6950 Overkill?

[phishy714]

I am looking to get a graphics card that will last me a good long time once I run it in Xfire. My choices right now are the 6870 and the 6950. Running a 1680 x 1050 display right now and not planning on upgrading it makes me feel that a 6950 is a bit of an overkill with current games and possibly games down the road.

I have heard that the difference between what I have now and a 1920 x 1080 on a 22" screen is almost unnoticable; instead it begins to make a huge difference around 27" or more displays, and I am not about to go throw $300 on a computer monitor that size. Please, however, correct me if im wrong.

A 6950 (xfire down the road) will last me a long time on a 1680x1050 display, but how do you guys think that will compare to a 6870 (xfire down the road of course) in the long haul? My budget is around $200 -$220 right now. One thing to note, I am probably willing to wait till about July to buy something so maybe prices of the 6950 will go down alot by then and then this will be a no brainer, but what do you guys think?

edit: Stuff that i plan to play now/down the road: Everything from the most intensive games (BF3) to tetris

 

[chesteracorgi]

I am looking to get a graphics card that will last me a good long time once I run it in Xfire. My choices right now are the 6870 and the 6950. Running a 1680 x 1050 display right now and not planning on upgrading it makes me feel that a 6950 is a bit of an overkill with current games and possibly games down the road.

I have heard that the difference between what I have now and a 1920 x 1080 on a 22" screen is almost unnoticable; instead it begins to make a huge difference around 27" or more displays, and I am not about to go throw $300 on a computer monitor that size. Please, however, correct me if im wrong.

A 6950 (xfire down the road) will last me a long time on a 1680x1050 display, but how do you guys think that will compare to a 6870 (xfire down the road of course) in the long haul? My budget is around $200 -$220 right now. One thing to note, I am probably willing to wait till about July to buy something so maybe prices of the 6950 will go down alot by then and then this will be a no brainer, but what do you guys think?

edit: Stuff that i plan to play now/down the road: Everything from the most intensive games (BF3) to tetris

The advantage of the 6950 series is that it is flashable to the 6970. Not all flashes are successful but I have read that even if unsuccessful a flash of the 6950 GPU won't harm the card.

I'd recommend the 6950 for this reason.

 

[Overclocked Toaster]

Both cards are overkill for the majority of games, but when it comes to the most demanding games, there is no such thing as overkill!

 

[phishy714]

The advantage of the 6950 series is that it is flashable to the 6970. Not all flashes are successful but I have read that even if unsuccessful a flash of the 6950 GPU won't harm the card.

I'd recommend the 6950 for this reason.

I don't know that I want to flash the 6950. I know the best thing to do is to unlcok shaders and just overclock it to 6970 speeds and it will be the same thing without the risk, but I am not a fan of overclocking the GPU. This is a valid point however. It would give me more value considering I could probably run xfire 6970's up until HD 8000's show up lol.

 

[marney_5]

I dont think you can flash the new 6950's. they dont have the bios switch.

 

[chesteracorgi]

I dont think you can flash the new 6950's. they dont have the bios switch.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/12/27/simple-bios-flash-turns-amd-radeon-hd-6950-into-a-6970/

 

[chesteracorgi]

I don't know that I want to flash the 6950. I know the best thing to do is to unlcok shaders and just overclock it to 6970 speeds and it will be the same thing without the risk, but I am not a fan of overclocking the GPU. This is a valid point however. It would give me more value considering I could probably run xfire 6970's up until HD 8000's show up lol.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

 

[chesteracorgi]

I say potaatoe you say potato.

 

[phishy714]

I say potaatoe you say potato.

The method you linked is the one I have read on and it seems great. However, the safety that they speak of in this site is the fact that the card(s) they tried this on have a dual bios. The switch makes it so that they are able to just switch from one to the other without any problems if anything bad happens.

The manufacturer obviously did not like this so they stopped making cards with dual bios switch on them. I haven't seen a 6950 with this switch for sale anywhere. I know it also says that you can just reflash the original bios onto the card, but what I have read is that sometimes these cards start out working great and then die 2 months later. They belive it has something to do with the memory timings a 6970 bios brings with it that the card does not support or somethign like that. Have you heard any of this or had any luck flashing a 6950 to a 6970 without this dual bios switch?

 

[chesteracorgi]

Phishy, I understand your reluctance. I am not saying that it is without risk. I was merely making the point that it can be done.

I recently purchased a used GTX 470, modded it out with an aftermarket cooler (the Zalman 3000VF) and am overclocking it to compete with a stock GTX480/GTX 570.

I know that the Nvidia is a stable GFX card and easily overclocked.

I think that your choices are very respectable, and you will not be disappointed with whatever you finally choose. The 6950 will have a longer service life, but the price point of the 6870 may be the decision point for you.

And there is always the opportunity to find a 6950 card that has a good track record with flashing the BIOS.

I can recommend MSI afterburner as a good overclocking tool.

 

[phishy714]

I can recommend MSI afterburner as a good overclocking tool.

Thanks alot for your suggestions though! I have alot of crap to think about now >< Does MSI Afterburner work with any card or only with MSI cards? I think its pretty self explanatory, but worth a question i guess lol

 

[chesteracorgi]

MSI afterburner works with any card. You can download it from the MSI website.

 

[phishy714]

Best answer selected by Phishy714.