Radeon HD 6970 And 6950 Review: Is Cayman A Gator Or A Crock?

[gmarsack]

So glad I went with two HD 6850's. The price/performance ratio is awesome and stands up to those higher end single cards, plus I can use 6 displays at once!

 

[reprotected]

To be honest, not many people are going to buy 2 6970s or 6950s, so they lose there. If you wanted to put them together, then that is a different story.

 

[rohitbaran]

[citation][nom]Drdeath777[/nom]All of that manuevering on the naming sequence, and such a let down....! AMD has "usually" been very good at marketing as an underdog must be. This time AMD Marketing earns an "epic fail". I hope Bulldozer doesn't turn into "Lawnmower".[/citation]
I loled!

 

[jaghpanther]

Like plenty of others, the hype got to me. I'm glad I didn't commit. Now, I can get a 570 cheaper than the 6970 for about the same performance, and if the noise and heat charts from other reviews hold true the 570 is cooler and quieter to boot (a quieter and cooler running fermi vs an AMD GPU?! this must be opposite day).
With that said that 6950 looks good in CF. Let's see how it stacks up against the 560's, though I'm really tempted to pull the trigger on a 570 now.

 

[jimmysmitty]

[citation][nom]IzzyCraft[/nom]Sorry all i read was this"This helps catch AMD up to Nvidia. However, Intel has something waiting in the wings that’ll take both graphics companies by surprise. In a couple of weeks, we'll be able to tell you more." and now i'm fixated to weather or not intel's gpu's can actually commit to proper playback.[/citation]

I would be interested in seeing what intel has planned. We already know about Larrabee and that it was delayed. We know it will be a tesselation monster (they are focusing on it more than rasterization) but not much more than that.

I am a tad anxious to hear about it.

[citation][nom]tacoslave[/nom]imagine when this hits 32nm?[/citation]

It wont.... 32nm is for CPUs. The next step for GPUs is 28nm and thats if GF or TSMC can get it working right. 40nm had major problems at the start.

But we shall see i guess.

Overall, its not as impressive as the HD4870 or HD5870 was. Its more like going from a HD2900 to a HD3870. Just a small jump in performance while allowing lower idle power consumption.

 

[evga_fan]

[citation][nom]rohitbaran[/nom]That is crap. It includes some games that just too much faster on Nvidia GPUs, I mean they are what the skew is all about. Include games in your calculation that don't give any brand of card any skewed performance gain and then see. The result will be much different.[/citation]

This was just a test based on the games that TOMSHARDWARE (not I) chose to run their benchmarks on. I would have chosen games that wouldn't give any unfair advantage for AMD/nV cards. 4 out of 6 games in this article are TWIMTBP games while the remaining 2 fairs for AMD. Biast? Tell that to the editor...

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]evga_fan[/nom]This was just a test based on the games that TOMSHARDWARE (not I) chose to run their benchmarks on. I would have chosen games that wouldn't give any unfair advantage for AMD/nV cards. 4 out of 6 games in this article are TWIMTBP games while the remaining 2 fairs for AMD. Biast? Tell that to the editor...[/citation]

Indeed, take it up with the editor. Just be sure your facts are straight AMD performs better in Battlefield BC2, despite that being a TWIMTBP title. Nvidia performs better in DiRT 2, despite that being one of AMD's DX11 launch titles. I simply try to keep the latest titles in our graphics benchmark suite, with absolutely no intention of favoring one company or the other!

Chris

 

[spellbinder2050]

I would still like to see Crysis shown in these benchmarks. Even though the game is already 3 years old, it still stands the test of time.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like an Epic bribe for their manufacturer to drop the 32nm production. Im sure ATi was really really counting on that 32nm considering their advertisements on how they where designing everything for 32nm

Looks like they had no choice.

A bribe is a bribe, take it and retire...

 

[midnightgun]

Kinda disappointed... A co-worker was gonna sell me his 1yo 5870 for 200 bucks (Canadian), I think cause he was anticipating these new cards...

Probably won't sell it now -_-

 

[evga_fan]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Indeed, take it up with the editor. Just be sure your facts are straight AMD performs better in Battlefield BC2, despite that being a TWIMTBP title. Nvidia performs better in DiRT 2, despite that being one of AMD's DX11 launch titles. I simply try to keep the latest titles in our graphics benchmark suite, with absolutely no intention of favoring one company or the other!Chris[/citation]

Once again, I'm not questioning your methods even if it came out that way. 'Rohitbaran' claimed that I was biast in my calculations for only using the games you used in your article. I simply said I was not and meant that I wouldn't and didn't intend to give any unfair advantages! As for BC2, I think nV fares quite well against the new competition with only 5970 consistently showing good numbers in the single card race (maybe that's just me though).

