AMD 6970/6950 Review repository

EarthDog · 12-15-10, 06:20 AM

First, the BEST one from our very own, Hokiealumnus..

http://www.overclockers.com/amd-hd69...s-card-review/

and now the rest..

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/
http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/15/a...thusiast-gami/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/
http://compreviews.about.com/od/PC-G...on-HD-6970.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...yman,2818.html
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-...-915716/review
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...-6970-review/1
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...50-review.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1488/1/
http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...hd6950_review/

If you come across others, let me know and I can get them added. But this has the major ones.

mxthunder · 12-15-10, 08:15 AM

Performance is less than stellar, but I think we will see some huge gains once the driver team learns how to properly deal with the new architecture.

Brolloks · 12-15-10, 08:28 AM

In my opinion AMD launched the card at a very competitive price point, I was hoping it would contend with the GTX 580 so yes that leaves me a bit disappointed as I was hoping the 6970 would take the stand above nvidia top dog. That said looking at the price it makes it a very attractive buy...with new drivers and some price settling it will be a great card to have in a collection of high end cards.

splat · 12-15-10, 11:02 AM

just like their processors, they are aiming to win the price/performance battle in the mid-level and below markets.

doz · 12-15-10, 02:32 PM

Still, the overclocking is still yet to be seen and with not much of a performance gain over the 58xx series, it doesnt give us a good option on upgrading. Seems the gains of the GTX480>580 were much greater than the 5870>6970.

Again, drivers may help but I already saw 1 10.12 driver review and it doesnt look a whole lot better. I might actually pickup a GTX470 if they drop in price.

Bustard · 12-15-10, 02:53 PM

May not be worth the money if you already have a nice 5*** card, but very attractive price for those in need of one in my opinion.

Just a nickname · 12-15-10, 04:39 PM

I was also thinking at that...
Upgrade isn't for now. They have some work to do with tesselation until I'll really consider this new gen. Just hope not everyone will act like me and sell their old card

Time for CF!

kayson · 12-15-10, 04:49 PM

Can we have a 6970/50 good deal repository for those of us who want one but can't afford it haha

don'tknow · 12-15-10, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just a nickname

Upgrade isn't for now. They have some work to do with tesselation until I'll really consider this new gen.

There are games that use extreme tessellation?

EarthDog · 12-16-10, 08:39 AM

There are several games that use it, and more coming out every month. It appears right now to be a trend, and the better the card is at it, the better it will perform in games that use it.

Just a nickname · 12-16-10, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthDog

There are several games that use it, and more coming out every month. It appears right now to be a trend, and the better the card is at it, the better it will perform in games that use it.

Check out the scaling chart, though. The Radeon HD 6970, despite losing out to all of Nvidia’s competing cards, comes a lot closer to matching the competition’s scaling profile here, and the Radeon HD 6950 does even better.

It’s interesting that none of Nvidia’s GeForce boards scale based on the number of available PolyMorph engines. They all get stuck around 73% of their performance with tessellation turned on. This is almost assuredly what enables AMD’s cards to “catch up.

I am wondering why nVidia and AMD in particular have so much difficult to scale tessellation on?

EarthDog · 12-16-10, 10:52 AM

As far as the data provided, I would like to see a link to the entire article so I can read it when you have a chance.

Just a nickname · 12-16-10, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthDog

You may want to rehost that picture, its not good nettiquette to hotlink images from other sites.

As far as the data provided, I would like to see a link to the entire article so I can read it when you have a chance.

No trouble man:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...an,2818-3.html

I heard they were using old driver...

EarthDog · 12-16-10, 11:30 AM

Thanks for the link!

Its the same across the board for Nvidia which is the perplexing part to me. The 460 1GB has less polymorph engines (or w/e) than the 580 but still takes the same hit as the 580???

Tesselation while helping make things look better, still have a performance hit, just like any other IQ improving feature (AA/AF, etc).

Just a nickname · 12-16-10, 12:21 PM

Tried to find something on google but nothing really good yet... If you have any idea, I'd be interested to know the cause if it's not too complex

deathman20 · 12-16-10, 12:27 PM

Not to shabby.. Im due for a new video card and will probably get one of these. Now its the $80 question, is getting the 6970 worth the price increase?

Really we are talking about increased shaders on the card, @ the expense of more default core clock for 50W more power consumption (TDP that is).

And the upping of power and dual boot bios onboard the card (1 for flashing and 1 normal non-flashable bios) is A SWEEET feature. Right there that seals the deal for getting one of these cards over nVidia for tweaking reasons. If it can go 20% surely there are some tweaking to be done to get it to go even more.

Just a nickname · 12-16-10, 01:00 PM

You card is really good for now. You won't gain much with a 6970.

