HD 6950 2GB - $230 w/discount code after MIR

tomana said:
XFX 6950 $263 shipped ($242 after rebate) and it has a quiet cooler

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523

I have a MSI 460GTX Cyclone card that has a similar cooler installed and it works great, very low temps.
Click to expand...

2GB card w/reference design (easily unlocked and OC'd to 6970 levels) >>> 1GB card w/custom cooler imo, 'specially when the former is still $10 cheaper. :p Honestly the prices for the 1GB cards are kinda wonky, there's at 'least one other 6950 2GB card under $245 after MIR... Unless you're playing at 1680x1050 or something you'd be foolish to go for a 1GB card; although if you are, then by all means go for it... I dunno about that card's cooler in particular but the custom cooler on the XFX 6870 is amazing.
 
Impulse said:
They certainly don't have the reputation of someone like XFX, but then again, XFX's head and shoulders above everyone else on the ATI side...
Click to expand...

XFX's reputation is higher priced cards

I don't want to pay a premium for a lifetime warranty when I know I'll sell my card after 1-2 years.
 
out of stock. sucks, I literally had a third in my cart and went to checkout and it said "this item was removed from card due to insufficient stock"
 
Stupac said:
XFX's reputation is higher priced cards

I don't want to pay a premium for a lifetime warranty when I know I'll sell my card after 1-2 years.
Click to expand...

Meh, they don't always have higher prices. ASUS consistently tends to have the highest priced cards imo... When I got my GTX 260 the XFX card I got was amongst the cheapest (within $5-10) and it came with two free games on top of the warranty (Farcry 2 and CoD World at War). It's a double lifetime warranty too, which can add to the resale value of the cards... It's a personal thing, I don't think the excellent service or the warranty are worth more than $15 over other cards; others may put a higher/lower value on it. /shrug


I wonder how many Powercolors they sold this week because of this deal? :D
 
Yep, glad y'all took advantage of it, definitely dead now... Card's out of stock and the code isn't listed anymore. The instant discount they had on the HIS card is also gone (came out to $245 after MIR). Glad I bought 'em both on Sunday, the cheapest 6950's are now $260, so I saved myself $45. :D
 
Ordered on Sunday and recieved it today at work.

As for the rebate, you first have to create a account on Power Color's website, then under their Rebate Center you have to enter in info including S/N. You get back rebate number, which you then put on a form and send into tehem (w/ UPC, etc).
 
Impulse said:
Yep, glad y'all took advantage of it, definitely dead now... Card's out of stock and the code isn't listed anymore. The instant discount they had on the HIS card is also gone (came out to $245 after MIR). Glad I bought 'em both on Sunday, the cheapest 6950's are now $260, so I saved myself $45. :D
Click to expand...

but you didn't save nearly as much if you had resisted;) (which neither of us were able to do). I bit on the Powercolor myself:D
 
Got it today, now up and running and unlocked and overclocked, awesome deal. Thanks OP.
 
anakin, I'm guessing it's full reference design? Did you use 6970 bios or unlock shaders? Also what o/c did you manage with it?
 
Had no problems at 900/1375 on a stock sapphire 6970 bios... I just need to figure out how to get voltage control working on the 6950 bios and i'd probably be pumping that gpu clock significantly
 
Btw there has been reports of 6950's dying due to overclocking/unlocking. You should only blame yourself (not the vendor if they refused to honor warranty) if your 6950 goes kaput.
-
having said this i have no clue what % die and what % of the deaths are explicitly due to overclocking shared unlock. Could very well be that the cards would have died anyways. Hum wonder if hdforum has a large enough sample to answer these questions :)
(I received my 6950 yesterday but am waiting for SB boards to return before testing it; i do not plan on unlocking the shaders or overclocking as i do not need (at this time) the extra boost.
 
The cards that reportedly died (it wasn't that many) were straight up running a 6970 BIOS... There's safer ways to unlock and/or overclock them, by using a modified 6950 BIOS with a voltage boost on the core, stock speeds (so you can dial it in yourself), and the 6950's standard memory timing. Look for the thread on overclock.net, has been linked over here a lot.

The cores are identical between the cards but memory is binned differently, pushing 6970 memory timings seems to be what killed some 6950s. If you follow a safer procedure, at worst you'll probably notice some corruption which means you should undo the unlock... Truth be told the overclocking is what really gives you a noticeable performance boost anyway, unlocking the shaders accounts for less than a 5% boost.
 
How loud are these cards (if anyone has a 4890 for reference). I'm thinking I might want to buy one now and crossfire when BF3 comes around.

Also not sure if I should wait for new cards to come out as my 4890 handles everything just fine. ...which won't be the case when The Witcher 2 and BF3 are out.
 
I got mine today and flashed it right away, it's working like a champ. This thing screams, I'm really glad I bit on this. My only regret is that I didn't spring for 2 of them, especially since it looks like ati is revising the board design and will probably nix the shader unlock bios flash in the process.
 
