AMD's Radeon HD 6970 & Radeon HD 6950: Paving The Future For AMD

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• MeanBruce - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  TechPowerUp.com shows the 6850 as 95percent or almost double the performance of the 4850 and 100percent more efficient than the 4850@1920x1200. I also am upgrading an old 4850, as far as the 6950 check their charts when they come up later today.

• mapesdhs - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link

  
  Today I will have completed by benchmark pages comparing 4890, 8800GT and
  GTX 460 1GB (800 and 850 core speeds), in both single and CF/SLI, for a range
  of tests. You should be able to extrapolate between known 4850/4890 differences,
  the data I've accumulated, and known GTX 460 vs. 68xx/69xx differences (baring
  in mind I'm testing with 460s with much higher core clocks than the 675 reference
  speed used in this article). Email me at mapesdhs@yahoo.com and I'll send you
  the URL once the data is up. I'm testing with 3DMark06, Unigine (Heaven, Tropics
  and Sanctuary), X3TC, Stalker COP, Cinebench, Viewperf and PT Boats. Later
  I'll also test with Vantage, 3DMark11 and AvP.
  
  Ian.

• ZoSo - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  Helluva 'Bang for the Buck' that's for sure! Currently I'm running a 5850, but I have been toying with the idea of SLI or CF. For a $300 difference, CF is the way to go at this point.
  I'm in no rush, I'm going to wait at least a month or two before I pull any triggers ;)

• RaistlinZ - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  I'm a bit underwhelmed from a performance standpoint. I see nothing that will make me want to upgrade from my trusty 5870.
  
  I would like to see a 2x6950 vs 2x570 comparison though.

• fausto412 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  exactly my feelings.
  
  it's like thinking Miss Universe is about to screw you and then you find out it's her mom....who's probably still hot...but def not miss universe

• Paladin1211 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  CF scaling is truly amazing now, I'm glad that nVidia has something to catch up in terms of driver. Meanwhile, the ATI wrong refresh rate is not fixed, it stucks at 60hz where the monitor can do 75hz. "Refresh force", "refresh lock", "ATI refresh fix", disable /enable EDID, manually set monitor attributes in CCC, EDID hack... nothing works. Even the "HUGE" 10.12 driver can't get my friend's old Samsung SyncMaster 920NW to work at its native 1440x900@75hz, both in XP 32bit and win 7 64bit. My next monitor will be an 120hz for sure, and I don't want to risk and ruin my investment, AMD.

• mapesdhs - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link

  
  I'm not sure if this will help fix the refresh issue (I do the following to fix max res
  limits), but try downloading the drivers for the monitor but modify the data file
  before installing them. Check to ensure it has the correct genuine max res and/or
  max refresh.
  
  I've been using various models of CRT which have the same Sony tube that can
  do 2048 x 1536, but every single vendor that sells models based on this tube has
  drivers that limited the max res to 1800x1440 by default, so I edit the file to enable
  2048 x 1536 and then it works fine, eg. HP P1130.
  
  Bit daft that drivers for a monitor do not by default allow one to exploit the monitor
  to its maximum potential.
  
  Anyway, good luck!!
  
  Ian.

• techworm - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  future DX11 games will stress GPU and video RAM incrementally and it is then that 6970 will shine so it's obvious that 6970 is a better and more future proof purchase than GTX570 that will be frame buffer limited in near future games

• Nickel020 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  In the table about whether PowerTune affects an application or not there's a yes for 3DMark, and in the text you mention two applications saw throttling (with 3DMark it would be three). Is this an error?
  
  Also, you should maybe include that you're measuring the whole system power in the PowerTune tables, it might be confusing for people who don't read your reviews very often to see that the power draw you measured is way higher than the PowerTune level.
  
  Reading the rest now :)

• stangflyer - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link

  Sold my 5970 waiting for 6990. With my 5970 playing games at 5040x1050 I would always have a 4th extended monitor hooked up to a tritton uve-150 usb to vga adapter. This would let me game while having the fourth monitor display my teamspeak, afterburner, and various other things.
  Question is this!! Can i use the new 6950/6970 and use triple monitor and also use a 4th screen extended at the same time? I have 3 matching dell native display port monitors and a fourth with vga/dvi. Can I use the 2 dp's and the 2 dvi's on the 6970 at the same time? I have been looking for this answer for hours and can't find it! Thanks for the help.