The 6950 has a better value (edit: check the review above).
If I was you, I'd wait until upgrade as some revision board could not have that gay power controller (limiting you overclock headroom). This is speculation but I'm pretty sure that's what going to happen as new board will have better cooling performance. Thus manufacturers won't fear to have fried card RMA.

deathman20 · 12-16-10, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just a nickname

You card is really good for now. You won't gain much with a 6970.

The 6950 has a better value (edit: check the review above).
If I was you, I'd wait until upgrade as some revision board could not have that gay power controller (limiting you overclock headroom). This is speculation but I'm pretty sure that's what going to happen as new board will have better cooling performance. Thus manufacturers won't fear to have fried card RMA.

The power controller doesn't really have me up in a huff. Its nice to have the option to not be power sucking and for that added performance an easy way to increase my clocks. Since its software based, and probably has OCP onboard the card there will be limits.

As for my card... its nearly 2 years old

Its time to upgrade and I want DX11 capabilites so upgrading is something im eyeing.

SteveLord · 12-16-10, 02:03 PM

The 6900s were the cards that had everyone was shouting "Forget the 6800 series, its the 6900 that will be the flagship cards that will pwn everything AMD has + nvidia!"

Mediocrity strikes again.

LOL

don'tknow · 12-16-10, 06:31 PM

Never saw any expectations that high.

Nobody even speculated, really. AMD was good at keeping out leaks/misleading us.

Other than a few guesses I made, in which my estimations were within 10% of gtx500's performance. And that's pretty much where Cayman ended up in most games, with unsupported drivers. Some games it was less, some games they actually matched the 500's at high res w/ AA.

12-15-10, 06:20 AM	Thread Starter #1
EarthDog Senior PITA Member Overclockers.com Editor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Stuck in Maryland...	AMD 6970/6950 Review repository First, the BEST one from our very own, Hokiealumnus.. http://www.overclockers.com/amd-hd69...s-card-review/ and now the rest.. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/ http://www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/15/a...thusiast-gami/ http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/ http://compreviews.about.com/od/PC-G...on-HD-6970.htm http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...yman,2818.html http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-...-915716/review http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...-6970-review/1 http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...50-review.html http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1488/1/ http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...hd6950_review/ If you come across others, let me know and I can get them added. But this has the major ones. __________________ Should I R0 my SSD? / SandyBridge / Ivybridge Overclocking Guide / AMD Overclocking Guide / Power Supply Guide SSD Reliability/Write Endurance / JOIN THE BENCHING TEAM! / Bulldozer Overclocking Guide / Forum Etiquette Want to see your writing featured on the overclockers.com Front Page? PM me, I can help! "We have more information and more ways of accessing it than ever, yet seem increasingly less inclined to do so."- Michael Wilbon
	QUOTE Thanks

12-15-10, 08:15 AM	#2
mxthunder Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Northeast Ohio	Performance is less than stellar, but I think we will see some huge gains once the driver team learns how to properly deal with the new architecture. __________________ i5 2500K @ 4.8GHz Asrock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen3 2x4GB Ripjaws @ 1600 7-8-7-24-34 - 1T XSPC res + D5, RS360 + EK 120mm rad GeForce GTX580 SLI @ 900 HC2 blocks Corsair TX950 WD Velociraptor 450GB/Hitachi 7k1000/Intel 330 SSD cache drive Dell 2209WA @ 75hz Corsair Obsidian 700D
	QUOTE Thanks

12-15-10, 08:28 AM	#3
Brolloks Benching Senior on Siesta Premium Member #8 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Land of Long Horns	In my opinion AMD launched the card at a very competitive price point, I was hoping it would contend with the GTX 580 so yes that leaves me a bit disappointed as I was hoping the 6970 would take the stand above nvidia top dog. That said looking at the price it makes it a very attractive buy...with new drivers and some price settling it will be a great card to have in a collection of high end cards. __________________ Should I get a Quad- or Dual-Core? - How about joining us in the Benching Lounge for some secrets - Want to bench sub-zero...take a look. Heatware 280-0-0 HWBOT Profile
	QUOTE Thanks

12-15-10, 11:02 AM	#4
splat ASCII Moderator Overclockers.com Lead Editor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Philly	just like their processors, they are aiming to win the price/performance battle in the mid-level and below markets. __________________ ______________________________/\/\__________________/\/\_____ _______/\/\/\/\__/\/\/\/\____/\/\____/\/\/\______/\/\/\/\/\__ ____/\/\/\/\____/\/\__/\/\__/\/\________/\/\______/\/\_______ _________/\/\__/\/\/\/\____/\/\____/\/\/\/\______/\/\________ __/\/\/\/\____/\/\________/\/\/\__/\/\/\/\/\____/\/\/\_______ _____________/\/\___________once you clock you can't go stock articles \|\| folding stats \|\| overclockers last.fm group Overclockers.com and you - Become a fan on Facebook! \| Get published! \| Follow on Twitter! \|\| Random Article
	QUOTE Thanks