I was going to get the HIS for $245 but now it's gone. Hopefully the deal comes back.
 
Got mine today. Unlocked it a 6970 and it works great. Overclocked to 950/1375 for a quick 3dmark11 run and got about P5800. Not bad at all.

Played about 3hrs of Just cause 2 with max settings and it has performed flawlessly so far.
 
Metalarm said:
How loud are these cards (if anyone has a 4890 for reference). I'm thinking I might want to buy one now and crossfire when BF3 comes around.

Also not sure if I should wait for new cards to come out as my 4890 handles everything just fine. ...which won't be the case when The Witcher 2 and BF3 are out.
Click to expand...

At idle they can be tuned to be inaudible, or nearly so; fan at 20-23% spins slower and quieter than most downvolted desktop fans (around 900 rpm). At load it doesn't ramp up very high so unless you've picky or you're putting it in a cramped case they won't bother you.

No clue when those games come out so I can't speak to that, but they haven't even released the dual-GPU cards for this generation, so I wouldn't expect new GPUs before the end of summer.
 
PC_User said:
I was going to get the HIS for $245 but now it's gone. Hopefully the deal comes back.
Click to expand...

It's back down to $250 now (from $260 or $270), along with one other card I think... Not quite as killer as $230 but it seems manufacturers are determined to keep 6950 2GB prices low with aggressive rebates. It has to be killing GTX 560 sales, unless there's way more blind brand buyers or rebate haters than I imagine... NVidia's bundling games left and right with the GTX 560 too.
 
Went back to the site to see if they still had the MIR on there since I'm too lazy to send it from one computer to another, and noticed that it's deactivated now. Looks like this one may not come back. Glad I jumped when I did. UPS says it was just delivered though. Can't wait to go home and put it in.
 
N2OInferno said:
Went back to the site to see if they still had the MIR on there since I'm too lazy to send it from one computer to another, and noticed that it's deactivated now.
Click to expand...

Make sure you don't use the rebate under the card that's on the Newegg site right now. That's not the one from the sale everyone got.

Needs to say
Purchase between 02/18/11 ~ 02/22/2011 from Newegg.com and Newegg.ca. One rebate per household
Click to expand...
 
Impulse said:
It's back down to $250 now (from $260 or $270), along with one other card I think... Not quite as killer as $230 but it seems manufacturers are determined to keep 6950 2GB prices low with aggressive rebates. It has to be killing GTX 560 sales, unless there's way more blind brand buyers or rebate haters than I imagine... NVidia's bundling games left and right with the GTX 560 too.
Click to expand...

Bought it today from Amazon for $250 AR.
 
Got mine, its running great...first time with the red team! Hope the rebate is just as good..making this a nice deal.
 
XFX Rebate center just sent me an email stating that my rebate was approved and should see a check in the next 15 days.
 
Why is XFX sending you a rebate for a powercolor video card ?
 
Cause I'm an idiot an posted in the wrong thread, that's why! :rolleyes:

Sorry for the confusion...
 
Reporting back. Unlocked shaders only with 6970 voltages. Confident I can now post stable numbers 920/1340. It would do 960/1425 the first week, but have since needed to back off. Sent MIR in today. F-ing steal for $230.

Zero cooling/heat issues in an Antec 900.
 
I used the $25 promo to buy the xfx hd6950 2gb. One day later, they lowered the shipping from $6.99 to $2.99.
You could also used that $25 to pay for overnight/next day shipping. :D
 
toddw said:
Reporting back. Unlocked shaders only with 6970 voltages. Confident I can now post stable numbers 920/1340. It would do 960/1425 the first week, but have since needed to back off. Sent MIR in today. F-ing steal for $230.

Zero cooling/heat issues in an Antec 900.
Click to expand...

What are some of the issues you've had unlocking and overclocking your 6950? Excuse me for asking but I'm really tempted to pick up a 6950 but i've heard so many different stories about frying the board, not to unlock, or unlock but don't OC cuz it boosts the VRAM voltages. Any of that occurring that you've noticed?
 
Unlocking it and not OC'ing would be pointless because most of the performance boost to be gained comes from the OC, not the extra shaders (which only accounts for like a 3% performance boost)... I think you've mis-read some of those stories...

The general consensus is that if you're gonna unlock it, do so by using a modified 6950 BIOS rather than a 6970 BIOS that will apply tighter timings on the VRAM (which could have the potential to kill it since VRAM is binned differently between the cards). The cores are pretty much the same across both cards tho, and there's usually plenty of headroom on a 6950.

I'd go as far as to say that if you're gun shy you should just play around w/your OC settings and forget about unlocking it, simply because there's far more to be gained by OC'ing it. Some of the modified 6950 BIOS that unlock the shaders also aid in OC'ing tho because they've got bumped up core voltages (without touching the VRAM) and tweaks that allow you to OC w/o the need for extra utilities, etc.
 
So it would be smarter to run a modified 6950 BIOS then OC from there instead of running a 6970 BIOS that unlocks AND OC's it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top