Your thoughts on 6950 brands

[j2j663]

I am looking to buy a Radeon HD 6950 soon. I have done a bit of research and have looked at quite a few reviews online about the 6950s that are out there but I am looking for some people who have experience with them.

This is because I do not want to buy a reference model. If I am going to OC this card I will do it myself without flashing it.

There are currently 5 models out from different companies that I am looking at:
Sapphire FleX
HIS IceQ X Turbo
PowerColor
MSI TwinFrozr III
ASUS

Here is a comparison page from Newegg ( I hope this works)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...21-431^14-121-431-TS,14-131-393^14-131-393-TS

I am leaning toward the Sapphire FleX card because of the extra output options it offers. I am not taking advantage of them yet but I will in the near future.
I also really like the Twin Frozr III card, it is a very nice step up from the Frozr II cards and again has some nice output benefits.

I am wondering if anyone has any of these cards and/or could give me their educated opinion about them. No offense but I really don't want to hear about how you got a dead card from *your brand here* and how you will never use them again. I would like to hear about the performance of the cards.

Thank you for any help you can give.

[edit] Sorry I forgot to ask one thing ... to anyone who has any of these cards ... I have looked at photos and even read some reviews online (I feel they maybe wrong) that say some of the cards do have a dual BIOS switch. However the rumor I have heard is that the switch is there on some of these cards but it is not used as a dual BIOS switch but for something else (fan speed is one thing I have heard).

 

[Helltech]

IMO Twin Frozr III or the DirectCU card. According to people on these forums you can flash a non-referenace card (you just lose the security of being able to switch to another bios if the flash goes wrong). However I can not see the point in buying a 6950 and not flashing it, but to each his own.

As I said, Twin Frozr III is the favorite, DirectCU is my second favorite.

 

[swifty_morgan]

You didn't mention what res you game at or what games, however, I have a 2gig card and couldn't be happier. Plays everything maxed out @ 1920x1200 without flaws. Even metro 2033. As far as flashing, totally idiotic. Not needed and why stress your card or screw it up ? For a card, get one with the best after market cooling..... MSI Frozer III........ they do get hot but not as hot as 560's/570's etc.

 

[chchom22]

IMO Twin Frozr III or the DirectCU card. According to people on these forums you can flash a non-referenace card (you just lose the security of being able to switch to another bios if the flash goes wrong). However I can not see the point in buying a 6950 and not flashing it, but to each his own.

As I said, Twin Frozr III is the favorite, DirectCU is my second favorite.

what people?

the only successful flashes that i have read about on this card was from a review on techpowerup and some kid who bought it at first release

 

[AstroTC]

what people?

the only successful flashes that i have read about on this card was from a review on techpowerup and some kid who bought it at first release

7. Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel or AMD?

I prefer NVIDIA for their drivers, but AMD usually have a good price/performance ratio. This time round I went for AMD. Buying a €240 graphics card and unlocking it to a €310 graphics card (those are the prices we have in Germany) was too good to pass up.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/guru3d-rig-of-the-month-march-2011/3

 

[j2j663]

7. Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel or AMD?

I prefer NVIDIA for their drivers, but AMD usually have a good price/performance ratio. This time round I went for AMD. Buying a €240 graphics card and unlocking it to a €310 graphics card (those are the prices we have in Germany) was too good to pass up.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/guru3d-rig-of-the-month-march-2011/3

Well considering that AMD owns ATI so they are the same thing, and intel makes very few discrete graphics cards. I comes down to AMD and NVIDIA and right now I am a) much happier with the price/performance ratio with AMD graphics and b) I am running an AMD CPU so it will be easier for me to crossfire in the future than it will be for me to run SLI

And I highly doubt that when I get a 6950 that I will be trying to flash it. First of all I would rather overclock it and it seems to be said in many places that overclocking it and enabling all of the shaders brings performance levels on par with flashing it. Which seems to me to say that it will safer to buy a non-reference model with a good cooler so that when I do have a card on par with a 6970 it wont be running at temps that will bring about a shorter life span.

 

[Helltech]

what people?

the only successful flashes that i have read about on this card was from a review on techpowerup and some kid who bought it at first release

There was a thread on here where one of the verterens said he succussfully flashed a Twin Frozr II version.... If I can find the post I'll link it.

The reference cards are big. I was able to unlock the shaders on a MSI Twin Frozr II, which was not a reference card. But it does not have the backup bios. If something went wrong, I would have had to do a bios flash after booting from a different card. (although if I only unlock the shaders, the card isn't like going to have problems due to it unless I played a game, making reverting back fairly easy).

I'm not sure what to recommend to you, if you want only a reference card, as your requirements are for a smaller than reference card. The MSI Twin Frozr's are smaller, btw.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/316040-33-best-flashable-6950

 

[j2j663]

Best answer selected by j2j663.