AMD Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 Video Card Review @ [H]

NO, TV's are monitors the only difference between a TV and a computer monitor is that Monitors do not have a ASTC tuner built in, and TV do.

are usually calibrated a little different, but u can adjust most of the controls on a good tv/monitor.

Either way monitors are designed for close operation to the user. Which is why they have higher Resolutions at smaller sizes, so you get a clear crisp picture. Tv's are built to be several feet away have lower resolutions for their size.

Sharpness all breaks down to how many pixels your screen has, and how big each pixel is. For example you have a 100" tv it has a resolution of 1080 each pixel would be about .05" big on a 24" monitor at the same resolution would be .012, The bigger the pixels the less sharp the picture is going to be, thus the less sharp small font text is going to be.

TVs might be monitors, but TVs are calibrated to give you over saturated Vibrant colours, and whites that are far too white to use for reading. maybe do some research?

TV, mainly LCD TV(and LED Tvs) have issues with displaying rendered fonts, and not because of the size, but because of the way TVs are setup. Monitors are not setup in the same way, the colours are not as saturated, neither are the whites.

on top of that, TVs are not built for low input lag, some have a game mode which will by-pass most of the functionality of the TV(120hz, "picture modes", and the scalar) to reduce input lag, and work better as a gaming TV / monitor. but still, it's not the size.

I just returned a 240HZ 42" LCD that I tried to use as a monitor. I had 0 issues with reading text(you can customize the size of the text in win7, also clear type helps) but the colours/whites were just too off from my 30" to get used to it.


Either way, you can go into the resolution settings on your Windows 7 machine (if you're using win7/vista) and adjust the text size and it should fix your issue.
 
Cool, they finally made it then. It was a huge drawback in my eyes. But with this option there I see no other excuse then for blurry text on your TV. Again, I have a razor sharp text on mine.
 
clear type definitely helps some.

So does good calibration of the montior/tv.

I don't have blurry text on my screen its sharp. But when you get to font sizes 8 and under, things are pretty hard to read. Normal text and web surfing is fine. But compared to my dell 30" display at 2560x1600 the text is vastly better. I can also compare the text on my 19" at 1440 x 900 which is also better than the Tv, and about the same vs the 30" Both of which i can clearly read down to size 4 font. On my TV anything below size 8 is a really strain to read.

You can adjust the color saturation on most good tv's. So the calibration part is just pointless. Monitors are clearly better for pc use than purpose built tvs are, however you don't exactly see 40"+ monitors which are not native tv's with out the ASTC tunner

In of the rare cases of where size isn't always better. haha, anyways this topic is about the 6970 and 6950. Perhaps these posts are better off on the displays forum.

I hope Asus releases a DirectCU version of the 6950. I want one for my AMD rig.
they already have
 
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Some HDTVs, many Samsungs for sure but I believe some models from a few others brands as well, do chroma sub-sampling unless set to PC mode. So red text on black, in particular will look really fuzzy on them in regular mode. (on samsung hdtvs they lock lots of calibrations out when you go to PC mode though :( )

Also some 2010 Samsugn HDTV have a weird thing where even and odd scanlines, sent the same signal, put out slightly different levels of green :confused::eek: so they can get a slightly striped look on solid colors, very weird. I'm surprised the reviews haven't picked up on this.
 
i figured out if you turn up the power tune to +20% you get smoother gameplay

has anyone else tried this?
 
Does yours have warranty stickers on the GPU bracket on the back of the card, covering the screw holes? I know some of the XFX ones are showing warranty void if removed.

If thats the case you can always remove and replant a sticker if you do it correctly :D
 
I've seen the 6870 and 6850 DirectCU, not the 6950. Link please?
It doesn't exist yet.
He probably misread your post.

it took them approximately one month to put the DirectCU on the 6870.
So it will be a similar amount of time for the 6900 series, I guess.
 
What level of control do you have with ATI's antialiasing compared with Nvidia? I'm intrigued by the notion of switching to 6950 CF mostly to access that sweet 2GB of vRAM...but only if it will let me use supersampling and particularly sparse grid supersampling for transparency AA.
 
