6950 manufacturer choice?

[Neuroblastoma]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week
USAGE: Gaming
POWER SUPPLY: Cool Master 800W

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: i5 2500K w/ an ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 mobo

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg or Microcenter

OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Later down the road


I am really looking for a quality GPU that is under $300, and a little closer to $200. I have been pointed towards the 6950's for their cost, but I am not indifferent to Nvidia's offering. I was looking at a 560ti the other day...

Anywho, in my research, I read that their is not a noticable difference between a 1Gb 6950 and a 2Gb 6950. Is that true? Also, I'm looking at a GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD over the Frozr offerings? Is that a quality choice, or am I short changing myself?

Here's the link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.731447

Thanks for the help

 

[geekapproved]

There's no noticeable difference between a 1gb 6950 and 2gb 6950........? Ummm...except the obvious 1gb of ram. Which makes a huge difference with resolutions over 1920 or with multiple monitors.

560ti or 6950 1gb would both be good choices.

I typically go for the card that offers the best warranty, which is usually XFX or EVGA.

 

[ilysaml]

like said before the GTX 560ti is the same as HD 6950 depending on the game and my advise is to go with the 2gb version because it's more future proof to hungry Vram games such as Crysis 2, Sapphire HD 6950 Toxic Edition is said to be faster than HD 6970 with a little pure overclock.

 

[geekapproved]

2GB frame buffer is not worth the extra money unless your running over 1920x1280.

 

[ilysaml]

2GB frame buffer is not worth the extra money unless your running over 1920x1280.

i know that, but there are more demanding Vram games such as Crysis 2, the optimal performance recommended by Crytek is 1.5 Gb of Vram available and i guess the more Upcoming games will be a Vram hungry, the new 7k series top models are all equipped by 2 Gb of Ram

 

[geekapproved]

Again, the game doesn't matter, it all depends on the resolution.

 

[Neuroblastoma]

Best answer selected by Neuroblastoma.

 

[bystander]

Again, the game doesn't matter, it all depends on the resolution.

The game most certainly does matter, but almost all game dev's make sure their games work well with 1gb at resolutions of 1920x1200 and lower because that's what most people have. That said, there are some rare exceptions that do not work well at max settings due to vram size (Dirt 2 in the LA stadium has had issues with this if everything is maxed).

As a general rule, the non extreme resolutions don't need more than 1Gb now, but as mentioned above, to be more future proof may require 2gb. Given that the next generation of cards, that are coming out at the end of the year, are all going to be 2GB cards, you can expect that dev's will start to take advantage of that extra vram.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey