ATI HD 6970 actual benchmarks

Why don't those German guys with the retail cards know what the switch is for? Shouldn't something like that be in a manual or something? Why would they put a switch on there and then not tell the end user what it's for (assuming the retail cards have the switch - I never checked for the pics on that forum). Yet more strangeness for the 69xx launch.
 
The switch is a dual BIOS thing - it's irrelevant to performance at this point
 
Whether the 6900 is a success or failure does not depend on how well it performs relative to the GTX 580/570 like so many people claim.

The 6850 is faster than the 460 1GB but the 460 is still a huge success. Guess why.

The overall representation of the 6900 series will be what price point it has relative to the 580/570. If the 6970 is 10% slower than the 580 and has an MSRP ~$400, it is going to be a resounding win. If it is as fast as the 580, it might be priced anywhere from $450 - 500, which is again appropriate for a GPU that is as fast, and has more VRAM.

My $0.02.
 
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From the looks of it, it seems like it will be priced at 400 and most likely will be selling for 420-430 if the demand is really high.
 
siliconnerd said:
Well finally, here is an explanation of the switch: http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/12/13/secret-amd-6900s-second-switch/ :p
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This would be awesome, but I don't know what to make of this article, he says he ran out of ice cream (something typically people eat when depressed)

Nothing would depress Charlie more than a loss to Nvidia by AMD.

He closes the article with this in case you missed it.

Editor's note: This article heavily uses the new HTML6.2 <sarcasm> and <bullshit> tags. If your browser does not support them, please upgrade to a version that does. Thank you.
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Edit my eyes aren't the best but I see no such switch and this is the best pic of the back of the card on the web now AFAIK

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/3112/6970ma.jpg

I want a switch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :confused: :(

Last edit: Image too large sorry bout that :D
 
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Lord_Exodia said:
This would be awesome, but I don't know what to make of this article, he says he ran out of ice cream (something typically people eat when depressed)

Nothing would depress Charlie more than a loss to Nvidia by AMD.

He closes the article with this in case you missed it.



Edit my eyes aren't the best but I see no such switch and this is the best pic of the back of the card on the web now AFAIK

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/3112/6970ma.jpg

I want a switch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :confused: :(

Last edit: Image too large sorry bout that :D
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Nice catch. Poor Charlie is going to be putting on some pounds then.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
This would be awesome, but I don't know what to make of this article, he says he ran out of ice cream (something typically people eat when depressed)

Nothing would depress Charlie more than a loss to Nvidia by AMD.

He closes the article with this in case you missed it.



Edit my eyes aren't the best but I see no such switch and this is the best pic of the back of the card on the web now AFAIK

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/3112/6970ma.jpg

I want a switch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :confused: :(

Last edit: Image too large sorry bout that :D
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What, you don't see the giant white switch duct taped to the back? :eek:
 
how much more does a GTX 580 add to electricity costs in a month or year compared to a 5870 or 6970?...if I have sufficient cooling in my case (6 case fans) will the extra power really matter?...people make a big deal out of TDP and power usage but is it overblown?
 
AceCR42 said:
A huge portion of that is 8800/9800-era GPU's, though.

Check out the DX11 section, and ATI has 80% of the market share.
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they have 80% of the market share because 1) they released their cards much sooner then Nvidia...people are impatient especially when it comes to cards based on a new version of DX (6 month gap between the 5870 release and the 480...that's a HUGE gap)

2) the 480 was damaged goods...the 5870 was the overall better card...the 580 is 'Fermi done right'...if the 580 had been released instead of the 480 (and on time) then would ATI still have 80% of the DX11 market share?

a small sample size when you look at the overall picture of graphics cards...so all the ATI fans are cheering because they gained market share when Nvidia was clearly on a down period with the 480?

the fact that a 'huge portion' of the Steam results are from the 8800 era proves that the graphics card market is a fickle business...companies go through highs and lows so making a bigger deal out of ATI's DX11 market share would be foolish...making it a predictor of the future of both companies is also incorrect

and for the record I have a 5870
 
polonyc2 said:
how much more does a GTX 580 add to electricity costs in a month or year compared to a 5870 or 6970?...if I have sufficient cooling in my case (6 case fans) will the extra power really matter?...people make a big deal out of TDP and power usage but is it overblown?
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Depending on where you live it\\\'s different.

In the worst case scenario, for example living in LA, paying $0.15/KwH and using your computer for four hours gaming every day, I remember it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s something like 30 watts will cost you ~$1.75 a year.

The 6970 has around the same TDP as the 480, so you would pay the same. The 5870 consumes ~100 watts less at load, so ~$8 a year less compared to the 480.

