6870 vs 6950

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Denamian

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2005
Messages
198
Hello all,

I'm working on a new build, and I am trying to navigate the mess that is now AMD's video card numbering system.

I think I have it narrowed down to these two cards.

I saw the Anandtech benchmark comparing them, and it looks like the 6950 was winning by a slim to moderate margin depending on the test.

He is comparing a 6870 (900MHz) vs a 6950 (800MHz). Stock levels, and presumably also stock effective memory clock (1050MHz and 1250MHz respectively).

I am looking at these two overclocked cards: this HIS 6870 and this HIS 6950.

The 6870 is overclocked to 975MHz (and 1150MHz) , and the 6950 is overclocked to 840MHz (and 1280MHz).

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The 6870 gains a net of 35MHz core, and 90MHz effective memory against the 6950. I know that the gains there are not especially large: about 5% and 8% respectively... but since the 6870 wasn't lagging behind too badly in a lot of tests, that boost in the score would make it that much more competitive (and $50 or 20% cheaper).

However, there is definitely still a part of me that wonders if the 6950 for an additional $50 would be more be worth it due to the slight gross advantage over the 6870, and the extra 1GB of DDR5 vram?

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TL;DR -- Higher core clock, or slightly higher effective clock, and 2x as much ram?

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Thanks all for taking the time to help!
 
if you can find an reference 6950 you can unlock to it a 6970gaing a good bit over a 6950
 
That IS very interesting... but I'm admittedly a little hesitant. I've never had much luck with bios flashing. Something always seems to go wrong.
 
Its quite simple to flash the bios, there just follow the tutorial and you wont have an issue. read it several times, then do it.


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6950 is 2gb version i assume, if a game ran at a reasonably high res/demanding even though they are similar in power the 6870 would start chugging when it has to swap out the textures if it reaches 1gb.

It's not that important right now but depends how long you want to keep the card and what games come out. My 1gb card's handle 5760 x 1080 res fine in every situation except when they just aren't fast enough for a game, don't get texture swapping hitches even in just cause 2 maxed with 2x AA.
 
I sold my 6970 and went with 2x 6870's in Crossfire. Don't regret it at all..
 
2wiced said:
Its quite simple to flash the bios, there just follow the tutorial and you wont have an issue. read it several times, then do it.


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Click to expand...

I understand the concept of it... it's just one of those things that never seems to work out for me. My luck, i would be the 1% who got catostrophic failure =/

I will still consider it... but if I can, I'd still like to get some input on the 2 cards I mentioned.

Thanks!
 
Dont want to scare you but, I think the 6950 does a lot better in tessellation games because, it has a dual geometry setup vs one on the 6870.

The 6870 is a barts chip, it has like 1.7B transistors versus, way more on the caymen chip in the 6950.

I noticed in tessellated games or benchmarks it seems like the 6950 really pulls out in front on the 6870. Whereas in most games it's 10-20% faster, in tessellation scenarios it seems 30-50% faster.

One thing that mitigates this though, is in AMD drivers you can sort of manually clamp the level of tessellation. Do this on your 6870 and it's tessellation deficiencies might not show up. And theoretically you might not notice the visual difference.

Who knows if any of that matters, it's usually my experience that by the time something like that came into play it's time for a new card anyway.
 
Thank you all! I have decided to go with a 6950 after your information/advice. I am still somewhat on the fence about the unlocking... But knowing me and my habit of tweaking/overclocking things, I will probably give it a go when the time comes. There's a MSI reference card that I'm kind of eying right now.

Thanks again!
 
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No need to worry about flashing. If you get a reference model card, it has a dual BIOS. There is a small switch on the card to switch over, so if the BIOS flash fails, you can get the card booted back up.

Flashed my MSI 6950 with no issues. Works great, and I even overclocked once the new flash was done.
 
Un4given said:
No need to worry about flashing. If you get a reference model card, it has a dual BIOS. There is a small switch on the card to switch over, so if the BIOS flash fails, you can get the card booted back up.

Flashed my MSI 6950 with no issues. Works great, and I even overclocked once the new flash was done.
Click to expand...

Oh, wow, somehow in my research I hadn't seen anything that mentioned that. That's certainly peace of mind.

Thanks for sharing that! It helps me feel a lot more confident about messing with it!
 
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