Gtx 560Ti AMP Edition vs. Radeon 6950 2GB

what if i flash the card into a 6970 and OC it further ..wouldn't it outperform the ocd 560 then ..?

You would lose PhysX and Nvidia preference for many of those games. You can also overclock the GTX 560, and Nvidia cards have better scaling when overclocking due to the fact that the shader speed is set at 2X the core speed, while AMD shaders are clocked at 1X the clock speed.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/giga [...] oc-review/
Looking at that Guru3d review of the Gigabyte GTX 560 SOC @ 1000 mhz:

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

And benchmarks from some of your favorite games:

If you need any more convincing check out all the threads complaining about the latest Catalyst 11.2 drivers. But for me, you just don't even need to go past the PhysX issue. You play PhysX games, end of debate.

Just to toss in some confusion, stock vs stock the 6950 tends to be better according to anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=293

http://physxinfo.com/

Don't get me wrong, I like PhysX. That's why I have a GT240 to run it. But when you look at the list (linked) of games that run it, it's hardly worth consideration.

unreal 3 and metro 2033 are the only games up there with Physx that I'd be playing a lot ..metro is arguably the most demanding game available now but it runs at 40 fps at max settings on a 6950 (correct me if I'm wrong) which is enough ..ut3 would have a frame of 170-190 on a 6950 at full HD and max settings ..which is wat more than what i need ..the games i really love playing are bc2, ut3, hot pursuit, cnc3, and battlefield 3 (when it comes out)

Btw, when you unlock and OC a hd6950, you CANNOT beat the value!!!! I would go for the hd6950. But the stock hd6950 vs. the GTX 560 Ti AMP! edition, the hd6950 loses.

Yes, it would destroy the AMP!. Although, keep in mind that if you do unlock it, it will not OC like crazy. To unlock you may need to raise the voltage a little higher anyway. If you a OC after that, who knows, maybe you wouldn't even need to raise voltages, but you may need more voltage. The reason for this is because the hd6970 a a 6 and 6+2 pin connectors which gives it extra power.

Btw, scaling is when you use two cards, not one. SO it would 'scale' just fine. Grab a hd6950, unlock, and OC as far as possible and it will blow the GTX 560 Ti from price to performance out of the water. hd6950 = better performance for the same price.

Oh, I see what you meant now. Although, if you unlocked and O.C.ed a hd6950, it would be like a SUPER!!!!!!!!!! OC.

It would be pretty darn good. So, have you made up your mind?????

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product Modular, supports CFX, but I doubt is has the power to do dual hd9670s. The TDP on those things are 300w! Will you even do CFX later? If yes, I would get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

yeah yeah ..know that ..no cf ..not in 2-3 years at least ..
thanks ..

if I unlock I'd be drawing 225 Watts out of two 75 Watt connectors ..is that safe ..?

500W PSU would be enough but depends on the PSU. If it has a single 12V rail it should have at least 40A IMO. If it's split rail, then at least 25A.

Just FYI when it comes to overclocking, you'll usually see a better result by getting the memory bandwidth as high as possible. Especially with AA/AF and some DX11 things going on, memory bandwidth is super important. Core speed is still important but often not as important. I made a thread on it once where I ran Furmark with AA on, I did 1 set of tests only raising mem speed and then another set only raising core speed. With AA on, the only thing that raised the FPS was mem speed. Core speed didn't affect it. If you're interested I can try to find the article or at least link the graph I made.

The only problem with your logic is that the numerous performance charts on this page show the 560 AMP! card at 950 mhz beating both the 6950 and 6970 in exactly those games you want to play. And yes, the GTX 560 will overclock even more, and will scale better than the 6900's when overclocking. Why? Because Nvidia clocks their shaders at 2X the core clocks, while AMD clocks their shaders at 1X the core clocks.

cause of the extra VRAM ..?

what if I get the 1gb version and OC it ..wouldn't that be a far more economical alternative ..as the 6950 1gb and 2gb perform almost exactly the same ..?

I know I can't unlock it ..
the unlocked sharers only give you a 2-3% increase in performance ..its the memory and core clock that matters ..right ..?

I think the 6970 performs that much better cause of the extra clocks ..

Get the hd6950 unlocked and OCed. You really are not going to get better... I am sorry.

You don't buy a 2gb card in this day in age to play games, unless you are at EXTREME resolutions. Buy the 2gb, and you will be able to play future games.

The lesson learned from the 6950 1GB reviews is that it's performance is nearly identical to the 2 GB version, even at high resolutions.

dirt 2 sometimes goes upto 1.2-1.3 ..on those tracks with loads of cheering crowds ..