AMD's Radeon HD 6970 & Radeon HD 6950: Paving The Future For AMD
by Ryan Smith on December 15, 2010 12:01 AM ESTSTALKER: Call of Pripyat
The third game in the STALKER series continues to build on GSC Game World’s X-Ray Engine by adding DX11 support, tessellation, and more. This also makes it another one of the highly demanding games in our benchmark suite.
It’s when we finally get to STALKER, a game that uses significant tessellation, that we see the 6900 stretch out its legs and shine. Once more compared to the GTX 570 the 6950 is close to or meets it in performance while the 6970 takes anywhere from an 8%-20% lead and threatens the GTX 580. But the real story is the 6900 series versus the 5870; the 6950 enjoys a 15% lead while the 6970 is anywhere between 30% and 50% faster depending on the resolution. Between the game’s high memory requirements and its use of tessellation, the 6900 has a very clear advantage over the 5870. It’s situations like these where AMD’s forward looking architecture is meeting a forward looking game.
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Ryan Smith - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
AMD rarely has Linux drivers ready for the press ahead of a launch. This is one such occasion.MeanBruce - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Great job on the review Ryan, hope you will cover the upcoming Nvidia 560 and 550 when they arrive. Peace Brother!gescom - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Please Anand make an update with a new 10.12 driver. Great review btw.knowom - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Until you keep into consideration1) Driver support
2) Cuda
3) PhysX
I also prefer the lower idle noise, but higher load noise than the reverse for Ati because when your gaming usually you have your sound turned up a lot it's when you aren't gaming is when noise is more of the issue for seeking a quieter system.
It's a better trade off in my view, but they are both pretty even in terms of noise for idle and load regardless and a far cry from quite compared to other solutions from both vendors if that's what your worried about not to mention non reference cooler designs effect that situation by leaps and bounds..
Acanthus - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
AMD has been updating drivers more aggressively than Nvidia lately. (the last year)Anecdotally, my GTX285 has had a lot more game issues than my 4890. Specifically in NWN2 and Civ5.
Cuda is irrelevant unless you are doing heavy 1. photoshop, 2. video encoding.
PhysX is still a crappy gimmick at this point and needs to offer real visual improvements without a 40%+ performance hit.
smookyolo - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
PhysX may be a gimmick in games, but it's one of the better ones.Also, guess what... it's being used all over the 3D animation industry.
And guess where the real money comes from? The industry.
fausto412 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
physx is a gimmick that has been around for some time and will never take hold. when physx came around it set a new standard but since then developers have adopted havok more commonly since it doesn't require extra hardware.it's all marketing and not a worthy decision point when buying a new card
jackstar7 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Alternately, my triple-monitor setup makes AMD the obvious choice.beepboy - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Agreed on triple-monitor setup. You can make the argument that 2x 460s are cheaper and nets better performance but at the end of the day 2x 460s will be louder, use more power, more heat, etc over a single 69xx. I just want my triple monitor setup, damn it.codedivine - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Any info on cache sizes and register files?