Help, which 6950 should I buy

[hakatech]

Hi everyone,

Need to buy a GPU for my new build, budget is around £200 (roughly about $300). I need it soonish as I have already bought the system it will be in online, and it should arrive in the next few days. From my research I have narrowed it down to these two:

Sapphire HD 6950 TOXIC 2GB GDDR5
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1041&pid=1243&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC
http://uk.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-Twin-Frozr-III-Power-Edition-OC.html

If anyone knows of any better GPU's for the budget then please do sure. I am fully willing to overclock, may crossfire later.

my system:
Intel I5 2500k sandybridge CPU 3.3 GHz
Asrock P67 PRO3 SE Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
Xigmatek Midgard White Knight Case
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V
Thermaltake 575W Toughpower XT Modular PSU
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
LiteOn iHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive

Thanks in advance for any help 😀

 

[hakatech]

1) highest resolution possible, I have a benq 2420HDBL 24inch monitor
2) modern warfare 3, battle field 3, mass effect 3 (lol all 3's) and any other new good games
3) Sorry I forgot to mention I live in the UK, any store in uk is good. But all i need to know which card to buy, i can research the price myself.

Max budget $350

 

[optionman31601]

i am also in the market for HD 6950, so far on my thread for my build i have come up with ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814121431
it's $ 289 currently
the card is very large and if you crossfire later it might be an issue because of it's size, i only chose it for the following reasons, up to 6 monitor support and extreme cooling features and of course the other specs in the description.
will you be gaming?
your budget is plenty enough for a Great HD 6950 card, keep checking on this thread for more people with more expertise than me, but i know your on the right track with the HD 6950 series.

 

[hakatech]

1) I didn't says half life cos I haven't heard any release news but yes definitely will be playing it when it comes out
2) thankyou for the links, I have already looked at those and had orginally decided on the twin frozr III, then i came across the sapphire toxic with higher factory clock settings, and started to think that there might be better cards than the MSI one.
3) as I have enough dough for the 2GB, i thought i might as well get it now, so that I do not need to update my GPU later

 

[englandr753]

Just be prepared to upgrade that PSU when you decide to crossfire. Until then, you will be fine...

 

[hakatech]

yea i have already thought about that but i will only crossfire when a single GPU wont be enough to handle the games I play, which is a while off so no need to spend more than needed on the PSU

 

[hakatech]

is there anyone that can help me decide???

 

[optionman31601]

well, i tried to search for 2gb memory size and High Core clock speed and these are the ones that came up,
although 2 of them are HD 6970 cards:

1. PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 6950 (Vortex II Edition)(Dirt 3 Edition) AX6950 2GBD5-PPVG2 Video Card with Eyefinity $ 274.99 after rebate- newegg item# N82E16814131444
2. PowerColor Radeon HD 6970 AX6970 2GBD5-2DH Video Card with Eyefinity, $ 339.99
newegg item# N82E16814131391
3. MSI Radeon HD 6970 R6970 Lightning Video Card $ 386.99, newegg item# N82E16814127581

 

[j2j663]

I am currently running with a Twin Frozr III and love it. Given the Sapphire card wasn't released when I made my decision but I have read some reviews on it and haven't found anything to convince me that I would have bought it over the MSI.

On a different note, with the reviews I have ready (mostly on OCC) the Twin Frozr is consistently one of the better performers when it comes to temperature, which in my eyes is always a big plus. And with the factory OC it is also usually one of the top performers.

 

[garage1217]

I can vouch for this xfx unit as I own it. Very sweet card!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150548

Pros..
- Dead silent when not gaming
- Has a slight overclock stock at 830/1300
- Overclocks VERY well IMO. Mine runs rock solid stable at 925/1500 at just 1.181V. Pushed it as hard as 950/1500 but started having issues in benchmarks after running them back to back for an hour so backed it off to 925 and all is good.
- Mail in rebate came back in 2 weeks from the date I mailed it! Still waiting on an MSI rebate and will probably have to fight with them as always.
- Price was outstanding
- Compact sized card, fit my micro atx build with ease
- Lifetime warranty but I hear XFX can be a pain with warranties, however I have never had to warranty anything from them.