I have heard way worse complaints about Sapphire verse any other manufacture. I would still go for a XFX 6950 2GB any day over this Sapphire one. I have had nothing, but a good experience with XFX and their double life time warranty helps me sell my past gpus quite easily.
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SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD6950 Video Card Review @ [H]
- Thread starter FrgMstr
- Start date
I have heard way worse complaints about Sapphire verse any other manufacture. I would still go for a XFX 6950 2GB any day over this Sapphire one. I have had nothing, but a good experience with XFX and their double life time warranty helps me sell my past gpus quite easily.
jojo69
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no one will ever actually see one of these cards
any stock will be depleted in milliseconds
any stock will be depleted in milliseconds
I have a pair of XFX 5850 BE's in my current gaming rig and they have served me very well so far. However from just following these forums, i've also seen horror stories in the past for XFX as well. I will agree with you though that the double lifetime transferable warranty will be good for getting the most when I upgrade to the ATI 7000 series providing this Bitcoin craze continues and the 5850's continue to remain desirable.
With the feature set that this video card is sporting, I wouldn't be surprised if stock is limited if they are cherry picking the best of the 6950 GPU's.
macksomerville
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And its STOCK Reference 1 design... IE many waterblocks will fit these versus the Ref.2 6950 which many w/b makers didnt make full coverage blocks for hooray!
If this was in stock at the egg right now, I would probably pull the trigger on it. Fantastic performance for the price, and it even looks great. Been wanting to wait on the 7xxx series to upgrade my 5850, but I could buy this, sell the games and my 5850 and have almost a free upgrade. Figures theyre OOS.
I've heard far more horror stories about XFX cards in the last couple years than Sapphire. Actually, more than any other AMD card manufacture. No one is going to deny that Sapphire used to be very bad, but companies can change.
Brent_Justice
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It is a non-functional physical piece of kit, just for decoration. We tried to turn it, nothing happened
sirmonkey1985
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sapphires changed a lot due to the fact that they have real competition with XFX producing AMD cards now.. not to mention your still but hurt over a fiasco that happened with a 6 year old card.. and if it was the x1950 AGP card it in its self was a down grade, lol. my X1550 smoked the crap out of the agp version of the x1950.(yes i'm lazy and theres no way in heck i'm searching for the thread)
I haven't personally. Fact is .XFX still has a better warranty due to the double lifetime warranty.
I am not hurt over any thing but just referencing the topic. There is plenty of users on this forum who agree with me.
Link to that thread http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1234926
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And from the alarmingly high number of DOA cards for some models it sounds like a lot of people are using that warranty.
You're linking to a topic in which the last post was 2008...Good for you you proved Sapphire sucked years ago. I think we covered this already. That doesn't say anything about them currently.
No company us immune to DoA. I have had xxx since the 7900s and never once had issues.
just using that thread as a example. That is when I saw how bad sapphire was and has been since.
To the XFX haters: they've proven to me that they will honor their double lifetime warranty. I sold an old 4850 on CL. Buyer claimed it kept bluescreening on him. (Im pretty sure it was his power supply, but be that as it may, something wasnt right).
He contacted XFX, they said send it in, and less than 3 weeks later he had a new 5750. No hassle, nothing. This was back in May, so its recent. XFX did right by me so Im definitely a fan. I've owned one Sapphire card, an old X1950 pro. Runs to this day, so Ive never had occasion to deal with Sapphire's warranty. All other things being equal, I'd take an XFX card over Sapphire, but I'd take this Toxic card over anything XFX has out right now even though I agree I'm a bit shaky on the warranty.
This card is sexy.
He contacted XFX, they said send it in, and less than 3 weeks later he had a new 5750. No hassle, nothing. This was back in May, so its recent. XFX did right by me so Im definitely a fan. I've owned one Sapphire card, an old X1950 pro. Runs to this day, so Ive never had occasion to deal with Sapphire's warranty. All other things being equal, I'd take an XFX card over Sapphire, but I'd take this Toxic card over anything XFX has out right now even though I agree I'm a bit shaky on the warranty.
This card is sexy.
No company is immune to DOAs, but some models have alarmingly high numbers, enough to make me very wary.
Like I said, Sapphire used to be horrible. I have yet to see anything that proves they're still the same. When companies attempt to change for the better I pay attention. I don't believe we have to condemn them forever and never allow them to change.
I haven't seen one thing in Sapphire attempting to change, so whatever I guess. Putting up a bunch of reviews with their cards doesn't really do it for me unfortunately.
I still remember when XFX came to the seen for ATI cards the AIB was hailed as a savior. ATI prior to XFX may of had good hardware, but it was known their AIBs did not have good warranty or CS, while Nvidia had BFG, EVGA, and XFX. Regardless I would say XFX has a far better rep then Sapphire ever will.
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We're just going to keep going in circles here so shall we just agree to disagree on this one?
Yes that is fine by me. Endless circles are never fun after awhile. I will note XFX has had shitty cards over the past few years. I have specifically steered people away from those cards too. Hell I think one of their 6950 1GB had an awful rating on Newegg just recently for the DoA. One reason I go for reference unless I know the non reference is as good or better.
