Debating selling 6950's.....

[jhatfie]

Looking for opinions.

With the AMD 7xxx cards looming on the horizon, I am debating selling my unlocked 2GB 6950's and picking up some 6870's to crossfire since they are dirt cheap right now after rebate and selling bundled games (Shogun 2/ Dirt 3). I should be able to pocket close to $250 on the downgrade while stll maintaining respectable 2560x1600 gaming performance. I'd stash the $250+ aside and save it for the upcoming cards. Since it is summer, I am not gaming much right now and reference/unlockable 2GB 6950's seem to be able to command a pretty decent price at the moment.

Based on what I have read in reviews, the 6870's in crossfire seem to perform pretty well at 2560x1600 as long as AA is kept under control as to not exhaust the limited 1GB of ram.

 

[MrSneis]

Why not downgrade to single card?

 

[Ludic]

I'm not sure a single card will give him acceptable performance at 2560x1600.

 

[jbz7890]

Why not wait until you have a next-gen card before selling your 6950s? I'm sure they'll still be worth at least $175 each when the 7000 series is released.

 

[mdlam]

I sold a sapphire 6950 for 300 bucks

 

[tosgamer]

I sold a sapphire 6950 for 300 bucks

Where and when was this? And I assume that was gross not net?


If OP is willing to go through the hassle of selling all that stuff. I would do it to pocket the $250. Especially if you aren't playing many games right now. The 28nm parts should provide a nice boost over current cards.

 

[jhatfie]

I highly doubt I will be getting $300 a piece if I do sell , but I figure for reference 2GB 6950's that are already tested to unlock successfully, $250-260 each should be reasonable based on what I have been seeing them go for and have been offered, potentially higher if I eBay them. I think I would be satisfied with the performance of the crossfired 6870's for now until the new cards come out, and I know that waiting game to sell hardware can bite you sometimes if you wait to long and everyone is unloading hardware.

I was running eyefinity before, but have since moved to a single 30" display, so with my reduced resolution compared to before, I think I can deal with 75% of the performance of my current set up in the short term. Now do I want to deal with the hassle of selling and buying and all that fun stuff, not sure....trying to decide if it is worth my time.

 

[reaper12]

Well, there is a few problems with doing that, one is that We don't know what price any of the 7xxx series cards will be. We presume there will be an increase in performance, but We don't know that either. It might only be a marginal increase and might not be worthwhile upgrading from the 6xxx series cards. And lastly, there is the when, We still don't know when these cards will be out for definate, it's supposed to be Q4 this year, but it might be next year, in fact I always assumed it would be next year.

Downgrading is hard, you might think you will be happy with the lower performance, but will you really? Especially if you are a big gamer and will be purchasing new games over the next few months.

I know if it was me I wouldn't do what you are thinking of doing. There isn't just enough solid information out there for me to make that choice.

 

[needmorecarnitine]

Looking for opinions.

With the AMD 7xxx cards looming on the horizon, I am debating selling my unlocked 2GB 6950's and picking up some 6870's to crossfire since they are dirt cheap right now after rebate and selling bundled games (Shogun 2/ Dirt 3). I should be able to pocket close to $250 on the downgrade while stll maintaining respectable 2560x1600 gaming performance. I'd stash the $250+ aside and save it for the upcoming cards. Since it is summer, I am not gaming much right now and reference/unlockable 2GB 6950's seem to be able to command a pretty decent price at the moment.

I highly doubt I will be getting $300 a piece if I do sell , but I figure for reference 2GB 6950's that are already tested to unlock successfully, $250-260 each should be reasonable based on what I have been seeing them go for and have been offered, potentially higher if I eBay them. I think I would be satisfied with the performance of the crossfired 6870's for now until the new cards come out, and I know that waiting game to sell hardware can bite you sometimes if you wait to long and everyone is unloading hardware.


Now do I want to deal with the hassle of selling and buying and all that fun stuff, not sure....trying to decide if it is worth my time.

Sounds like you know what you are doing.

