560 ti vs HD 6950

mrjellybean · May 20, 2011

Hello, I was wondering whether an overclocked 560 ti running at 950 Mhz would be able to outperform a HD 6950 that has been flashed to a 6970. Also will the 2GB of VRAM on the HD 6950 ever make a difference if I were to play games with only one monitor.

chesteracorgi · May 20, 2011

The AMD 6950/6970 will outperform the GTX 560 ti in most, if not all, tasks. The GTX 560 ti is comparable to the AMD 6950 unflashed. In some tasks the Nvidia wins, in others the AMD wins.

mdd1963 · May 20, 2011

The 560Ti is a solid card, but, given current near-equal pricing, I'd choose a 6950 every time....; if the 560Ti ever drops to $200-$220 or less, that might change....

swifty_morgan · May 20, 2011

I owned them both. (2gig models) still have the 6950. should tell you something.

Helltech · May 20, 2011

If the application favors Nvidia (like WoW and SCII for instance) GTX 560ti.

a 6970 is more on par with a GTX 570, so yeah... that should tell you something there.

If the card is locked; 6950 2GB > GTX 560 ti = 6950 1GB, IMO.

shrkbay · May 20, 2011

WoW and SCII favour AMD lately and fastest GTX560Ti is not capable of beating 570 (even if it is running @ 1.1Ghz, which is quite impossible to reach) means it can't beat 6970 (6970 is a bit faster than GTX570). Also 2GB 6950 is the same as 1GB mostly, but 2GB is only useful in some heavy tasks (like 3D or Metro2033) and on multiple screens. 6950 is averagely faster than 560Ti (it gets higher avg. FPS and minimums), so...
6950 1/2GB > GTX560Ti
But lately i haven't seen almost any good models (like XFX BE) of 6950 (except for ASUS DCuII/MSI Twin Frozr, which i am huge fan of), while there's a sh*t load of GTX560Tis on sale right now.

17seconds · May 20, 2011

This chart illustrates how an overclocked GTX 560 is generally faster than both a GTX 570 (and therefore also a 6970) and a 6950. To read the chart, the green bars show how much faster the 560 is vs. a 570, and the red bars show how much faster the 560 is than a 6950 (click for a larger image).

The point is that there can be no blanket statement about which card is fastest since it depends on the game being played. Even at 950 mhz, the GTX 560's lead over the 6950 is too much to overcome in BFBC2, Just Cause 2, Lost Planet 2, Mass Effect 2, and HAWX 2 even with the 6970 mod.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/gf-gtx560-ti-roundup.html
Quote:
"Of course, the Radeon HD 6950 has no chance against such a heavily overclocked GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Most impressively, the latter even competes with the GeForce GTX 570, a product from a higher category."

rkkonrad · May 20, 2011

What is that chart measuring? I'm guessing FPS... is AA turned on?

Wisecracker · May 20, 2011

rkkonrad :

That chart is useless, so I guess it represents Extreme Propaganda.

Best I can tell, they took 5 560 Ti cards, cherry-picked one, over-clocked the snot out of it, drug out a 570 and HD69501GB at stock clocks, and said, "Look!"

They even admitted that most 560 Ti cards would never clock that high.

If the OP is interested in the cards he should check any other reputable reviews -- that ain't one.

shobits1 · May 21, 2011

Wisecracker :

Agreed with you; 1050Mhz OC is not possible with all GTX560Ti cards

well, here is a review of the Asus GTX560TI DirectCU II (overclocked to 900Mhz out of the box) :

Performance Summary page:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_Direct_Cu_II/28.html

As you can see (from the review) the 900Mhz OC GTX560Ti is about the same as the reference HD6950,
the HD6970 is obviously will outperforms both and you'll have the overclocking thing if this isn't enough.

PS: keep in mind that rumors about HD6950 won't unlock has been around recently - so make your decision based on it (even if can't be unlocked with good cooler you'll be able to overclock it)

mrjellybean · May 21, 2011

Thanks a lot for the replies it seems that there is a consensus that the 6950 will beat the 560 ti even when overclocked.

shobits1 · May 21, 2011

An other thing, what PCI-E version you have in your mobo?

if you have a PCI-E1.x then stay away from PCI-E2.1 cards since some people have issue in this case otherwise you should be fine.

meaning, if you have a PCI-E1.x mobo then you better go with GTX560Ti since it has a PCI-E2.0 and stay away from HD6950 (has PCI-E2.1).

maybe you can tell us what is your mobo, and see if other people have issue with it.

shobits1 · May 21, 2011

I'm just guessing, what could lead him to future problem since he hasn't told us what system he have.

and about the bottleneck, much true (maybe he'll overclock the CPU to get better performance in case of old system).

