6950 Still Taking Names and Chewing Bubble Gum

[libertariat]

Summer of 2011 I built a few rigs for myself and some friends.

i2500k
2gb HIS 6950
16gb 1866mhz DDR3
SSD Boot drive

I'm proud to say that all 3 rigs are running tremendously well and to date have yet to struggle with any of the games we play (HOTS, Witcher, BF3, Diablo 3, Rainbow 6 Siege Beta, Dragon Age Inquisition, heavily modded Skyrim and Fallout with no hiccups)

Mine runs hot as a forge, so I keep the case off as of late with a fan blowing on it. This weekend I'll be re-working the thermal paste on the GPU.

No plans for upgrading anything until the 6950 goes, and no real justification to upgrade the RAM or CPU for current demands. Right now the 390 would probably be my replacement card, but I'm thinking that with my future-proofing nature in mind I could probably hold out until 2nd Quarter 2016 for the 400 series and the next gen Nvidia to see what the offers are. The current lineup from Nvidia doesn't seem to have the future in mind as much as AMD does (less Vram, DX12 support, etc)

The new process and DX12 looks promising. Just wanted to gather thoughts on waiting for the next Gen. I've been ecstatic with this card and how long it's served it's purpose. Would like to get that kind of service out of my next card.

 

[DrSandwich]

Next Gen AMD Gpu's look amazing! 60 TO 80% increase from Fury X?! That's insane! I have really good feelings about their GPU'S, but I hope their CPU'S go as good. I believe consumer level GPU'S are supposed to be packing 8 to 16gb HBM2 and Enthusiast level-32gb! That is insane to me. IK Nvidia isn't far behind, but go AMD! GO TECHNOLOGY! lol.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I still use a 6850 and a 7850 , they still do all I ask of them for what they are . funny is I look at these newer cards and think out side of fps what am I really getting over these older cards as of today ? as long as they keep thing running with out major issue they just sae me money in the cost of a newer card [opinion]

then with amd you got to concider the line is a lot of rebranding anyway so.....

so whats there next gen ? another rebrand called like a r9-480??? lol

 

[libertariat]

AMD and Nvidia will be throwing down like they never have before with the new smaller and more efficient process nodes coming out with the next generation of GPUs. Nvidia and AMD have both been "re-branding" for 3 generations now on the same process.

Rebranding isn't fair to either, because a lot of architecture changes even with the rebrand, so it's not fair to either to call it that.

 

[DrSandwich]

I still use a 6850 and a 7850 , they still do all I ask of them for what they are . funny is I look at these newer cards and think out side of fps what am I really getting over these older cards as of today ? as long as they keep thing running with out major issue they just sae me money in the cost of a newer card [opinion]

then with amd you got to concider the line is a lot of rebranding anyway so.....

so whats there next gen ? another rebrand called like a r9-480??? lol

Nvidia has done rebranding as well... I do think its great that older card are still putting up the fight, but newer cards are either giving better performance, or need less power for equal performance and better drivers. Next gen AMD Gpu's probably won't have rebrands, but that's just my thoughts. I could be wrong!
Rebrands usually have better performance than the originals too.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I just look at what I got what its doing for me and look at the new stuff and just say naa i'll keep holding on though I am / was interested in the hybrid card seems air is getting too spotty with holding good temps these days ?? but like I said this old is still holding its own and not costing me a thing right now as well?? funny thig is it was a discount card I was going to use as a back up and plugged it in to check it out and its still in here today over the so called ''higher end '/ cost card I had in here what is now the back up card on the shelve collecting dust

 

[DrSandwich]

I just look at what I got what its doing for me and look at the new stuff and just say naa i'll keep holding on though I am / was interested in the hybrid card seems air is getting too spotty with holding good temps these days ?? but like I said this old is still holding its own and not costing me a thing right now as well?? funny thig is it was a discount card I was going to use as a back up and plugged it in to check it out and its still in here today over the so called ''higher end '/ cost card I had in here what is now the back up card on the shelve collecting dust

You have to admit though, old AMD GPU'S take a lot of power to run them lol. Power Hungry machines.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I odnt see it ? if that was so true then why are the new NVidia cards still getting up to 80c ??? way les power and power causes heat ? so whats up with that the hottest my card has got is 65c ??

so why is a 150 w card running as hot as a 250w card as you say with AMD ?? seems the lower power use NVidia card should never see over 60c if that was to hold true . right ??

 

[DrSandwich]

It may depend on how the systems total cooling is. I didn't say anything about AMD gpu's getting hotter than Nvidias, I should have said ALOT of Amd's older GPU'S that were/are very good use a lot of power.

 

[libertariat]

Thank you all for your responses. Mostly just wondering if I'm not the only one with an outdated card who is trying to be patient for the next gen. Next year will be a very exciting time in the GPU world for sure With SSD getting even cheaper we're all getting a lot more for our money lately.