That 6950 was one of the cards I was referencing when I mentioned some models having really high DOA ratings. I wish I could find stock 6950s these days, would make me card buying decision so much simpler.
Yes I know. I snagged my brother a MSI 6950 2GB reference for $225 after MIR back in late April. A few weeks after they were all gone.
Falling Anvil
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Now THIS is how you do a factory overclocked card! Past the warranty fears, I can't imagine getting anything any 6950 near it's price range.
Shame that I can't actually buy them right now though.
Shame that I can't actually buy them right now though.
Spare-Flair
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That said, the shader unlock isn't guaranteed right? It's just luck though. You might get 6970 clocks and memory with the bios but you might be stuck with the 1400ish shaders.
Pyroja
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Holy wah, I have the extra cash to buy two (if they were available). Must... resist... temptation...
Oh right, my box is in no condition for such GPU power... Just gotta hold off until I can upgrade everything
Oh right, my box is in no condition for such GPU power... Just gotta hold off until I can upgrade everything
Considering that the success rate has been 80-90% for the reference style 6950's in the past, those are some pretty good odds right there. I also can't help but wonder whether Sapphire is specially buying cherry picked 6950 GPU's for this video card.
Holy wah, I have the extra cash to buy two (if they were available). Must... resist... temptation...
Oh right, my box is in no condition for such GPU power... Just gotta hold off until I can upgrade everything
Doesnt matter anyway - they arent in stock. And when they do come back in stock, I bet they sell out so fast that we cant get our hands on them anyway. Like I said in an earlier post, I had decided to wait till 7xxx, but if I happen to see one of these available Im pulling the trigger.
LightingGod
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Rebate is only one per household, so the other is full price. Still might do it, though.
Walkintarget
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Wish the warranty on the card was more than 2 years, as I've always bought eVGA for their lifetime warranty. This would be my first ATI/AMD card in .. like ... forever.
Come to think of it, I did have an ATI 9800 but ATI/AMD was never in my main gamer box. I was quite set on an MSI 560ti Twin Frozr PE OC until I read this review. Changed my mind in a hurry
Come to think of it, I did have an ATI 9800 but ATI/AMD was never in my main gamer box. I was quite set on an MSI 560ti Twin Frozr PE OC until I read this review. Changed my mind in a hurry
Wish the warranty on the card was more than 2 years, as I've always bought eVGA for their lifetime warranty. This would be my first ATI/AMD card in .. like ... forever.
Come to think of it, I did have an ATI 9800 but ATI/AMD was never in my main gamer box. I was quite set on an MSI 560ti Twin Frozr PE OC until I read this review. Changed my mind in a hurry
Cant disagree there. I'd be ok with 3. I'd like a high end card like this to last me 3 years before I replace it, ideally. 2 years is definitely not ideal. I still like it enough that I want to buy it.
happymedium
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If the overclocked/unlocked Sapphire 6950 cost 269$AR and a gtx570 cost 269$AR (at newegg).
WHy was the gtx570 not overclocked also? A 269$AR gtx570 with no voltage will average a 11% overclock.
Apple to Apples right?
This review is for the 2% of the world that has a 1200$ 2500x1600 monitor.
WHat about the rest of us?
How about a review @ 1900x1080 4xaa ( a resolution that at least some of the population uses) with a overclocked 269$ 6950 vs a overclocked 269$ gtx570.
Even Dirt 3 which runs a bit better on AMD cards was a tie at 1900x1080. with the gtx570 @ stock.
Same games that run better on AMD benched cards also.
BBC2 runs equally well on both Nvidia and AMD cards and look what happends...The AMD cards get there A$$es handed to them.
Another review fail.
Great job!
WHy was the gtx570 not overclocked also? A 269$AR gtx570 with no voltage will average a 11% overclock.
Apple to Apples right?
This review is for the 2% of the world that has a 1200$ 2500x1600 monitor.
WHat about the rest of us?
How about a review @ 1900x1080 4xaa ( a resolution that at least some of the population uses) with a overclocked 269$ 6950 vs a overclocked 269$ gtx570.
Even Dirt 3 which runs a bit better on AMD cards was a tie at 1900x1080. with the gtx570 @ stock.
Same games that run better on AMD benched cards also.
BBC2 runs equally well on both Nvidia and AMD cards and look what happends...The AMD cards get there A$$es handed to them.
Another review fail.
Great job!
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What part of highest playable settings escapes you? If you don't like the way H tests, why the heck are you reading the reviews?
As for not OCing the other cards. I'd guess it's a simple matter of time. From some posts made by the GPU reviewers it sounds like these articles take a lot of time to do. It's not as simple as running a canned benchmark and walking away until it's done.
happymedium
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"As for not OCing the other cards. I'd guess it's a simple matter of time"
My little sister can overclock a gtx570 in less than 5 min. ARe you serious?
You cannot call it apples to apples without overclocking the 570, plain and simple.
Ryan over at ANandtech got his ass chewed out by a rabid pack of fanboys when he reviewed a 6870 vs a gtx460 @ a factory overclocked 850 core and the gtx460 was cheaper!
