GTX 560 ti vs HD5950

[Jamieaawroe]

I'm really struggling to pick my next graphics card, hopefully someone can help. Since I know roughly what performance level I'm looking at, my main priority now is value. I almost don't care about price provided the value is good, daft as that sounds.

Currently I've been looking at the HD 6950 and the gtx 560 ti, and after shopping around the best prices I can get are:

£195 - 1GB Powercolor HD 6950 (Stock)
£200 - 1GB MSI GTX 560 TWIN FROZR II (minor OC to 880 MHz)
£205 - 2GB Powercolor HD 6950 (Stock)
£225 - 1GB Gigabyte GTX 560 SOC (OC'd @ 1GHz)

I don't know how good/reputable powercolor are but they always seem cheap, which is obv. worrying. My current 4870 is powercolor (bought as it was the cheapest) and has run fine though, and at decent temps, so that reassuring. If I go for a non powercolour 6950 the price rises steadily up to around £230ish.

I thought I was getting a gtx Gigabyte SOC 560, and still have one on preorder, but recently reviews seem to be swaying me towards a 6950 instead. Am I wright in saying that they'll all perform about the same, but with a Stock 560 as worst, and the Gigabyte SOC above as best?

(I just saw a 6970 sell for £200 on ebay, which would have made this an easy decision! Forgot to check up on it until too late 🙁 )

I play @ 1080p, so 2GB is probably unnecessary, however it's only a tenner extra. Also I can't seem to find much on 6950 factory overclocked cards, are these not as common as with the GTX 560? As an aside, I won't be overclocking either of these cards (or bios flashing the 6950). That's one reason I favor a factory overclock, provided the price is right. So what's everyone think?? I really haven't got a clue which to pick. By the way, my PSU is a 600w OCR Stealth, and I'd rather not upgrade it right now.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[17seconds]

If you can get a Gigabyte 560 SOC, then that is your card. The factory overclock at 1000 mhz places it above the HD6970 in performance all while being one of the quietest cards available. So, IF you can get one, you should go for it.

"The GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC (GV-N560SO-1GI) is a beautiful thing really. It is a nice to look at graphics card, it remains to be very silent, it's pre- (factory ) overclocked for you real high and that falls within warranty and next to that, it chunks out serious performance. At the current baseline clock frequencies this card is battling with cards like the Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 570 ... and that's surely not a bad position to be in for a card like this. If the price is right, very much recommended, we like to hand out a top pick award for the GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC from Gigabyte."
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-review/

"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

 

[purple stain]

GTX560 comes close,very close,to performing near the 6950/6970.Although the 6950 can be unlocked to a 6970 the gtx560, imo, is the better card.One problem i've ran into with these very large cards is how loud they are once they get hot.I only have a 6870 but i'm sure that it's the same with the 6950.The gtx560 has much better O.C. potentional than the 6950 and the heatsinks they make for it are very quiet when compared to a 6950.Unless your going to do a multiple monitor setup(eyefinity), then you should get the GTX560.

I vote for the Twin Frozr II GTX560.

 

[darkphox]

I am going through some similar upgrade woes, but with a multi-screen setup. I'm actually taking a poll between gtx 560's or 6950's, and there have been a few decent links submitted with benchmarks. They go for roughly the same price, but looksl ike on single screen the 6950's get better px (stock). Check out the links on my post if you're interested.

Link to my poll: (thats what she said)

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/310523-33-surround-eyefinity-6950s

 

[mrsphex]

I would say to go with the 560 if you wanted to eventually have 3D Vision. But if thats not the case, get the 2GB Radeon 6950 so that you can unlock it with a simple vBIOS swap to a Radeon 6970.

 

[yesitsmario]

^ +1

 

[Jamieaawroe]

Hmm, I was thinking about the 6950 unlocking option too. I've never actually flashed the BIOS on a card before though, so I don't know how difficult that would be. There also seem to be conflicting opinions on if that would void my warrenty, or if it would break the card 2 weeks down the line!

I guess the problem is benchmarks seem to say HD 6950 > GTX 560 ti, especially if you go for the 2GB card and play at higher resolutions, but would the Gigabyte SOC card be noticably better than the 6950? i.e. £30 (~$50) better?

Oh and I'm not going to be using 3d.

 

[Jamieaawroe]

Ok problem solved, I found the Gigabyte gtx 560 SO for £210, and its in stock! (here http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-560ti-1ghz-1gb-pci-e-hdmi-superoverclo-7B28.html?q=gtx%20560 ) so I've ordered it. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[17seconds]

That's the first time I have seen it in stock since mid-January. Nice find.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-review/
Looking at that Guru3d review of the SOC:

Load Temperatures
SOC: 60c
6970: 80c
6950: 79c

Noise Levels
SOC: 38 Dba
6970: 42 Dba
6950: 42 Dba

1920x1200
Avg. fps across all benchmarks (includes two overclocked 6950 benchmarks)
SOC: 77 fps
6970: 75 fps
6950: 71 fps

3D Mark Vantage
SOC: 21,953
6970: 21,419
6950: 20,657

 

[Jamieaawroe]

That's the first time I have seen it in stock since mid-January. Nice find.

Yea, the place I was preodering from (ebuyer) was supposed to get them in stock yesterday, but when I rang up this morning they still had no clue when they'd get any. Everywhere seems to be the same too, other than this one shop. Hope it's not a website mistake it's supposed to arrive tomorrow so I'll know soon enough!!