The Test

For the launch of the Radeon HD 6900 series, AMD supplied us with a 6900-enabled version of the Catalyst 10.11 driver, version 8.79.6.2RC2. This is older than the Catalyst 10.12 preview released Monday, which was 8.8xx.

Otherwise our test setup has not significantly changed from the GTX 570 launch last week. For our existing AMD cards we’re still using the Catalyst 10.10e, while for NVIDIA it’s a mix of 262.99 and 263.09. Note that we do not have a 2nd GTX 570 yet for GTX 570 SLI comparisons; given the equality between the 570 and 480, the GTX 480 in SLI is a reasonable stand-in.

Finally, all tests were done with the default driver settings unless otherwise noted.

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.33GHz
Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Extreme
Chipset Drivers: Intel 9.1.1.1015 (Intel)
Hard Disk: OCZ Summit (120GB)
Memory: Patriot Viper DDR3-1333 3 x 2GB (7-7-7-20)
Video Cards: AMD Radeon HD 6970
AMD Radeon HD 6950
AMD Radeon HD 6870
AMD Radeon HD 6850
AMD Radeon HD 5970
AMD Radeon HD 5870
AMD Radeon HD 5850
AMD Radeon HD 5770
AMD Radeon HD 4870
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
Video Drivers: NVIDIA ForceWare 262.99
NVIDIA ForceWare 263.09
AMD Catalyst 10.10e
AMD Catalyst 8.79.6.2RC2
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Meet the 6970 & 6950 Crysis: Warhead
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  • 529th - Sunday, December 19, 2010 - link

    Great job on this review. Excellent writing and easy to read.

    Thanks
  • marc1000 - Sunday, December 19, 2010 - link

    yes, that's for sure. we will have to wait a little to see improvements from VLIW4. but my point is the "VLIW processors" count, they went up by 20%. with all other improvements, I was expecting a little more performance, just that.

    but in the other hand, I was reading the graphs, and decided that 6950 will be my next card. it has double the performance of 5770 in almost all cases. that's good enough for me.
  • Iketh - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link

    This is how they've always reviewed new products? And perhaps the biggest reason AT stands apart from the rest? You must be new to AT??
  • WhatsTheDifference - Sunday, December 26, 2010 - link

    the 4890? I see every nvidia config, never a card overlooked there, ever, but the ATI's (then) top card is conspicuously absent. long as you include the 285, there's really no excuse for the omission. honestly, what's the problem?
  • PeteRoy - Friday, December 31, 2010 - link

    All games released today are in the graphic level of the year 2006, how many games do you know that can bring the most out of this card? Crysis from 2007?
  • Hrel - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - link

    So when are all these tests going to be re-run at 1920x1080 cause quite frankly that's what I'm waiting for. I don't care about any resolution that doesn't work on my HDTV. I want 1920x1080, 1600x900 and 1280x720. If you must include uber resolutions for people with uber money then whatever; but those people know to just buy the fastest card out there anyway so they don't really need performance numbers to make up their mind. Money is no object so just buy nvidia's most expensive card and ur off.
  • AKP1973 - Thursday, October 13, 2011 - link

    Have you guys noticed the "load GPU temp" of the 6870 in XFIRE?... It produced so very low heat than any enthusiast card in a multi-GPU setup. That's one of the best XFIRE card in our time today if you value price, performance, cool temp, and silence.!
  • Travisryno - Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - link

    It's dishonest referring to enhanced 8x as 32x. There are industry standards for this, which AMD, NEC, 3DFX, SGI, SEGA AM2, etc..(everybody) always follow(ed), then nVidia just makes their own...
    Just look how convoluted it is..

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