I just used to buy what I could afford then sell it when I felt it was underpowered. Then I realized that it makes more sense to buy what I want/think would be in good demand to others when it is on sale at a great price then resell it later on while it still has good value and replace it with my next great sale item or substitute a bargain priced back-up part that I keep on hand.

We don't know when the next gen parts are coming but you probably have a little time still. I would do it if I were you. Just set up a deal alert at slickdeals (if you haven't already) for a 6870. Seems like the lowest so far is somewhere around $130 after you resell the software. A problem is if it requires a rebate there is usually a limit of one (but there are ways around it and not all deals require a rebate).

As for the "hassle" of reselling your old parts, I've come to enjoy that part also. I try to price my products fairly so they will sell quickly.

 

[FluidityT]

Either way you'd still have to resell the cards, and as soon as the new one comes out everythings price will drop. However, 6950's are available and we're still buying 5 series cards for performance to value. Same will be true with 7k series, and i'm guessing that the 6950 will still be valuable and sought after.

Unless you can get what you paid for then you're gonna take a loss now, and the biggest problem when the 7k comes out the 6870 will be less attractive and the prices will drop down further than the 6950 imo. So selling off 6870s then might be problematic.

Just a thought, selling now could be a better option. But you would be sacking your performance now and for the foreseeable future.

 

[Hitokiri Batohsai]

I have same problem with you. Wait few months or upgrade to a 6850HD now. Can't upgrade anything else higher without needing a PSU change. Heard the 7000hd series, 28nm has lower power requirements. If only someone from AMD/ATi reading this could give a relase date hint

 

[jhatfie]

After some thought I think I will sell one 6950. However, I felt compelled by a deal and bit on a almost new ASUS RoG GTX 580 Matrix Platinum for $400 shipped. Once I get it I will compare single cards and decide if the 580 is worth keeping or not. If not, I am positive I can get my $$ back out of it, otherwise I will sell the other 6950 and then go SSD shopping. I think this should hold me over until the next gen cards come out.

 

[jhatfie]

Wanted to give an update. Sold one of my HD 6950's for $280 shipped, so I feel pretty good about that since that is what I paid for it last December.

Received my Asus Matrix GTX580 and it is a beast. But is also is a mean overclocker. With the voltage upped to 1.15v it seems to be game stable without artifacts (that I can see) at 970Mhz core and 4800Mhz memory. Memory might have some more but 990Mhz on the core would eventually crash in Crysis WH. Temps are good, I set some custom fan profiles so it has not busted 65C yet while still not being loud. Very pleased though, a 200Mhz core bump and 800Mhz memory bump over a standard GTX580's stock clocks is pretty impressive.

I did some FRAPS comparison's with my unlocked HD6950 at 6970 speeds with the Matrix and saw average frame rate increased by around 15-30% on average, in limited testing mind you.

As to game playability. Since I run 2560x1600, compared to 6950's in crossfire the most noticeable impact is that I had to drop AA from 8x to 2x in Dragon Age 2 to get smooth play, but everything else is maxxed. The 580 averaged 31fps using 8x, but was not as smooth as I would like. Most other games I tested "felt" about the same outside Crysis WH, which needed to be dropped to gamer detail levels.

Overall I am pleased, performance per $$ wise, it is a bit less of a value compared to my unlocked 6950, but the card is a great performer and since I paid only $400 for it, I think that I will keep it for now.

 

[shantd]

So the 15% boost over your 6950 wasn't crossfired 6950s, right? Do you have a roundabout idea how much better performance your 6950s got (in crossfire) over the matrix?

 

[jhatfie]

So the 15% boost over your 6950 wasn't crossfired 6950s, right? Do you have a roundabout idea how much better performance your 6950s got (in crossfire) over the matrix?

No, the boost was over a single unlocked 6950 at 6970 speeds. Crossfired 6xxx cards tend to have about 90% efficiency or better when crossfired. So based on that you can extrapolate that my OC'd 580 is about 30% slower than my 6950's in crossfire on average. So if you factor in cost, my 580 at $400 is about 30% less cost than my 6950's cost me ($560). So cost per fps is about equal.