AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB Performance Review @ [H]

Draax said:
Is it possible to crossfire a 6950 2GB and a 6950 1GB. If so, are you only able to use 2GB out of the 3?
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If I remember correctly, in that situation you would only get 1GB of actual frame buffer, since with crossfire and sli the framebuffer has to be mirrored to both cards. So the smaller buffer would govern, and then it's content would be mirrored to the larger buffer, so the frame buffer size presented to the operating system would be 1GB.

If both cards had 2 GB each, then the frame buffer size apparent to the operating system would be 2 GB.
 
I would Just like to state for the record that I was not arguing about resolutions I was just pointing out that people could be more civil in their discourse with each other.
 
I bought GTX 560 Ti cards and would not buy an AMD 6950 if I were given the option to go back and change my decision.

The huge PCB's are a problem for me. You get essentially the same performance in a card that's a significantly easier to mange size.
 
flip-mode said:
If I remember correctly, in that situation you would only get 1GB of actual frame buffer, since with crossfire and sli the framebuffer has to be mirrored to both cards. So the smaller buffer would govern, and then it's content would be mirrored to the larger buffer, so the frame buffer size presented to the operating system would be 1GB.

If both cards had 2 GB each, then the frame buffer size apparent to the operating system would be 2 GB.
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Thanks. I figured as much, my last attempt at dual cards, which was with nvidia and SLI, caused differently clocked cards to run at the slower speed. I see memory is no different.
 
The PCB length is an issue for more cramped cases, but considering the GTX560 is equally at home competing with the HD6870 as the HD6950, and the HD6870 is much more compact, I don't really think that's an argument pro-560.
 
south side sammy said:
I don't think your opinion is going to persuade me in my decision when it comes to a purchase. I'd like to see it in black and white in charts by a "qualified" individual. Ever try to find a decent review including a 2gig GTX560 card ? If one weren't so hard to find I wouldn't have posted my question here. How long have these cards been out ? Why no review ?
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knock yourself out then. I think the H review did fine
 
south side sammy said:
I kinda like and dislike this review. Being in the position of needing an upgrade in the video card department, and looking at both the 6950 and the GTX560, it would have been nice to see what the 2gig GTX560 had to offer along side the others in this review. Like to see where it stands at 1920x1200 and above. Any chance of that ?
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My opinion, I'd still go with the 6950. It takes overclocking the GTX 560 Ti to its maximum potential to reach near 6950 performance, while the 6950 is sitting pretty at stock clocks and itself can be pushed higher beyond its base performance. So at similar price points on one hand you have a card that you have to run all out to get the same performance out of the card sitting in the other hand that does it out of the box without any tweaks and has potential to be pushed into places the GTX 560 Ti can't touch. My opinion is based off of all the gameplay testing I've done.
 
Thanks for the reply. My main reason for wanting an Nvidia card was to go back to physx. I'm on a 5850 right now and kinda miss the extra action on screen. For a while I did have it enabled but through my tinkering and driver updates I forgot how I did it.... 5850/+nvidia. .... I also found that the 1gig of memory on the 5850 wasn't enough under some circumstances ( 1920x1200 ) when you start cranking newer games' goodies up ( or not ). That's what was leading me towards a 2gig card. I figured a 2gig GTX560 plus one of my other cards would do the trick. ( 9600gt-gtx260, etc.) ( Gigabyte P45.... and yes, you can run 2 nvidia cards on this ) I also think, from my perception, that Nvidia gives a better picture and better play.... just my opinion .
Another thing I noticed a while back. The Nvidia control panel gives you the options of running physx off the processor. Have you looked into that at all ? I tried it on a machine with a 6core but can't say I really noticed anything more or less.
 
samuelmorris said:
The PCB length is an issue for more cramped cases, but considering the GTX560 is equally at home competing with the HD6870 as the HD6950, and the HD6870 is much more compact, I don't really think that's an argument pro-560.
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HD6870 is 9.5 or 10 inches depending on the card. All GTX 560's are 9 inches.
The other thing that sucks about 6870's is the power plugs are on the side of the card, instead of coming out the back like GTX 560's. The plugs coming out the sides is also a problem for me.
 
2GB 6950s are cheaper than 2GB 560s, so technically if you want the memory argument, you want to use AMD.

The plugs being on the side is far superior to being on the end in the majority of cases.
 
samuelmorris said:
2GB 6950s are cheaper than 2GB 560s, so technically if you want the memory argument, you want to use AMD.

The plugs being on the side is far superior to being on the end in the majority of cases.
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How does memory make a different in it fitting in my pc nicely?
And the whole point of them being short is so that the cables coming off the back doesn't matter. Sure on a 10" card it would be terrible. But on a 9" or 8.5" it's perfectly reasonable.

I thought my GTX275's were way too long, and it was annoying as hell to deal with.
 
I bought a Sapphire 6950 1gb.

In contrast with the review, this unit has a heatpipe-based cooler. (Photos online show that most (all?) of the 1GB models on the market have a similar cooler.) I don't know if it is any louder than the cooler used on the 2gb models. It also does not have the VGABIOS switch where the 1--2 is printed on the PCB. It isn't the greatest overclocker - it could be cooling limited or just not the greatest sample. Performance is good though.
 
True said:
I bought a Sapphire 6950 1gb.

In contrast with the review, this unit has a heatpipe-based cooler. (Photos online show that most (all?) of the 1GB models on the market have a similar cooler.) I don't know if it is any louder than the cooler used on the 2gb models. It also does not have the VGABIOS switch where the 1--2 is printed on the PCB. It isn't the greatest overclocker - it could be cooling limited or just not the greatest sample. Performance is good though.
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Did you try O/Cing with voltage increase?? I was thinking of getting this card because I seen the it had a overvolt option with Trixx or AB
 
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