Radeon 6950 or 6970?

[KingOtaku]

The title says it all. On one hand, the 6950 is cheaper, but the 6970 offers more performance. I already know that I could unlock the 6950 to make it pretty much a 6970, but I'd rather not do that as it would void any warranties I get on it. So I'm basically asking which one offers more bang for my buck.

 

[jeepster50]

I went with two ASUS DCII 6950 2GB, haven't touched the bios just OC'ed it to 890/1375(stock6970) and it runs nice and cool with less power. Still have the option to unlock shaders in future

 

[KingOtaku]

Well, I know that both are amazing cards, but is the 6970 really worth the price jump? I mean, is the difference actually a decent amount of frames in game, or are they only barely separated? I just need to know what'll run everything for the next year or so more efficiently.

 

[KingOtaku]

Like I said, I'd rather not risk unlocking the 6950. I'm just wondering if the 6970 is unnecesary power. I mean, if I really want to future proof things, I'll just buy a second card for crossfire.

 

[jeepster50]

well if you want to risk unlocking a 6950 then it has its own value straight away but unlocking is only for reference cards.
if you want definite 6970 performance then buying the real thing is always best

If you read all the 6950 reviews, the best card for the money is the 6950. You could get a 1GB card for less and get a 2nd one later.(if you have only one display the one gig card preforms just as good as the 2 gig one).
Non-reference PCB cards are unlock-able, just as reference cards including the 1 gig cards.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=335318

 

[KingOtaku]

And also, what about the newly announced 7000 series of cards? Should I just wait for those to be released? I might not buy one, but I know that if I wait, the prices on the 6000 series cards will drop once the 7000's come out.
I just don't know if I can wait that long...I'm riding on a geforce 9400 gt here, and its killing me.

 

[mdd1963]

AMD's website reveals exactly nothing on any forthcoming 7000 series of GPUs; since the 6970 has not been out all that long, I'd be pleasantly surprised if we see anything released even at Xmas time.

 

[candlelarbra5212]

I would go the 6950. If you Xfire later and use till the end of its life would you really get more out a 6970? You will still come to a point when both cards reach the end of their usefulness and I think it will be roughly the same time.

 

[ilysaml]

AMD's website reveals exactly nothing on any forthcoming 7000 series of GPUs; since the 6970 has not been out all that long, I'd be pleasantly surprised if we see anything released even at Xmas time.

In 2010, the Northern and Southern Islands cards adopted the AMD Radeon brand name. The Southern Islands will most likely be named the Radeon HD 7000 Series.
There are rumours that this series will only be die-shrink of the Cayman architecture.[2] Although this could mean no new features are added to the architecture, it could lead to more Stream Processors on a single die, thus increasing the performance.

Release Date
The Southern Island family is to enter mass production in May 2011,[3] with the first samples shown at the AMD Fusion Development Summit (June 13-16, 2011).[4] The HD 7000 series, looking at the release dates of the Radeon HD 5000 series and the Radeon HD 6000 series, is expected to be released in Q3 and Q4 of 2011.
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Islands_(GPU_family)

 

[KingOtaku]

That's exactly what I had read,ilysaml. So should I maybe chance the wait for the 7000 series, and either end up getting something better or saving some cash, or just buy a 6950 now?

 

[Kewlx25]

you may see a decent performance increase from a 6970 once games like BF3 come out. 6970 should OC more because stronger VRMs, better memory, high TDP.

 

[ilysaml]

That's exactly what I had read,ilysaml. So should I maybe chance the wait for the 7000 series, and either end up getting something better or saving some cash, or just buy a 6950 now?

You seem you don't get it, there won't be any new technology added to the new series just increasing in frequencies and terascales, so go for the HD 6950 if you r looking for a budget saving, and go for the 6970 if you need an increase by 30 percent in performance

 

[KingOtaku]

I understand that the 7000's will be nothing new, they'll just be more compact variations of the Cayman gpu's of the 6000's. What I'm wondering is whether or not I should wait for the inevitable price drop that will follow when the 7000 series is released.

 

[ilysaml]

you're talking like there will be a 100$ drop it will be a few bucks countable, probably there won't be such models in the market when the 7K series arrive, IMO just go for the 6950

 

[Sylvynn]

Let's not forget that you got the information for the release date of this 7k series from Wikipedia. There's a reason why you cannot use this site as a reference in schools or any form of research. That's not to say that none of it's true, but anybody could have written that.

 

[mdd1963]

Isnt the GTX570 now down to $280-ish? Outperforms the 6970 and lower cost....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=gtx570&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

 

[KingOtaku]

I bought my card months ago, but no. Actually, the 6950 is about on par with the 570, its just that Nvidia has better drivers, and bribes more developers to make their games play better on their cards.

 

[ilysaml]

I bought my card months ago, but no. Actually, the 6950 is about on par with the 570, its just that Nvidia has better drivers, and bribes more developers to make their games play better on their cards.

yes actually you are so true about that

 

[17seconds]

Nvidia has better drivers, and bribes more developers to make their games play better on their cards.

Better drivers and more games play better on their cards... Seems like good reasons to get the GTX 570.

 

[0ozee]

You seem you don't get it, there won't be any new technology added to the new series just increasing in frequencies and terascales, so go for the HD 6950 if you r looking for a budget saving, and go for the 6970 if you need an increase by 30 percent in performance

6970 is like 5-10% better then a 6950, not 30%

Plus some 6950's overclock like beasts, up to 950/1375 is roughly a bit better then a 6970

 

[0ozee]

Isnt the GTX570 now down to $280-ish? Outperforms the 6970 and lower cost....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=gtx570&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

6970 is cheaper where i live , £20-30 cheaper. and they are on par with each other. AMD cards will be beast in BF3 too.

Also if you are goin Crossfire or Sli down the road then you should go amd since Crossfire outperforms sli by a lot at the moment

 

[ilysaml]

6970 is like 5-10% better then a 6950, not 30%

Plus some 6950's overclock like beasts, up to 950/1375 is roughly a bit better then a 6970

i've the HD 6950, the difference between the HD 6950 and HD 6970 is not the core & memory clock the shaders and transistors are the determinant factor.
if you see benchmarks at techpowerup you'll find out that HD 6970 outperforms like 25-30% better than the HD 6950 in some games and by 10-15% in some others and close to the performance of HD 6950 in almost Dx 9 games

 

[ilysaml]

Better drivers and more games play better on their cards... Seems like good reasons to get the GTX 570.

sounds like AMD goes the same way. they are making a huge conferences about Deus Ex Human Revolution and how it optimizes the performance with the HD 5/6 series besides support of HD3D

 

[ilysaml]

Isnt the GTX570 now down to $280-ish? Outperforms the 6970 and lower cost....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=gtx570&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

HD 6970 performs better and it was cheaper at the first days of it's release but nVidia dropped down the price