 

[evga_fan]

[citation][nom]evga_fan[/nom]Once again, I'm not questioning your methods even if it came out that way. 'Rohitbaran' claimed that I was biast in my calculations for only using the games you used in your article. I simply said I was not and meant that I wouldn't and didn't intend to give any unfair advantages! As for BC2, I think nV fares quite well against the new competition with only 5970 consistently showing good numbers in the single card race (maybe that's just me though).[/citation]

edit: except for 470 that is!

 

[jfem]

I thought Cayman will perfect the sweet spot strategy, sadly it didn't. I think Barts hit the sweet spot but AMD must fix the very low min fps on its crossfire. If they will be able to fix it then at least they can say that they did a remarkable job being able to match/beat SLI's superior scaling.

 

[elbert]

Looking over the multi-card tests it seems in all but dirt 2 the pair of 6970's would beat 2 580's. After comparing them to another site 2 6970 would match a $1000 SLI 580 setup in 4 of the 5 games tests at or above 1920X1080.

 

[elbert]

I cant wait for an in depth review of crossfire vs SLI to see exactly how they stack up.

 

[Anik8]

Actually nvidia too was on the fear that HD 6970 would be ground breaking so they rolled out the 580 much before 6970 to preempt this one so as to hold the crown over as little the time it can.
But now the 580 is being compared with the 5970 and the next amd card is the 6990 will only have some improvements on 5970 that nvidia plans to ward off with their dual-fermi that ws about to release before 2011 but learning from the 6970 launch nvidia doesn't want to comprehend over pricings and so they're waitin for the 6990 to come out.
This may seem bad to some but amd is in line for a possible whitewash evn aftr the so successful 5xxx series.

 

[inflameswetrust666]

The 5970 is a 5850x2, not a 5870x2. The only 5870x2 is the ASUS Ares, and its just a vendor product (i.e. not officially sponsored by AMD). The key difference here is that both 58xx class (and 69xx)use the same GPU. It just so happens that the 5850 is clocked at lower speeds. The 5970 is the 58xx class GPU, clocked at 5850 speeds. Essentially its the same thing as a 5850 crossfire, although I've never seen the two actually compared.

 

[Guest]

If Nvidia would bother to put mini-DisplayPorts on their cards it would be a no-brainer for me to move back to Nvidia. But they don't so I'm sticking with my 6870.

 

[michaelahess]

My 4850 still runs everything at 1920x1080 maxed no trouble on my projector. I'll wait for the next gen.

 

[payne_ksharp]

wheather its 300$ or 500$, AMD offers the better value for money. The 570 was looking good but not anymore....and bringing CF into the equation the GTX460s are no more the best

 

[CptTripps]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Indeed, take it up with the editor. Just be sure your facts are straight AMD performs better in Battlefield BC2, despite that being a TWIMTBP title. Nvidia performs better in DiRT 2, despite that being one of AMD's DX11 launch titles. I simply try to keep the latest titles in our graphics benchmark suite, with absolutely no intention of favoring one company or the other!Chris[/citation]

This I understand, I don't care which team the game is programmed for. I want to see popular games that are played by many people or games that incorporate the latest tech that will test the newer cards. Trying to cherry pick games based on a logo is ridiculous, I want end results and this article gave me exactly that. I will xfire my 5870 with another and be more than happy.

 

[CptTripps]

[citation][nom]michaelahess[/nom]My 4850 still runs everything at 1920x1080 maxed no trouble on my projector. I'll wait for the next gen.[/citation]

Maxed? What games are you playing because I tend to get a small amount of slowdown even on my 5870 in BC2 when I have "everything" maxed including the AA. I upgraded from a 1GB 4850 and it was a fantastic card but there were many games I could not max. Not trolling, just curious.

 

[AvielSe7en]

A bit anti climatic to say the least. The cards perform well in Crossfire and are an attractive purchase if you run high resolution/multiple monitors. The mainstream can look away and the AMD fanboys can bow their heads in disappointment. Still they seem pretty good cards for those who wish upon a star.

 

[brisingamen]

the most under rated specification of the 6970 especially in crossfire is the best minimum fram rate in the buisiness. in my mind that makes these cards a big success. i cant wait for the price to drop so i can aquire some. as an owner of 2 gtx 580's i can say that i feel i should have waited, . . .

 

[Guest]

I'm going with a pair of 6850's