Have to love this slide here:

http://hardocp.com/images/articles/1292337625zR9jST7GBp_1_12_l.gif

"Massive vapour chamber for greater cooling and accoustics"

In my experience with the 6970 card so far thats total bollocks, if while gaming the card gets warm enough to downclock itself for a few seconds at a time theres something very wrong.

I kinda have to agree with you, Anything over 40% fanspeed is LOUD.

But I usually keep my fans at 37%, and they never go over 85c in gaming, which is fine by me.
 
Just sold my 4870x2 and ordered an xfx 6970. Amazon has them for the same price as newegg, but with free shipping.
 
Just ordered a Gigabyte 6950 from newegg for $299 - $20 MIR, free shipping.
It's replacing an Asus GF 260 (will be selling in FS/T soon).

This will be my first ATI since my trusty 9700 pro of old. Quite excited.
 
Just sold my 4870x2 and ordered an xfx 6970. Amazon has them for the same price as newegg, but with free shipping.

I bought the gigabyte with the $20 mail in rebate and free shipping from newegg.. as much as I love amazon I get taxed so on high value items it sucks..
 
The Gigabyte card doesn't even come with a minidisplay port to display port dongle, so that's another $10. I'd rather just buy the XFX one for what is effectively just $10 more and get the lifetime warranty + transferrable warranty.
 
The Gigabyte card doesn't even come with a minidisplay port to display port dongle, so that's another $10. I'd rather just buy the XFX one for what is effectively just $10 more and get the lifetime warranty + transferrable warranty.

You can get the adapter for $4 on monoprice.. It doesnt matter anyway get the manufacturer you are comfortable with.

I own an XFX and a Sapphire both chips worked great since they're the same thing. The only advantage is the transferable warranty. Which you're paying an extra $30 for after mail in rebate.
 
You can get the adapter for $4 on monoprice.. It doesnt matter anyway get the manufacturer you are comfortable with.

I own an XFX and a Sapphire both chips worked great since they're the same thing. The only advantage is the transferable warranty. Which you're paying an extra $30 for after mail in rebate.

How is it an extra $30? The cards are the same price, except you get $20 MIR with the Gigabyte card...which is partially negated by having to pay $10 in price+shipping to get a proper cord from Monoprice. Therefore, the real price difference is $10, assuming you actually receive your rebate.

Lifetime warranty and transferrable warranty is easily worth $10.

e: You're probably looking at Newegg price and shipping. I'm looking at Amazon.
 
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How is it an extra $30? The cards are the same price, except you get $20 MIR with the Gigabyte card...which is partially negated by having to pay $10 in price+shipping to get a proper cord from Monoprice. Therefore, the real price difference is $10, assuming you actually receive your rebate.

Lifetime warranty and transferrable warranty is easily worth $10.

e: You're probably looking at Newegg price and shipping. I'm looking at Amazon.

Im looking at newegg because amazon charges tax and newegg does not :)
 
Im looking at newegg because amazon charges tax and newegg does not :)

Companies do not "charge" tax. States do. If there is a Newegg warehouse in your state, you'd be charged tax; if there is no Amazon warehouse in your state, you would not be charged tax.
 
Just sold my XFX 5870 XXX-Edition while return on investment is still good and ordered an XFX 6970.

Right now, I'm thinking that driver maturation will bring some additional gains in performance due to optimization for the new VLIW4 architecture, though only time will tell if I'm right.
 
Just ordered a couple 6950s. If these things do get laser-locked, the price will probably rise $50 at maximum. Can't rise that much because AMD has priced its 6970 pretty damn low.
 
I have 2 crossfire 5870s both watercooled, the hassle of getting new blocks will probably force me to wait till next gen or the 6990
 
Thinking of getting the 6970 myself now, mostly due to the HDMI Port for my monitor
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Sooooo. Long story short. If I want a single card solution. I play at 2560x1600. And I want as much eyecandy as possible. What is THE card to grab. Not worried about cost.
 
GTX580 or HD6970, but why would you only grab a single card? Anyone running a 30" monitor should have the capability to run crossfire, and expect to need it.
 
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