[graphics card] ATI Radeon 6950 2GB + PSU

[alarrarte]

Hello everyone. After reviewing a lot the differences between GTX 560, GTX 560 Ti & ATI 6950 2GB i think im deciding to go with the ATI card for the money difference.

In my country, the prices are around the following:

U$S 329 GTX 560
U$S 359 GTX 560 Ti
U$S 370 ATI 6950 XFX 2GB GDDR5

now, i have read the 6950 is slightly better than 560 Ti and has more memory. My biggest concern is how the PSU will handle this new card. What i have is a "520W' powercooler PSU, model PS-500SS from powercooler.

This is the setup i run now with this PS (all stock, no OC).

ATI Sapphire HD4850 512mb DDR3
Intel E8400 stock
2x1 GB OCZ gold ddr3 1333 mhz
Samsung 250 GB 7200rpm
Motherboard asus p5qc

All this displayed on a samsung 22 1680x1050

i will be changing RAM, VGA and monitor

will replace the OCZ memories with 2x4 GB Gskill ripjawX ddr3 1333mhz and the 22 monitor by p2770h samsung 1980x1080.

It would be good to Over clock the e8400 a little bit but i have no experience at all with that and im afraid to break it while attempting... i don't have money to replace that if anything goes bad .

Please let me know any suggestion you may have as i need to decide by today end of day.

thanks!

 

[beltzy]

2 things I'd like to share with you:

1) You really will need to overclock your processor otherwise you will not be taking advantage of the performance of any of the cards you're looking at. It really isn't very difficult- I would STRONGLY recommend you do some research on overclocking using your motherboard and OC'ing to around 3.5 GHz. It will be a BIG difference on performance when you upgrade your video card!!! If you'd like more info let me know- Tom's did a great article (fairly dated now) regarding balanced gaming machines where an overclocked dual core could just about match more modern quad core performance, provided it is OC'ed to 3.5GHz+.

2) The 6950 1GB performs identically to the 2GB version at all resolutions up to and including 2560x1600. This link is from the new special edition 560 ti, but shows both the 1GB and 2GB 6950s. Also stacked up against the regular 560 ti.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-560-ti-448-core-benchmark,3082-11.html

The less expensive 6950 1GB should be somewhere below the 560 ti (not sure exactly where it will fall where you live). Really hard to beat with regards to value right now. If they are priced very similarly, the 560 ti is not a bad choice at all- some people prefer NVidia

 

[alarrarte]

thank you for the time you have taken to respond.

1) Many people told me that and i agree with you, i will need to read my way through it and overclock the e8400 up to 3.6ghz or around. They sell the i5 2500k for U$S280 here and i will also need to change the motherboard, i really think its not necessary if i can OC my CPU. Regarding this, if you have any good info you are aware of and would like to share id appreciate it. just as a side note, i have this CPU with the stock fan from intel, i guess i will need a better fan? I have a good case for the computer and it has decente cooling. I have a Thermaltake armor with the big fan on its side panel.


2) so the 6950 1GB is about US$ 280, almost 100 less than the one with 2GB. they are both the same? i will look at those charts now. I have had a bad expierience with this ATI 4850 regarding temperature. The stock fan basically sucks and i have seen this card getting to 100 celcius sometimes when running potent games in summer.

also, do you know if that PSU will be able to handle either of those cards? right now its handling the 4850 with no problems.

thanks again

 

[andywork78]

Oh.
i see how it goes.
If you had bad experience with temperature then you must purchase what i have.
It's ASUS 6950 2GB model.
It's really big~ cooling unit and eat up 3 slot of pci.
But you will love it.

ATI, nVidia really doesn't matter, if you try ATI before then go for nVidia this time.

And the PSU power try this site.

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

lol good luck~

 

[beltzy]

2) so the 6950 1GB is about US$ 280, almost 100 less than the one with 2GB. they are both the same? i will look at those charts now. I have had a bad expierience with this ATI 4850 regarding temperature. The stock fan basically sucks and i have seen this card getting to 100 celcius sometimes when running potent games in summer.

It depends on the specific model. Some cards are priced higher because they are set at higher speeds (factory overclocked). usually these don't present good value- they charge you a lot for the relatively minor performance increase. Additionally, you may be able to just raise your cards to the same speeds, which takes 2 minutes to do and a short period of time to test.

Bottom line answer is yes- a 6950 1GB will perform the same as the 2GB version.

 

[alarrarte]

ok i made a mistake, the one wiht 1gb is almost the same price (20 dollars less) than the one with 2gb. I was looking at the 6870. This card they offered me is ensambled by sapphire. I think im going with this one. thanks for the replies.

the last concern, and my biggest, is the PSU. will the powercooler 520 support this ATI card?

thanks