I'm feeling worried about the 78XX cards

Gorilla

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 14, 2007
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So I just checked newegg for a 6950. They have one model in stock. They only carry a single 1gb model and it is out of stock. They only have one 2gb model in stock. It definitely looks like they've been cleared out. Stock at amazon is pretty scarce as well, and the 2gb models that they do have in stock range in price from $300 - $366.

What worries me about the upcoming 78xx cards is that they are going to repeat what we just saw with the 7770/50 cards, that is, outshone by the better price/performance ratio of their predecessors. The big difference here is that when the 7770 came out, there were plenty of 68XX cards around. The 78XX cards aren't even out yet but 6950s are getting scarce.

In other words, I'm starting to feel a little trapped here.
 
I feel the same way. I had always planned that if the 7870 didn't impress me enough, I would settle for a high end 6900 series card, so the other day at work I bookmarked an MSI TFIII 6950 and it was out of stock by the time I got home.
 
It has almost always been that way. Only the top end can claim much, due to raw speed. Others? The HD5770 was blasted for being slower than the HD4870. The HD6870, slower than the HD5870. The HD4670? Slower than the HD3870. The HD3870? Slower than the HD2900 (though this, like much of the then-dominant nVidia 8000 series, was just a lot of unusuals). While if you REALLY wanted to nitpick, yes, all situations do not apply identically, however, that would be the same here, wouldn't it? All the examples noted, the chips were definately weaker than their predecessors in specs, yet had near equal or sometimes higher prices. If something that is nothing more than a GCN identical perfoming equivilent manages to come out at the same launch MSRP, then that is a miracle. New uarch, new process, yet only same pricing vs a very price competive last gen part?

Pricing has stayed much the same, despite our slowly devaluating dollar.
 
If the 7870 sucks more than 6950, then i'll probably wait for kepler. There is no way I'm paying roughly $280 for a 6950 2gb that use to sell for $200-240.
 
Hope you're not actually "worried" about a videocard. It's still a two player game, I'm sure one of them will come to your rescue, Green or Red Cape. :)
 
The branding of this generation of video cards has been awful. You should easily be able to tell by the number the performance of the card, but when you have 5xxx of similar or greater performance to 6xxx and 6xxx to 7xxx.
 
I'm not worried about it because I decided not to wait for it. :) I've been running a 4890 in my i7-920 system for long enough and need moar powah! I noticed the 6950s were dwindling and decided to get one now and sell it later if I get the upgrade itch again. I snagged an open box Powercolor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH, enabled the extra shaders, gave it a mild overclock and will up that as testing allows.

I'm a happy camper now. :)
 
I'm not worried about it because I decided not to wait for it. :) I've been running a 4890 in my i7-920 system for long enough and need moar powah! I noticed the 6950s were dwindling and decided to get one now and sell it later if I get the upgrade itch again. I snagged an open box Powercolor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH, enabled the extra shaders, gave it a mild overclock and will up that as testing allows.

I'm a happy camper now. :)

Quiet, you. Normal folks do 6 month upgrade cycles :p :D
 
Quiet, you. Normal folks do 6 month upgrade cycles :p :D

I ain't normal, that's fer sure. People who ain't normal usually ain't quiet either. :D

Though my still being a noob after five years might weaken my position on not being normal and not being quiet, I stand my ground.

Now let me be noisy...

Occasionally. :p
 
I'm not worried about it because I decided not to wait for it. :) I've been running a 4890 in my i7-920 system for long enough and need moar powah! I noticed the 6950s were dwindling and decided to get one now and sell it later if I get the upgrade itch again. I snagged an open box Powercolor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH, enabled the extra shaders, gave it a mild overclock and will up that as testing allows.

I'm a happy camper now. :)

You did what I could not do. Looking back now, I should have gotten a 6950 2gb a long time ago and just enjoyed it. Waiting does suck. Damn even your 4890 is a few levels above my 9800gt. Waiting is lot easier for people jumping little bit or doing sideways upgrade.
 
You did what I could not do. Looking back now, I should have gotten a 6950 2gb a long time ago and just enjoyed it. Waiting does suck. Damn even your 4890 is a few levels above my 9800gt. Waiting is lot easier for people jumping little bit or doing sideways upgrade.

I seriously considered waiting for the 78xx release but snagging one then could be a hassle and IMO it's better (cost/evaluation-wise) for the initial release flurry to settle down before buying. That would take even longer so I started looking for a 6850 that could be unlocked. When I tripped across this card for $220 delivered I decided to bite. The shaders unlocked without a hitch and it performs very nicely at 1920x1080 for the games I play; L4D/2, SS2/3, TF2, Portal/2 and a lot of older games like Quake3/4, Doom 3 and so on. The 4890 was doing well in them but I decided to go for 'better'.

I'll see how the pricing and performance are when the 78xx series are released. If both are good enough then I'll sell this card and bite. If not then I'm happy for now. :cool:
 
Not to worry you guys can buy my guarantted unlockable and overclocking monster 6950s in the FS/FT forum, (heatware and payment method depending) once I put them up for sale which should be soon. ;)
 
I just bought the exact same card Dr. Doug has, and cannot get the shaders to unlock, even following the various guides around the web. Everytime I think it has gone through (as verified through running RBE and AtiWinFlash) and reboot, GPU-Z still shows 1408 shaders.

Anyhow, I am quite happy with my setup, despite the lack of unlocking. A huge upgrade from my previous GTS 250, and the 6950 pairs well with my I7-920. Like others here have expressed, I am a bit bothered that the 78XX series won't be up to snuff, given the leaked specs I have seen.


