• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

6950 choices

G

gmreplay

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
92
I'm in a pickle. I'm about to buy a new Sandy Bridge rig, and I need a new GPU to go with it. I'm willing to spent 225-300 on the card. Having done a bunch of research, I've abandoned the Nvidia cards (too hot and expensive for their performance) and settled on a HD 6XXX card. I've been won over by the performance and unlockability of the 6950, but now I'm posed with which card to buy. I hear these card run fairly hot and loud, so a custom cooler would be nice. Unfortunately, the only custom cooler I can see is the Powercolor version (http://www.tcmagazine.com/tcm/news/...ros-custom-cooled-radeon-hd-6900-series-cards), and I can't even find that for sale anywhere.

What do I do?
 
Non-reference 6950's run the risk of not being unlockable, none are actually for sale yet.

I hear these card run fairly hot and loud
Click to expand...
Relative to what?
Compared to other cards in the performance bracket, the 6950 is the quietest card yet.

I've abandoned the Nvidia cards (too hot and expensive for their performance)
Click to expand...
Nvidia hasn't released their new part within the $225 to $300 range, which will probably be the GTX 560 or some other variant. The only option there is the GTX 470, which is only viable on sale (sub-$200) whenever that happens.
 
I read that the 6950 runs hot compared to the 6870, the other card I was initially considering, but having a look at that chart it seems that they aren't all that far apart in temps. That's very good to hear.

I would also prefer a quieter card over a loud one, but if going non-reference means it's not unlockable then forget that. So do you recommend that I get a reference 6950, and if so, which one?
 
It seems most are able to unlock. It comes down to brand preference and price. From reading around it seems like most people like Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Sapphire and XFX are also good, but I have heard mixed things (Sapphire have to pay to send for RMA, XFX not honoring warranty/using cheaper parts on non-reference designs).

The msi is on sale right now http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1574352

I am trying to make the same choice. I am probably going to go with a 6850/6870 though and upgrade in two years, instead of get a 6950 now and keep it for 3-4 years. Although I am still unsure. My monitor will be a Dell u2311h, maybe a second in the future. Mostly for playing Dragon Age/2, Elder Scrolls 5 when it is released, maybe The Old Republic (never been into MMO's before)...
 
77Pat said:
It seems most are able to unlock. It comes down to brand preference and price. From reading around it seems like most people like Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Sapphire and XFX are also good, but I have heard mixed things (Sapphire have to pay to send for RMA, XFX not honoring warranty/using cheaper parts on non-reference designs).

The msi is on sale right now http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1574352

I am trying to make the same choice. I am probably going to go with a 6850/6870 though and upgrade in two years, instead of get a 6950 now and keep it for 3-4 years. Although I am still unsure. My monitor will be a Dell u2311h, maybe a second in the future. Mostly for playing Dragon Age/2, Elder Scrolls 5 when it is released, maybe The Old Republic (never been into MMO's before)...
Click to expand...

I was at the same place, but if 70 extra bucks means another year or more of service, you'd be crazy not to step up to the 6950.
 
Last edited:
Oh Jesus Christ, now I'm looking at the GTX 570 which appears to have even BETTER performance, but at the cost of an additional 80 bucks. This is just shameful. Can someone please be the voice of reason here?

Double edit. I made my choice. I went with the MSI, since it is 25 bucks cheaper than the XFX when considering shipping. I decided against the super expensive 570, and if the 560 comes out later this month and trumps my 6950 I'll return it to newegg and get that instead.
 
Last edited:
My 6950's are actually pretty quiet. I was concerned that they might be loud, but unless you manually set the fan to 50% or higher, they are not bad. Using the stock fan profile, I think mine never goes over 35% fan speed even when gaming.

All the reference cards are so similar I think it mainly comes down to the bundle, warranty and support. The MSI was a good choice since it saved you some $$. I do not know about you, but I almost never keep any cards for over 2 years so most warranty length beyond that are a moot point to me.
 
jhatfie said:
I do not know about you, but I almost never keep any cards for over 2 years so most warranty length beyond that are a moot point to me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but with the warranty comes customer service and policy tolerance.
XFX will let you remove the cooler, change the paste, use different coolers... It's hard enough to get most companies to accept RMA's in a timely manner, let alone support all the modding stuff that XFX does.
 
UtopiA said:
Yeah, but with the warranty comes customer service and policy tolerance.
XFX will let you remove the cooler, change the paste, use different coolers... It's hard enough to get most companies to accept RMA's in a timely manner, let alone support all the modding stuff that XFX does.
Click to expand...

That's a valid point, but there's no way I'm going to end up changing the heatsink anyway. If I'm going to contribute an extra $40 to the card I might as well just sell it and upgrade to the next highest model.
 
anyone wondering
go for the msi for 280

its the best card for the money right now. you wont notice a diff between it and the gtx 570...
 
Rattle said:
anyone wondering
go for the msi for 280

its the best card for the money right now. you wont notice a diff between it and the gtx 570...
Click to expand...

Just pulled the trigger on one of these. It helps me achieve part of my resolution to play more video games in the new year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top