6950, 5870, or something else?

[OrbitalPete]

OK, it's time for my rolling GPU upgrade. It's 3 years since I put the 8800GT into the old girl, so I'm looking for a replacement.

The rest of the machine is a 6GB i5 750 and there's 650W of power to play with. Display is 2x 1680x1050. It's a full size ATX tower, and an Asus P55D (can't remember exactly which variation off the top of my head).

I don't tend to keep up with tech developments until it comes to replacement time, and it's taken me a couple of days just to get to grips with the current naming shenanigans ATI and NVidia have got themselves into.

Budget limit is around the £200 mark. So what are your opinions? 6950 2GB? 5870 1GB? GTX560Ti? Something else? All input appreciated while I wade through various reviews and comparisons

 

[adam_x_brookes]

Well if those are the three cards that you are currently looking at, I would have to recomend the HD 6950. It's performance compared to an HD 5870 is roughly the same, however, ever you ever decided to increase your graphics performance and crossfire, the HD 6950 scales far better than the older 5xxx series card.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

yeah, +1 for 6950, and you can unlock shaders with a bios flash to turn it into a 6970.

 

[dstln]

If you get a 6950, make sure it's one that has a high chance of flashing to 6970. 5870s are dwindling from market, but there have been some amazing deals on them around (for that reason), so if it's cheap enough and you're fine with it, you can go that route too.

 

[cronos177]

Yeah, newer tech is always , always better. So +1 6950.

 

[shrkbay]

6950, it's 10% faster than 5870 and 560Ti, CF scaling is also awesome.

 

[fpotus1]

Don't count out the GXF 560ti. Overclocked the Gigabyte OC edition out performs stock 2gb 6950's and it's much cheaper than the versions of 6950 capable of flashing bios and unlocking shaders, and in SLI it beats out 2 CF 5870's according to tom's review.

 

[panacuba]

+1 to 6950, you dont need to "flash the bios and installl the 6970 bios on it", theres another method for unloking those shaders, and its far more secure.

 

[shrkbay]

fpotus, even 1GB 6950 can unlock shaders, that's very easy and safe, that will make it a 1GB 6970 with lower clock and it is still capable of beating 570!

 

[fpotus1]

I know that it can unlock shaders safely, trust me I like the 6950 with unlocked shaders it's a wonderful "steal". However, have you read the review of the gigabyte 560ti OC edition? here's a link to the Crysis benchmarks for it: http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-review/14
it out performs the 6950 by 4 fps and is only 2 behind the 6970 and costs about 75 to 100 dollars less...

 

[bystander]

I know that it can unlock shaders safely, trust me I like the 6950 with unlocked shaders it's a wonderful "steal". However, have you read the review of the gigabyte 560ti OC edition? here's a link to the Crysis benchmarks for it: http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-review/14
it out performs the 6950 by 4 fps and is only 2 behind the 6970 and costs about 75 to 100 dollars less...

Where are you finding such a huge disparity in pricing? They appear to be the same cost for 1gb cards. Are you looking at the non ti versions, which are not as fast?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=6950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=gtx+560+ti&x=0&y=0

Even some of the 2gb versions are about the same cost as the 560ti.

Note: just so it's not ignored, you can overclock those other cards too.

 

[shrkbay]

fpotus, have you looked at the power consumption page?? it clearly shows that GIGABYTE SOC consumes 40W more than 6950 in typical gaming! And do you know what the power consumption would be under full load? 100W more! Btw, it's very hard to get a stock GTX560Ti to over 925Mhz Core. And yeah, it's not 75$ cheaper it's 60$ more expensive...