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

FrgMstr

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AMD Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 Video Card Review - AMD is launching its new Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950. These two GPUs round out AMD’s high-end Radeon HD 6000 family of single-GPU video cards. Priced surprisingly low for the performance, these two cards are ready to to deliver solid value in the high end market place. Spending your holiday cash wisely, just got easy.
 
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Mmmm slightly disappointed. If the 580 was a small upgrade for me, the 6970 is an even smaller upgrade. I'll agree that the value is great on the 6950 though. Gnite all, happy xmas shopping if you're buying a 6900 series.
 
so glad i waited was one click away a week ago for a 570. 6950 is so win.
 
Most interesting quote from the review:


If there is a real champion in this evaluation, it is the AMD Radeon HD 6950. AMD has set the MSRP at $299 for the 2GB Radeon HD 6950. 1GB models may even be cheaper. The least expensive GeForce GTX 570 is currently $349. That is a difference of $50. In all of our tests, the new Radeon HD 6950 either matched or beat the GeForce GTX 570.


This is why [H] benches our the best. From all the synthetic benchmarks released it would appear the 570 hammered the 6950 but its not the case.
 
The next important thing will be: how fast till we see a GTX280 / 260 style price chop for the 580. You just know the $140 difference will not last the month.
 
Can't decide if I should upgrade from my 5870 1GB to a 6970 2GB for 4320x900 eyefinity...
 
The next important thing will be: how fast till we see a GTX280 / 260 style price chop for the 580. You just know the $140 difference will not last the month.

Maybe it will, maybe it won't - they still have the fastest card, so not a whole lot of pressure to drop prices (especially since they keep going out of stock).
 
Good value!, although I wish I would have gotten a 460 or 470 over my 6850 since drivers kind of suck. Although the new 10.12's are fantastic.
 
Thanks for the review! Do you plan on Eyefinity Crossfire vs SLI reviews over the next 10 days?
 
The next important thing will be: how fast till we see a GTX280 / 260 style price chop for the 580. You just know the $140 difference will not last the month.

And the question immediately behind that is just how bad will the 69xx price gouging get?

Otherwise, very nice cards and good pricing on them.
 
really wish we'd seen 10.12s and some eyefinity tests. I really want to know if the 2GB buffer on the 6950 is worth upgrading over the 5850. If there isn't enough of a diffrence i wil lstay with what i got for now
 
[H]'s review is exactly why I had a hard time accepting the crock of shit everyone was saying.

$140 for one level of AA more on the 580? No thanks.
 
The next important thing will be: how fast till we see a GTX280 / 260 style price chop for the 580. You just know the $140 difference will not last the month.
Nope, ATI has already said they're raising prices in January, so it won't last. This is according to the owner of OcUK, an online shop.

Maybe it will, maybe it won't - they still have the fastest card, so not a whole lot of pressure to drop prices (especially since they keep going out of stock).
It's an interesting card... sometimes per this and various reviews it's neck-in-neck with the GTX 580, sometimes it's far slower (see BFBC2 minimums in this review as an example). If they could have evened out the performance for all games and made it a consistent performer, it would have blown the GTX 580 out of the water. As-is, it's a nice option.
 
This may be a stupid question, but is the 6970 a dual-gpu card?
 
Great review.

After a good read, i see NO reason to upgrade my 5870 for those prices...not when i game at 1600x1050 on a 22 inch monitor.

If i were doin high res gaming though...id buy the 580. I would wait a month and see if the price comes down first..but id get the 580 either way.

If i were looking for bang for the buck, i would get the 6970.

If i were looking for super high performance for a good value, i would think a pair of 6970s for $740 would be a much smarter investment then a pair of 580s for $1019.

Just my .2 cents.


This may be a stupid question, but is the 6970 a dual-gpu card?

No. Thats rumored to be the 6990
 
Great review. I think it's finally time to retire this 5870 I've had since January -- impressive idle/load watts + performance for only $369.99+tax. I had a GTX 580 for a few weeks and it just didn't seem as if it was worth the asking price ($499.99+tax).
 
Well January prices also coincide with the Lunar New Year in China (beginning of February) which basically means nothing will get manufactured in any quantity from there for nearly 2 weeks... temporary spike in pricing will definitely occur.

Great to see the 6950 as a steal though... $300 wow
 
Grabbing a 6950. Originally ordered the 6970 but canceled it after deciding the 6950 was a more attractive option in terms of price to performance ratio.

Hopefully going to OC it to 6970 levels and save $70 in the process.
 
Tiny typo - 6750 should be 6850 in the first paragraph.

Any speculation if messing around with PowerTune might lead to better performance?

A couple of other reviews seemed to indicate no improvement by increasing the power to +20% - losses by reducing it, but no gains.
 
Thanks for the review guys! I can't wait until Sandy Bridge is released and I can build a brand new computer and put mine out to pasture. I think the 6870 or the 6850 will be in my rig though unless I see a little more give in the 6950 prices
 
Okay they they again saddled us with a bunch of connectors but not enough to easily configure eyefinity with all the same connectors...

What Eyefinity configurations are suggested?
 
The last FPS chart header on each page says:
Apples-to-Apples AMD Radeon HD 6970
Should be Apples-to-Apples AMD Radeon HD 6950.
Thanks for the review.
 
Kyle i always read your reviews 1st they are always spot on with no funny business. keep up the great work man
 
I'm not being skeptical but I'm sure Im not the only one wondering why [H]s results differ so much from other sites.
 
Well, $369 is something I can stomach with this year's bonus. I ran dual 5850's until my then GF needed another card, so I ran a single 5850. I had a tiny bit of trouble with crossfire in some games, but overall it was a great experience. Doubtful I will ever get the other 5850 back, but one might be going in FS/FT to help fund a 6970.

The 580 and 570 both impressed me, but AMD has a way with pricing their cards at launch...
 
I'm not being skeptical but I'm sure Im not the only one wondering why [H]s results differ so much from other sites.

Partially their review methodology... and probably partially driver versions too. The games HardOCP used happen to be ones other reviews show doing well for the 6970 too, but even in the [H] review BFBC2 minimum fps is horrible compared to the GTX 580, for example. I'd say they're actually fairly in-line with other reviews, all things considered.... the 6970 looks to be a very inconsistent card across various games, some it does near-580 in, while the rest it bounces between 5870 performance and GTX 570... :confused:.
 
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