12-15-10, 02:32 PM	#5
doz Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Las Vegas, NV	Still, the overclocking is still yet to be seen and with not much of a performance gain over the 58xx series, it doesnt give us a good option on upgrading. Seems the gains of the GTX480>580 were much greater than the 5870>6970. Again, drivers may help but I already saw 1 10.12 driver review and it doesnt look a whole lot better. I might actually pickup a GTX470 if they drop in price. __________________ Asus P8P67 Intel i7-2600k @ 4.9ghz GSkill Ripjaws 8gb 1600mhz c8 EVGA GTX 680 OCZ Agility 2 240gb, Corsair Force 3 180gb, (2)WD 1tb Black HAF 932w/ Corsair HX750 Heat
	QUOTE Thanks

AMD 6970/6950 Review repository

Internet Services

Website Development

Tech Hardware

12-15-10, 02:53 PM	#6
Bustard Registered Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Clemson Area	May not be worth the money if you already have a nice 5*** card, but very attractive price for those in need of one in my opinion.
	QUOTE Thanks

12-15-10, 04:39 PM	#7
Just a nickname Member Join Date: Aug 2010	I was also thinking at that... Upgrade isn't for now. They have some work to do with tesselation until I'll really consider this new gen. Just hope not everyone will act like me and sell their old card Time for CF! __________________ System: i5-750 @ 4.4GHz (and beyond), 1.368v under LinX & 1.225v VTT EK supreme cooper, MCP655 with 2x360 swiftech EVGA P55 classified 200 2x2Gb ECO G.skill 1600 7-8-7-24 @ 2000MHz 7-8-7-24 1.61v / 2100MHz 8-9-8-24 1.5v XFX 5870 @ 960//1300 stock voltage CM690 II Samsung F3 spinpoint Corsair 750W
	QUOTE Thanks

