HIS Radeon HD 6970 2 GB

[Maban]

It's a step forward for ATI but still unimpressive.

 

[Buster_Jack]

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/perfrel.gif

All I care about

It beats the gtx570 in cod4, Crysis, Drit2, F1, Riddick, Clear Sky, and even UT3 where ATI cards do real bad, plus excellent tessellation performance...

It's the second best card for a 30" monitor:

 

[Melvis]

It performs well in certain games and not so good in others, maybe with better drivers it might be a contender? Otherwise its not a GTX580 killer, but not far off it, but still nothing i would jump at as of yet. 4870X2 FTW!!!

O and the heat? thats a bit high for my liking.

 

[wolf]

It beats the gtx570 in cod4, Crysis, Drit2, F1, Riddick, Clear Sky, and even UT3 where ATI cards do real bad, plus excellent tessellation performance...

It's the second best card for a 30" monitor:

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/perfrel_2560.gif

which less than 2% of people use. 1080p is fast becoming the most popular res.

 

[Buster_Jack]

which less than 2% of people use. 1080p is fast becoming the most popular res.

remember in some test like 3dmark vantage and dar Cry 2 ATI card do real bad, and that's where average performance level closes up with that of the gtx570. Otherwise, if the price goes down to $350/--, the card might become the best card to buy.

 

[wolf]

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/perfrel_1920.gif

whats your point? it's two percent faster than a GTX480 or 570, my point is Nvidia trumped them this time, at least so far.

and don't get me wrong I'd love to see drivers work magic for these cards too, it will only mean price drops on Nv cards making everyones life better.

 

[Benetanegia]

Wow. Really really dissapointing. They don't even OC a damn. I didn't even expect this.

After I read that the final clocks were going to be 880 Mhz, an strange clock instead of the typical rounded clocks that AMD has always used, I was 100% sure that after the clock bump/bios change it would trade blows with one Nvidia card, I just thought it would be the 580, but no it's the 570 and that's with both at stock. When overclocked the HD6970 (at least the one W1zz got) is hopeless 4% OC pff.

And 90ºC wow. I wouldn't have thought AMD could do this wrong after Cypress honestly. Every advantage they had is gone. Compared to GTX570 Perf/watt is the same, because power consumption and performance are the same, thermals and OC are much worse...

Future is not so bright for AMD. They do have a small die area advantage, but looking at how the HD6950 is just as fast as the 5870, Nvidia will probably put a lot of pressure with the GTX560 and maybe even beat the HD6950 (bear in mind GTX460@850Mhz ~= HD5870, now add 15% more shaders), with a significantly smaller chip and a vastly cheaper to produce card. IF that happens, it's going to be the first time to happen that on the "high-end" since the 7900 GTX!

I was dissapointed by GF110, because it was nothng more than GF100 done right, as opposed to the 1.5x GF104 that I was anticipating (576 SP). And now this. Well, good news for me then. I bought a very cheap Gigabyte GTX460 OC a pair of months ago and in the last week I've been worried thinking I did wrong*. I'm happy now knowing I am not missing anything, but my little enthusiast heart is broken.

*I was not going to buy any of these cards, I only buy 150 euros cards now, but the fear was that if they were very fast, prices of of faster cards (Barts, GTX470...) would drop drastically. Or that the soon to be launched GTX560 would have to be sold at 150-200 euros or so to compete. But with HD6950 being what it is, Nvidia can release it for 220 euros and we would even have to thank them because of the good deal. Damn it.

 

[mdsx1950]

Have to see how these cards scale in CF. People say it can beat GTX580SLi so i'm very eager to see. Hopefully using the new 10.12 drivers.

which less than 2% of people use. 1080p is fast becoming the most popular res.

I'm proudly a part of that 2% lol

 

[wolf]

I'm proudly a part of that 2% lol

so you should be, I'd love a 30" monitor at 2650x1600...

 

[Kantastic]

If ANYONE continues to bitch about the old drivers I will personally shove my foot up your cord.

The card was disappointing to say the least, but great review as always W1z, thanks!

 

[Volkszorn88]

I'll wake up and realize that this was all one bad nightmare. Everything will be fine when well rested.

 

[KainXS]

I did not even notice it was running 90C

its more like AMD's GF100, AMD's next gen cards might be great but its just like nvidia when the 480 launched, a test card

as for the drivers, its like AMD hired a ninja to stab itself in the back

dam im gonna say, . . . . .:shadedshu

I did not expect this

 

[AndreiD]

What will newer drivers do? Drivers can't add that much performance anyway so idk why so many people are bitching about them.
I've yet to see a driver which adds 10% performance to a card. If the card turned out crappy, it will be the same with new drivers too.
I'm sure drivers will add 200 more sp so it can beat the 580.
[/rage against people crying about drivers]

 

[theonedub]

I guess price drops on NVIDIA's lineup is out of the question now, no?

 

[Goodman]

What will newer drivers do? Drivers can't add that much performance anyway so idk why so many people are bitching about them.
I've yet to see a driver which adds 10% performance to a card. If the card turned out crappy, it will be the same with new drivers too.
I'm sure drivers will add 200 more sp so it can beat the 580.
[/rage against people crying about drivers]

I've seen some good performance boost with the latest drivers on my 5750 true the year , it may not be much but it is there

 

[cherubrock]

Can someone please clarify why some performance numbers vary between when you reviewed the card, and when you're comparing against them? Specifically, when you reviewed the 6850 at 1920 on Metro, it got 18.5fps. But when it's compared in your new review, it shows as 13.4fps.

Here's the 6850's review (the 6850's 18.5fps is in blue):

And here is the 6950's review (the 6850's 13.4fps is at the very top):

 

[N3M3515]

omg...a 1920sp would have done the trick...
and the 6950 sucks! it should have beated hd5870....
shadedshu

 

[Benetanegia]

Can someone please clarify why some performance numbers vary between when you reviewed the card, and when you're comparing against them? Specifically, when you reviewed the 6850 at 1920 on Metro, it got 18.5fps. But when it's compared in your new review, it shows as 13.4fps.

Here's the 6850's review (the 6850's 18.5fps is in blue):
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_6850_CrossFire/images/metro_2033_1920_1200.gif


And here is the 6950's review (the 6850's 13.4fps is at the very top):
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6950_CrossFire/images/metro_2033_1920_1200.gif

All cards are much slower on the second chart, relative performance remains the same. As to the cause. idk but there's many posible causes: benching in a different game location, tesselation on/off, advanced DoF on/off...

 

[N3M3515]

Looks like a pair of 6950's beats a pair of gtx 570's
Here

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Wow.. a gtx480 was having this performance.. well, 8 months ago.

 

[Volkszorn88]

Wow.. a gtx480 was having this performance.. well, 8 months ago.

We know.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

We know.

The tessellation performance of 6970 is good though. Not that bad of a card. Just focused on features that are thought to be the future of gaming graphics.

 

[H82LUZ73]

Great review Wizz ,Look on the up side at least the Green cards will fall in prices hopefully.Uhm I`m confused and upset they fell behind after the bart`s chips that looked promising...oh well so many video cards now on the market what ever should i buy......

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Just hoped it had 3dmark11 bench though.. and this thing is hot..

 

[Jeffredo]

Wow. I bet Charlie Demerjian is having a coronary right now trying to figure a way to spin this.