn't hit higher than 62c at full load (with 55% fan speed). a 15 minute run of kombuster made my temps hit 72c with 65% fan. bf3 honestly have no idea mate
Another vote for the Sapphire card here - very quiet card, and keeps the temperatures down low - not seen it hit 65°C yet, despite being overclocked. It does 900MHz on the stock voltage, but I haven't played further, so it might do more. Theoretically any Rev 1-cored 6950 can unlock, which includes the 1GB 6950 as well, but you have to modify the BIOS using RBE rather than simply smacking a reference 6970 or 6950 unlocked shaders BIOS on it. It's not difficult, but unfortunately mine didn't unlock. I'm awaiting another 6950 from Dabs for some nice CF action.
Pretty much but still worth getting. I'd recommend whichever one has the best cooler basically and I hear the Frozr ones are great. Personally I got an XFX 6950 2GB and it has a hardware-level firmware lock so it wouldn't flash no matter what I tried . After some research into the chip schematics I soldered a contact to lift the lockout , which allowed me to flash successfully but still no shaders --I suspect they're cut out at this point. Still an awesome card though, clocks like crazy.
