Radeon 6950 GTX 560 ti OC questions!

[mjx25]

Here's my setup:

Gigabyte ep43-ud3l Q6600 OC 3.25ghz
8gb Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600mhz
Radeon 5750 1gb
Hitatchi 500gb 7200rpm
Antec Basiq Plus 550w

My budget is around 250-300.

I'm stuck with a choice between Radeon 6950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102929
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102945

Gtx 560 ti
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127608
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578

I play on 1920x1080 and plan on OCing....however, I'm shooting towards future proof want it to last a couple years as well as
maybe SLI/Xfire when I choose to go with an i5 2500k. As for my power supply I plan on getting seasonic X650 but might spend the extra $30 for the X750 to be future proof.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

Any suggestions or people with experience from these items I'd appreciate it.

 

[Syndicat3]

Here's my setup:

Gigabyte ep43-ud3l Q6600 OC 3.25ghz
8gb Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600mhz
Radeon 5750 1gb
Hitatchi 500gb 7200rpm
Antec Basiq Plus 550w

My budget is around 250-300.

I'm stuck with a choice between Radeon 6950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102929
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102945

Gtx 560 ti
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127608
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578

I play on 1920x1080 and plan on OCing....however, I'm shooting towards future proof want it to last a couple years as well as
maybe SLI/Xfire when I choose to go with an i5 2500k. As for my power supply I plan on getting seasonic X650 but might spend the extra $30 for the X750 to be future proof.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

Any suggestions or people with experience from these items I'd appreciate it.

I debated this for weeks... after so long I decided to pick up this card yesterday:

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=042354

It was on sale for $239 after MIR + Instant Rebate.

It took 5 minutes and I easily flashed it with the 6970 Bios. I was shocked because it isn't a reference model and it's only 1 GB, but the shaders in GPU-Z don't lie. I now essentially have a 1 GB 6970 without having to pay $400.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/710/flashkk.png/

Radeon 6950 all the way dude but hopefully one that you can flash easily.

 

[blade061188]

Go with the 6950. If you can flash, that's great, but even if you can't (or don't want to) The 6950 offers better performance.

Here is a great article comparing the two:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/

I personally own the Flex edition of the 6950 and I love it. Have it OC'd to 975 core clock and 1430 mem clock.

Another plus of the Flex edition is the ability to attach 3 monitors for eyefinity without buying additional active adapters.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

^+1

 

[mjx25]

Go with the 6950. If you can flash, that's great, but even if you can't (or don't want to) The 6950 offers better performance.

Here is a great article comparing the two:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/

I personally own the Flex edition of the 6950 and I love it. Have it OC'd to 975 core clock and 1430 mem clock.

Another plus of the Flex edition is the ability to attach 3 monitors for eyefinity without buying additional active adapters.

Yeah ok I was leaning towards the Radeon 6950 just there's so many models and I saw the flex edition on newegg....

will that cooler be sufficient enough to OC?

What temps do you get on a load?

Can you tell me your FPS or post a SS for any games such as BF3?

Also does the Flex edition have the Bios switch to swap to a 6970?

I only play at 1920x1080 since I have a 24' syncmaster.

 

[mjx25]

Go with the 6950. If you can flash, that's great, but even if you can't (or don't want to) The 6950 offers better performance.

Here is a great article comparing the two:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/

I personally own the Flex edition of the 6950 and I love it. Have it OC'd to 975 core clock and 1430 mem clock.

Another plus of the Flex edition is the ability to attach 3 monitors for eyefinity without buying additional active adapters.

Yeah ok I was leaning towards the Radeon 6950 just there's so many models and I saw the flex edition on newegg....

will that cooler be sufficient enough to OC?

What temps do you get on a load?

Can you tell me your FPS or post a SS for any games such as BF3?

Also does the Flex edition have the Bios switch to swap to a 6970?

I only play at 1920x1080 since I have a 24' syncmaster.

 

[mjx25]

BTW will my current PSU Antec Basiq Plus 550w support it?

