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[O/C] AMD HD6970 Graphics Card Review

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For what it's worth, the drivers given to us were pre-release press drivers that happened to be 10.11 with the 69xx added to them. I tried the pre-release 10.12 we were given and it didn't get along with the card for whatever reason. Haven't had time to try the official 10.12 yet.

I agree it would have been very nice to have better comparison cards. It's just one of those things...you can only bench what you have. Thankfully we have AMD's current top dog, so now all we need to do is obtain NVIDIA's high-end for comparison. With each review, the comparison chart grows (until the next generation test rig comes into play, then I just have to re-bench those cards still in my office :) ).

This is true, thanks for the hard work regardless. :thup:
 
My 6970 was supposed to arrive today but UPS did not play nice. Here are some benchmarks that will be used to compare the 6970 to.

GTX 580 - 900/1100 (262.99 drivers)

GTX 570 - 950/1100 (263.09 drivers)

CPU - W3680 at 200 x 22 (4.4 Ghz)

OS - Win 7 (64)
 

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My 6970 was supposed to arrive today but UPS did not play nice. Here are some benchmarks that will be used to compare the 6970 to.

GTX 580 - 900/1100

GTX 570 - 950/1100

CPU - W3680 at 200 x 22 (4.4 Ghz)

Those are some very nice numbers....Im testing the 6970 atm and I now have something to compare with......
 
Brolloks, can you post the drivers you are running also for reference with your results? What you have is a nice start, hope your 6970 gets there tomorrow. :)
 
This is the best photo of the connector I have. It does look like a little chip missing from the 8-pin on the left, but it's nowhere near as severe or noticeable as the ones linked from the post you're linking to.

6970-connector.jpg

Very interesting.
 
I heard about that earthdog then looked a bit closer at the picture hokie provided. It definitely appears to have a corner of the power connector polished down, though not as much as in other pictures I've seen:
http://www.overclockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/AMD6970-13.jpg

Seems silly for AMD to not mention something like that to the press, and leave it to reviewers to find. Why not be forthcoming with physical design issues on review samples? Sort of a shame... When something trivial is discovered like that, its a lot more distracting than it would have been if it was announced up front.
 
When my brilliant self realized that started as a much larger file, I cropped it down for a better view.

6970-connector-close.jpg

Definitely looks similar to the others but with more care than some of the example photos. I'll email AMD to see if they want to comment.
 
Almost looks like they didnt notice, turned the fan on and they all got hit by the fan and cracked off! :p
 
AMD Responds to the Connector Issue.

Great!

ON a serious note, can you tell if its the fan that needed clearance?

I have no idea without taking it apart again and it's in use awaiting voltage control (fingers crossed that someone, somewhere finds software for that) right now.

More importantly than my card, word is in from AMD. Here is their take on the situation, verbatim:
The modification to the power connector seen on some Radeon HD 6900 series cards was a conscious development decision.

The reference boards use both fan and heatsink designs from multiple vendors and it was discovered some material produced on initial designs required adjustment.

As a result we modified the PCIe power connector for a very small number of boards using affected components. These were mostly used for samples, as the most time and cost efficient solution to bringing the product to market in volume.

This minor modification to the connector in no way affects the operation of the card and our partners have designed solutions which do not require this modification.

So, there you have it!
 
Excellent. Thanks for the follow up. It looks like they are all HAND modified as well. Interesting.
 
Thank you.

It really depends on how much money you want to spend. For the money, the 6970 is a very solid card. If you want the absolute best single GPU card on the market, go with the 580. You'll pay for the privilege though. :)
 
HD 6970 - 950/1450 (Cat 10.12a drivers)

GTX 580 - 900/1100
(262.99 drivers)

GTX 570 - 950/1100 (263.09 drivers)

HD 5970 - 950/1200 (Cat 10.9 drivers)



CPU - W3680 at 200 x 22 (4.4 Ghz)

OS - Win 7 (64)
 

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Excellent comparison Edmund, thank you very much! Looks like the 5970 is still king, even if it takes two GPUs to do it, but just barely in 06. :)

I bet things would change if we could get some software that controlled voltage on the 6970!
 
Yes, drivers still a bit green on the 6970 plus I don't really think these old benchmarks do the card justice IMO.

As for 3DM06 I was really CPU bound at 4.4 Ghx...more speed will make the cards fly.
 
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