Ian
 
I just bought the exact same card Dr. Doug has, and cannot get the shaders to unlock, even following the various guides around the web. Everytime I think it has gone through (as verified through running RBE and AtiWinFlash) and reboot, GPU-Z still shows 1408 shaders.

Anyhow, I am quite happy with my setup, despite the lack of unlocking. A huge upgrade from my previous GTS 250, and the 6950 pairs well with my I7-920. Like others here have expressed, I am a bit bothered that the 78XX series won't be up to snuff, given the leaked specs I have seen.


Ian

All I did was download the latest ATI WinFlash and Radeon BIOS Editor, snag a copy of the original BIOS off of the card via GPU-Z, open that BIOS in RBE, unlock the shaders to the 6970, save a copy of it under a new name, locate ATI WinFlash via RBE, load the card in ATI WinFlash and flash it. One reboot later the shaders were unlocked. I went back later and edited/flashed a copy of the original BIOS to unlock the shaders and tweak the fan profile a bit.

Does your card have the two fan cooler and dual BIOS switch? From what I have read this card is a pretty reliable unlocker though I have read of a few unlocking failures too.
 
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All I did was download the latest ATI WinFlash and Radeon BIOS Editor, snag a copy of the original BIOS off of the card via GPU-Z, open that BIOS in RBE, unlock the shaders to the 6970, save a copy of it under a new name, locate ATI WinFlash via RBE, load the card in ATI WinFlash and flash it. One reboot later the shaders were unlocked. I went back later and edited/flashed a copy of the original BIOS to unlock the shaders and tweak the fan profile a bit.

Does your card have the two fan cooler and dual BIOS switch? From what I have read this card is a pretty reliable unlocker though I have read of a few unlocking failures too.

I pm'd you about this as well, but I do have the BIOS switch on the card (next to the Crossfire port), set furthest away from the Crossfire hookup (to the right when looking directly down at the card, with the dual fans facing me; farthest away from where the monitor hooks up on the back of the card). I use GPU-Z to download the originial BIOS, then RBE, load the BIOS, mod it with the 6970 shader unlock, and save it as a modded file. Then I load it with AtiWinFlash (ver 1.13,heard 1.14 was buggy??), Program the card, I get a window saying it was successful, and to reboot. I reboot, load GPU-Z, and it still shows 1408 shaders.

I have also tried the Command prompt, using the unlock command the progamming commands, it shows it takes it, yet after rebooting I still have the 1408 shaders. Frustrating!


Ian
 
Nvidia already stated that TSMC is charging more for each wafer produced, AMD is probably having the same problem.
So, expect higher prices for this generation and future ones.
It's not like 50 extra bucks will make a hole in your pocket.
 
I pm'd you about this as well, but I do have the BIOS switch on the card (next to the Crossfire port), set furthest away from the Crossfire hookup (to the right when looking directly down at the card, with the dual fans facing me; farthest away from where the monitor hooks up on the back of the card). I use GPU-Z to download the originial BIOS, then RBE, load the BIOS, mod it with the 6970 shader unlock, and save it as a modded file. Then I load it with AtiWinFlash (ver 1.13,heard 1.14 was buggy??), Program the card, I get a window saying it was successful, and to reboot. I reboot, load GPU-Z, and it still shows 1408 shaders.

I have also tried the Command prompt, using the unlock command the progamming commands, it shows it takes it, yet after rebooting I still have the 1408 shaders. Frustrating!


Ian

Is your switch in the #1 position (switch towards DVI ports)? I would make sure it's set to the #1 position so it boots off of the modded BIOS. I'm no expert (nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn! ;) ) but if not, that might be your problem.
 
Well, I tried it with the switch towards the DVI ports (#2 position), same thing happened. I am beginning to think this card is unlockable.. lol. All well... there isn't too much of a difference between the shader counts as far as performance goes. I think at the same speeds, it runs abut 1-2 fps faster with the shaders unlocked.


Ian
 
well based on my math what we will see with the 7850-7870

the 7770 based on GCN has 640 stream processors which pretty much match the 6870 1120 stream processors. Granted the 7770 has a 1ghz core clock. vs the 900mhz core clock of the 6870.

Now the 6970 has 1536 stream units with a 880mhz core clock. According to leaks the 7870 will have 1408 stream processors with a core clock of 950mhz.

the 7870 should match the 6970 at the very least, it will likely be a tad bit faster.

the 78XX cards will likely be very similar to what we are seeing with 7770 vs the 6870. However i think the 7870 will have an edge over the 6970.
 
Newegg is now totally out of 6950s and has only one rather expensive 6970 in stock. 6990s have not been seen for some time either.

It looks like the 7870 will not quite match the 6970 when it comes to raw numbers. On the other hand, a 7770 looks worse than a 6790 on paper too (especially in memory bandwidth), yet manages to outperform it slightly.
 
Latest leaks (spec slide) put 7800 series at being 2x Cape Verde, so 1280 SP for 7870:


http://www.gdm.or.jp/voices_html/201203/02a.html

I would be surprised if that could beat a 6970 significantly.

Me too. Looks like with some overclocking, my 6950 could nearly match, if not beat the 7870. The 6950 already trumps it in shaders and memory bandwidth. Of course, that site is basing its info on supposedly "leaked" reports. Take it with a grain of salt ;)


Ian
 
Me too. Looks like with some overclocking, my 6950 could nearly match, if not beat the 7870. The 6950 already trumps it in shaders and memory bandwidth. Of course, that site is basing its info on supposedly "leaked" reports. Take it with a grain of salt ;)


Ian
the 7870 will easily beat the 6950. those 1280 shaders would be faster than the 1408 on the 6950 plus they come clocked 25% higher.
 
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