 

[Syndicat3]

BTW will my current PSU Antec Basiq Plus 550w support it?

I think your PSU would be a bottleneck.

 

[mjx25]

I think your PSU would be a bottleneck.

Ok cool....looks like i'll have to go with a seasonic x750 to be future proof....btw is it true 2gb only matters if your playing past 1920x1080 and multimonitors? I might plan on a 30' 3d lcd next year...

 

[mjx25]

Anyone have a MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin frozr III????
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127604

Considering it since I won't really be playing at a higher resolution than 1920x however, if 2gb is future proof it costs about $40 more....is it worth it?

 

[blade061188]

Run your specs through here:

http://www.coolermaster.outervision.com/

You probably don't need a new PSU at this moment, but if you are looking forward (possible crossfire) you could bump your PSU.

Like I said, I am stable at 975/1430, gaming temps high 60s to low 70s, Furmark mid 80s.

But any of the decent (non-reference) coolers will do a good job.

If you plan on running a higher resolution in the future, I would go with 2GB, especially since games are coming out with higher and higher requirements. But if you plan to stay at 1920x1080 for a while, 1GB should suit you fine.

 

[gnomio]

Nvidia and Amd cards all have Gddr5 ram from Samsung rated at 1GHZ (4GHZ).
They just downclock it where the manufacturers like Gigabyte, XFX etc etc just go OC that ram again closer to its rated specs. So dont get fooled by these Super OC versions. Most of them are sill running under spec because Nvidia use ECC and Amd EDC on their ram where it can slow the card down when the ram go over spec and it starts to correct errors in the ram

 

[c_h1132]

I debated this for weeks... after so long I decided to pick up this card yesterday:

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=042354

It was on sale for $239 after MIR + Instant Rebate.

It took 5 minutes and I easily flashed it with the 6970 Bios. I was shocked because it isn't a reference model and it's only 1 GB, but the shaders in GPU-Z don't lie. I now essentially have a 1 GB 6970 without having to pay $400.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/710/flashkk.png/

Radeon 6950 all the way dude but hopefully one that you can flash easily.

wow your the first person ive read that has flashed a 1gb version to 6970. Awesome!!!

 

[Syndicat3]

wow your the first person ive read that has flashed a 1gb version to 6970. Awesome!!!

There's actually another person here that has the same card and gave me the advice earlier today. It took 3 minutes to Flash and I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

 

[mjx25]

Run your specs through here:

http://www.coolermaster.outervision.com/

You probably don't need a new PSU at this moment, but if you are looking forward (possible crossfire) you could bump your PSU.

Like I said, I am stable at 975/1430, gaming temps high 60s to low 70s, Furmark mid 80s.

But any of the decent (non-reference) coolers will do a good job.

If you plan on running a higher resolution in the future, I would go with 2GB, especially since games are coming out with higher and higher requirements. But if you plan to stay at 1920x1080 for a while, 1GB should suit you fine.

Ok right now I'm barely at the minimum req says i need 504w and i have a 550w....guess i'll buy the card first and pray it doesn't bottleneck....although I think if I had a better psu my Q6600 can easily get to 3.6ghz since it's G0 revision...thanks a lot though....one more question does your flex radeon come with the switch and did u unlock yours?

 

[blade061188]

There is a Bios switch, but I haven't tried unlocking. I have been perfectly happy overclocking, so I can't tell you from direct experience.

You may have luck and you may not. But with two Bioses, you aren't risking much, even if it doesn't work, you'll still have the safe bios to use

 

[mjx25]

Best answer selected by mjx25.

 

[mjx25]

There is a Bios switch, but I haven't tried unlocking. I have been perfectly happy overclocking, so I can't tell you from direct experience.

You may have luck and you may not. But with two Bioses, you aren't risking much, even if it doesn't work, you'll still have the safe bios to use

Alright I'm convinced...going with the Saph Flex....I'll post my OC once I get my card as well as FPS in games...