People make a big deal of it, but the cost to you is relatively nothing. The big deal IMO is the extra heat, which heats up your room(and 250W yes you will notice that), and the extra strain put on the energy grid and environment.

EDIT: While writing my post I forgot you had so many case fans. Yeah, that\'ll do a good job of keeping it cool. And if you play with sound while gaming you probably will not be aware of the fan noise.
 
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XacTactX said:
Depending on where you live it\'s different.

In the worst case scenario, for example living in LA, paying $0.15/KwH and using your computer for four hours gaming every day, I remember it\\\\\\\'s something like 30 watts will cost you ~$1.75 a year.

The 6970 has around the same TDP as the 480, so you would pay the same. The 5870 consumes ~100 watts less at load, so ~$8 a year less compared to the 480.

People make a big deal of it, but the cost to you is relatively nothing. The big deal IMO is the extra heat, which heats up your room(and 250W yes you will notice that), and the extra strain put on the energy grid and environment.
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thanks for the info...I was thinking that the extra $$ per year was not going to be very much...I live in NYC...$10 extra a year can be saved in other ways more efficiently then by getting a video card that uses less power

hopefully the heat will not be too much of a factor as I have 6 case fans (including 2 top blowhole fans plus 1 fan directly over the video card)...then again it is very cold in NYC at the moment :p
 
The heat is only issue when you have 30C plus degrees outside and no AC in house.
This summer I had to stop boinc on my gtx 470 when i was playing on my ps3 since beetween X6,gtx470, ps3, 24" mva and 23" tn they were pumping 500-550watts of heat into room
 
polonyc2 said:
thanks for the info...I was thinking that the extra $$ per year was not going to be very much...I live in NYC...$10 extra a year can be saved in other ways more efficiently then by getting a video card that uses less power

hopefully the heat will not be too much of a factor as I have 6 case fans (including 2 top blowhole fans plus 1 fan directly over the video card)...then again it is very cold in NYC at the moment :p
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Sorry, my memory isn't as good as I wish it was. I remembered the cost per month as the cost per year :D Here's a link to a Guru3D review where they give figures.

The 5870 uses ~120 watts less than the 480/580/6970, so 120 is about 50% of 230, the 5870 would cost you ~$35 less.
 
polonyc2 said:
thanks for the link...still not too bad...can just skip lunch a couple of times a year :D
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What would you do for a Klondike Bar. Round of BC2.

If only strikethrough was available.
 
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Nightbird said:
[dream]Dig a well and pump up cold water to cool your radiators. [/dream]
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There was a guy who did something similar to that several years ago. He burred a 50 gallon hot water tank in the backyard to use as a reservoir for his water cooling setup. It was a pretty awesome setup since he replaced all fans in the system with water blocks including putting a water block in the PSU.
 
siliconnerd said:
There was a guy who did something similar to that several years ago. He burred a 50 gallon hot water tank in the backyard to use as a reservoir for his water cooling setup. It was a pretty awesome setup since he replaced all fans in the system with water blocks including putting a water block in the PSU.
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Cool! Did it do sub-ambient at idle at least during summer?

I was just thinking sump-pump + running the cool water over your existing radiator (not directly into your cooling loop)
 
There was another guy who used an empty gas canister as his resovoir and did the same thing, he dug a DEEEEEEEP hole. Buried the canister and ran tubing up to his comp for the cooling circuit.

Best way to do it would be to use a piling machine, you;d be able to get a nice deep hole...
 
Ok judging by the [H] headline for the review... it's gonna be good:

AMD is launching its new Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950. These two GPUs round out AMD&#8217;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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Syphon Filter said:
There was another guy who used an empty gas canister as his resovoir and did the same thing, he dug a DEEEEEEEP hole. Buried the canister and ran tubing up to his comp for the cooling circuit.

Best way to do it would be to use a piling machine, you;d be able to get a nice deep hole...
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Why would you dig a DEEEEEEEP hole?

Isn't the ground temperature pretty consistent once you get down a few feet? If you dig really deep it will just start getting hotter. Then the morlocks will take your water.
 
Anybody know EXACTLY when, Texas time, NDA ends?

I thought it might be 6PM today but I guess not. Next I was thinking 11 PM?

Edit: Seems it is 11 PM Central time.
 
Forceman said:
Solid value is not the same as solid performance, but it is nice to hear nonetheless.
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Exactly. Nothing to see special. More three monitor support and MLAA talk.
I think there's another AA mode they're releasing but these features are dependent upon drivers.
Hotfixes galore.
 
Shark974 said:
Anybody know EXACTLY when, Texas time, NDA ends?

I thought it might be 6PM today but I guess not. Next I was thinking 11 PM?

Edit: Seems it is 11 PM Central time.
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It's 2 AM Central. PST is -2 hours.
 
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