17seconds · May 21, 2011

Your strategy should be to target the games that you actually play, then pick the card that performs best in those games. You certainly would not pick a 6950 if you were playing HAWX 2, Lost Planet 2, or Mass Effect 2 for example. On the other hand, you certainly would want a 6950 if you were playing Dragon Age 2, F1, or Crysis: Warhead, etc. PhysX might also be a consideration.

So what games do you play?

majin ssj eric · May 21, 2011

The 6950 is the stronger card but barely (think 10% max). The 560Ti can be had for less money and includes such things as CUDA if you are into folding as well as having superior driver support and better tesselation....

shrkbay · May 21, 2011

@matt, they mostly used games that favour nVidia and if you look at games that are neutral (like metro 2033 or Crysis) then GTX560Ti @ 1050 (~22%OC from stock), which is quite impossible to reach, is only 10% ahead of 6950 on metro and 5% on Crysis. GTX560Ti would match 6950 only if it is OCed to ~925, which is the clock that almost every 560 reaches, but not every 560 can overcome it...
OP: @950 560 will not beat 6970, you would need over 1100Mhz OC to reach 6970 performance and as i said most of 560Tis don't even reach 950.

shrkbay · May 21, 2011

@majin, where can you see that GTX560Ti is cheaper than HD6950?

17seconds · May 21, 2011

shrkbay :

Any review that uses Dragon Age 2 and F1 (HardOCP) is definitely not favoring Nvidia.

Not only do most GTX 560's reach 950 mhz, many come with that for a factory overclock. All you need to do is look at a review of the MSI GTX 560 Hawk, Zotac AMP!, Gigabyte SOC, or several others clocked at 950 mhz or above. At 950 mhz and above you really need to focus on the actual games being played and whether or not you like PhysX or value tesselation performance, etc. because the performance of a good GTX 560 is very much in the 6950/6970/GTX 570 range.

"The MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk was definitely impressive! With some minor refinements this card could probably push the core overclocking further and thus improve the already high performance! The card is able to match and sometimes beat an AMD HD 6950 and tie most of the time with the GTX 570 while costing much less than both. Overclocking was able to increase the core speed from 950MHz to 1010MHz stable with stints up to 1050MHz. The memory speed was increased from 1050MHz all the way to 1250MHz with headroom left, a dramatic increase!"
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi_560gtx_hawk/16.htm

"This is a killer card! Sure, we're dealing with the SOC version of the new GTX 560 Ti, but it puts out some unreal results and while it carries a slightly larger price tag than the reference one at $269, the performance it offers means that the card still has no problem topping the TPR charts. The big question is, how does AMD come back against this? You've got a card that really offers HD 6970 performance, at HD 6870 prices."
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3796/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_560_ti_1gb_soc_video_card/index21.html

"The redesigned PCB and advanced cooling on Zotac's GTX 560 Ti AMP! edition means that straight out of the box it's hitting a massive 950MHz core clockspeed. That overclock makes it significantly faster than the reference board across the full suite of benchmark tests we run. It also means the card outperforms the reference Radeon HD 6950, and is actually snapping at the heels of the GeForce GTX 570. Interestingly it's also trading blows with AMD's fastest single-GPU card, the Radeon HD 6970, in all but the tessellation-heavy DX11 benchmarks."
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/zotac-geforce-gtx-560-ti-amp--926763/review?artc_pg=3

shrkbay · May 22, 2011

@matt, on the pic you listed there are 2 games that favour AMD and 8 games that favour nVidia and you say that it's not favoring nVidia? Btw, all these cards - Zotac AMP!, GIGABYTE SOC, MSI HAWK are quite expensive and they are made to reach these clocks, but others with worse coolers can't reach these clocks unless you have a well-cooled case.

From the review of Zotac AMP!:

"...That said when we pushed the reference board to its 935MHz limit we were hitting almost the same figures as the AMP!"
They show only few benchmarks and in most of them 6950 is ahead of Zotac AMP!
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/zotac-geforce-gtx-560-ti-amp--926763/review?artc_pg=1

In GIGABYTE SOC review HD6950 is all the time few FPS behind 560Ti clocked @1000.
Btw, look at this one:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3796/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_560_ti_1gb_soc_video_card/index18.html
GIGABYTE SOC consumes 100W more (load) than Sapphire HD6950 2GB!
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3796/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_560_ti_1gb_soc_video_card/index1.html

MSI HAWK benchmarks were hardly readable, but that's what i found from OCing:
"Overclocking the Hawk was very easy. The main limitation was cooling for the power circuitry. I was able to pass most benchmarks at 1050MHz core but it began freezing. In feeling around the card, I found the hottest area to be the backside above the phases. The metal plate isn't the best at dissipating the heat when pushing the clocks further. 1020MHz still wasn't stable enough to pass all testing but 1010MHz was. ... The card is able to match and sometimes beat an AMD HD 6950."
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi_560gtx_hawk/

EDIT: TYPOS

560 ti vs HD 6950

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