My little sister can overclock a gtx570 in less than 5 min. ARe you serious?
You cannot call it apples to apples without overclocking the 570, plain and simple.
Ryan over at ANandtech got his ass chewed out by a rabid pack of fanboys when he reviewed a 6870 vs a gtx460 @ a factory overclocked 850 core and the gtx460 was cheaper!
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Good job not taking five seconds to read my entire god damn post. I made it crystal clear I was talking about the time it would take to TEST the card.
happymedium
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OK sorry,
But answer me this Batman.......................
If you were doing a review for millions of people to read, why would you use a resolution that only 2% of them use and that will mis lead your readers into thinking because its faster @ 2500x1600 it will be faster @ 1080p the resolution that we MOSTLY use?
Here is a story for ya....
SO good old Joe goes to Newegg and buys a 6950 for his system with a 1080p monitor, because he wants to beat his brothers Gtx570. He reads this review and buys a Toxic card for the same price his brother paid for his gtx570.
He comes home pops in his card overclocks it , shows his brother, and his brother laughs as the card is only beating his gtx570 in one game out of 10 (F1 2010) . Joe asks whats so funny, his brother overclocks his gtx570 and beats Joes card to death.
YeuEmMaiMai
Extremely [H]
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I guess it is impossible for you to tell that this card kicks butt at 1080p?
OK sorry,
But answer me this Batman.......................
If you were doing a review for millions of people to read, why would you use a resolution that only 2% of them use and that will mis lead your readers into thinking because its faster @ 2500x1600 it will be faster @ 1080p the resolution that we MOSTLY use?
Here is a story for ya....
SO good old Joe goes to Newegg and buys a 6950 for his system with a 1080p monitor, because he wants to beat his brothers Gtx570. He reads this review and buys a Toxic card for the same price his brother paid for his gtx570.
He comes home pops in his card overclocks it , shows his brother, and his brother laughs as the card is only beating his gtx570 in one game out of 10 (F1 2010) . Joe asks whats so funny, his brother overclocks his gtx570 and beats Joes card to death.
Highest playable settings. Common sense would state that if a card performs exceptionally well at 2560x1600 it will perform even better at a lower resolution. If people are incapable of figuring that much out then they really shouldn't be building computers at all.
I'd apply the law of common sense to OC'ing as well. If both cards can OC by an equal amount than the performance difference will be same as if they were at stock. Still it goes back to a matter of time. Heck given out meticulous it sounds like [H]'s testing methodology is it wouldn't surprise me if Kyle, Grady, or Brent came out and said that just overclocking cards can take a couple hours. Finding the max OC isn't just tossing the sliders up a bit and running with it. I've OC'd enough CPUs in my life time to know how time consuming it can be to push that last Mhz out of it.
happymedium
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"Highest playable settings. Common sense would state that if a card performs exceptionally well at 2560x1600 it will perform even better at a lower resolution. If people are incapable of figuring that much out then they really shouldn't be building computers at all."
I think most of us know that AMD cards have an advantage at 2500x1600.
A gtx570 and 6970 will trade blows depending on the game at 1080p.
A 6970 will even best a gtx580 in a few games at 2500x1600 but a gtx580 will easily beat a 6970 @ 1080p.
A 6950 @ 2500x1600 will trade blows with a gtx570 in some games.
I think most of us know that AMD cards have an advantage at 2500x1600.
A gtx570 and 6970 will trade blows depending on the game at 1080p.
A 6970 will even best a gtx580 in a few games at 2500x1600 but a gtx580 will easily beat a 6970 @ 1080p.
A 6950 @ 2500x1600 will trade blows with a gtx570 in some games.
The part where AMd beats nVidia at "highest playable settings"
So he can come into the review thread and crap all over the place about it, while hawking nVidia cards. It's what he does.
He likes canned benchmark reviews. Then his favorite company can skew their performance to them @1080p w/4xAA. He really likes massive amounts of tessellation on flat surfaces and invisible meshes too. He doesn't care that if the card can run the game @1600 then it will have no problem at 1080p. He doesn't care that it demonstrates that the card has performance headroom to spare for games down the road that will be more shader intensive. He doesn't care that the GPU's are more efficient. He doesn't care they have more RAM. He doesn't care that they are better capable of taking advantage of the capabilities of modern RAM. He likes cards that use great big fat slow memory buses and an extra 20% more power. Even when it blows up their under engineered power stages, it's all OK.
I'd be interested in seeing some real world proof of this. Not canned benchmarks, actual real gameplay tests. I put zero stock in canned benches that can be and are manipulated by both companies.
Brent_Justice
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If you would actually read the review, you would see that all of our apples-to-apples tests were, and always are, done at 1920x1200 4X AA.
That point has been raised a number of times before, and I believe the response from the "powers that be" is along the lines that [H]ard|OCP is a website focused on the enthusiast and not so focused on the mainstream. It's like reading Car & Driver for their review of the latest Ferrari...
But that being said, I do agree it would be nice to see an overclock vs. overclock comparison. But then again, I don't have to do the work.