12-15-10, 04:49 PM	#8
kayson Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: USA	Can we have a 6970/50 good deal repository for those of us who want one but can't afford it haha __________________ Project Silver Intel Core i7-980X (145x29 = 4205MHz @1.352V) Asus P6X58D Premium Corsair Dominator 3x2GB DDR3-1600 (1740MHz) Gigabyte AMD HD 6950 (Unlocked @ 880/1375MHz) Corsair HX850 OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120GB Thermalright Venomous X \|\| 2x 120mm Panaflo \|\| Arctic Silver V Lian-Li PC-A77FA \|\| Vantec Nexus Fan Controller (Build Journal) Heatware
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 08:39 AM	Thread Starter #10
EarthDog Senior PITA Member Overclockers.com Editor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Stuck in Maryland...	There are several games that use it, and more coming out every month. It appears right now to be a trend, and the better the card is at it, the better it will perform in games that use it. __________________ Should I R0 my SSD? / SandyBridge / Ivybridge Overclocking Guide / AMD Overclocking Guide / Power Supply Guide SSD Reliability/Write Endurance / JOIN THE BENCHING TEAM! / Bulldozer Overclocking Guide / Forum Etiquette Want to see your writing featured on the overclockers.com Front Page? PM me, I can help! "We have more information and more ways of accessing it than ever, yet seem increasingly less inclined to do so."- Michael Wilbon
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 10:52 AM	Thread Starter #12
EarthDog Senior PITA Member Overclockers.com Editor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Stuck in Maryland...	As far as the data provided, I would like to see a link to the entire article so I can read it when you have a chance. __________________ Should I R0 my SSD? / SandyBridge / Ivybridge Overclocking Guide / AMD Overclocking Guide / Power Supply Guide SSD Reliability/Write Endurance / JOIN THE BENCHING TEAM! / Bulldozer Overclocking Guide / Forum Etiquette Want to see your writing featured on the overclockers.com Front Page? PM me, I can help! "We have more information and more ways of accessing it than ever, yet seem increasingly less inclined to do so."- Michael Wilbon Last edited by EarthDog; 12-16-10 at 11:28 AM.
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 11:30 AM	Thread Starter #14
EarthDog Senior PITA Member Overclockers.com Editor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Stuck in Maryland...	Thanks for the link! Its the same across the board for Nvidia which is the perplexing part to me. The 460 1GB has less polymorph engines (or w/e) than the 580 but still takes the same hit as the 580??? Tesselation while helping make things look better, still have a performance hit, just like any other IQ improving feature (AA/AF, etc). __________________ Should I R0 my SSD? / SandyBridge / Ivybridge Overclocking Guide / AMD Overclocking Guide / Power Supply Guide SSD Reliability/Write Endurance / JOIN THE BENCHING TEAM! / Bulldozer Overclocking Guide / Forum Etiquette Want to see your writing featured on the overclockers.com Front Page? PM me, I can help! "We have more information and more ways of accessing it than ever, yet seem increasingly less inclined to do so."- Michael Wilbon
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 12:21 PM	#15
Just a nickname Member Join Date: Aug 2010	Tried to find something on google but nothing really good yet... If you have any idea, I'd be interested to know the cause if it's not too complex __________________ System: i5-750 @ 4.4GHz (and beyond), 1.368v under LinX & 1.225v VTT EK supreme cooper, MCP655 with 2x360 swiftech EVGA P55 classified 200 2x2Gb ECO G.skill 1600 7-8-7-24 @ 2000MHz 7-8-7-24 1.61v / 2100MHz 8-9-8-24 1.5v XFX 5870 @ 960//1300 stock voltage CM690 II Samsung F3 spinpoint Corsair 750W
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 12:27 PM	#16
deathman20 High Speed Senior Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Where the Cheese Heads Live	Not to shabby.. Im due for a new video card and will probably get one of these. Now its the $80 question, is getting the 6970 worth the price increase? Really we are talking about increased shaders on the card, @ the expense of more default core clock for 50W more power consumption (TDP that is). And the upping of power and dual boot bios onboard the card (1 for flashing and 1 normal non-flashable bios) is A SWEEET feature. Right there that seals the deal for getting one of these cards over nVidia for tweaking reasons. If it can go 20% surely there are some tweaking to be done to get it to go even more. __________________ -=The Gamer=- MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) \| i5 2500k @ 4.5Ghz \| 1.3875V \| 28C Idle / 65C Load (LinX) 8Gig G.Skill Ripjaw PC3-12800 9-9-9-24 @ 1600Mhz w/ 1.5V \| TR Ultra eXtreme 120 w/ 2 Fans Sapphire 7950 VaporX 1150/1500 w/ 1.2V/1.5V \| 32C Idle / 64C Load \| 2x 128Gig Crucial M4 SSD's BitFenix Shinobi Window Case \| SilverStone DA750 \| Dell 2405FPW 24" Screen -=The Server=- Synology DS1511+ \| Dual Core 1.8Ghz CPU \| 30C Idle / 38C Load 3 Gig PC2-6400 \| 3x Samsung F4 2TB Raid5 \| 2x Samsung F4 2TB Heat Last edited by deathman20; 12-16-10 at 12:34 PM.
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 01:00 PM	#17
Just a nickname Member Join Date: Aug 2010	You card is really good for now. You won't gain much with a 6970. The 6950 has a better value (edit: check the review above). If I was you, I'd wait until upgrade as some revision board could not have that gay power controller (limiting you overclock headroom). This is speculation but I'm pretty sure that's what going to happen as new board will have better cooling performance. Thus manufacturers won't fear to have fried card RMA. __________________ System: i5-750 @ 4.4GHz (and beyond), 1.368v under LinX & 1.225v VTT EK supreme cooper, MCP655 with 2x360 swiftech EVGA P55 classified 200 2x2Gb ECO G.skill 1600 7-8-7-24 @ 2000MHz 7-8-7-24 1.61v / 2100MHz 8-9-8-24 1.5v XFX 5870 @ 960//1300 stock voltage CM690 II Samsung F3 spinpoint Corsair 750W
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 02:03 PM	#19
SteveLord Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Iowa	The 6900s were the cards that had everyone was shouting "Forget the 6800 series, its the 6900 that will be the flagship cards that will pwn everything AMD has + nvidia!" Mediocrity strikes again. LOL __________________ Core i7 2600k w/ Corsair H50 @ 4.0ghz ASUS P8P67 Deluxe 16GB GSkill Ripjaws 1600 DDR3 MSI GTX 560Ti Twin Frozr II 2GB 2x OCZ Vertex 3 120GB 1x Corsair M4 256GB 2x WD 640GB Black RAID 0 1x WD 1TB Black Corsair 750TX PSU Windows 7 Pro 64bit ---------------------------
	QUOTE Thanks

12-16-10, 06:31 PM	#20
don'tknow Member Join Date: Sep 2008	Never saw any expectations that high. Nobody even speculated, really. AMD was good at keeping out leaks/misleading us. Other than a few guesses I made, in which my estimations were within 10% of gtx500's performance. And that's pretty much where Cayman ended up in most games, with unsupported drivers. Some games it was less, some games they actually matched the 500's at high res w/ AA. __________________ Asus P5Q Pro Q9550 E0 @ 3.8 Ghz 1.25v XFX RHD 5850 (max stable 1025/1225/1.33v) 6GB G.Skill PC8500 Corsair 550VX Windows7 Ultimate x64
	QUOTE Thanks

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search