How does AMD organize Graphics Cards?

[Aeradom]

So I was looking around the forums to try and find a chart that would show me a "bang for the buck" kind of deal and found the Heirarchy Chart. It was most helpful at understanding what the comparable cards were to make a Nvidia vs AMD comparison.

Anywho, It's been quite sometime since I've worked on computer, so forgive me if I'm a little slow to the party. I noticed on the chart that a 5970 card were three slots better than the 6870 I planned on getting. So, thinking that the 5970 card was an older card and therefore cheaper, I looked up the price to discover it was ~$300.

I was curious how AMD organizes graphic cards? Do they just jump around? Or is there a method to the madness? Again I apologize for the naivety of the question, but I was curious.

Thank you for those who respond.

 

[kinggraves]

5xxx IS the last generation, but they didn't make many changes between the last and current gens, so a 6xxx is only a little better usually than a 5xxx.

 

[amuffin]

The 5970 is a dual gpu card, it was replaced by the 6990.

 

[Gman450]

Among a dual GPU, a GTX 590 and a Radeon HD 6990 can replace the HD 5970. But by a single card, the Radeon HD 6870 is a good one.

 

[Aeradom]

I believe I didn't make my question clear on the first comment, and for that I apologize. When I was looking at the 2011 Graphic Heirarchy Chart:

Spoiler

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

It shows that the 5970 is the 3rd best graphics card available, at least If I'm reading the chart correctly (Which to be fair I may not be.) And the reason I was wondering was because the paragraphs above was that a real "upgrade" was a card that was 3 slots higher than the 6870 (Which I was looking to buy actually).

I'm guessing though that it's a dual GPU as the poster above was speaking of, but I was just confused because I thought with AMD the better graphic cards went in ascending order (i.e 5xxx is inferior to 6xxx... generally speaking.)

Again, my apologies for any confusion I may of caused, I was just curious.

 

[Gman450]

I was just confused because I thought with AMD the better graphic cards went in ascending order (i.e 5xxx is inferior to 6xxx... generally speaking.)

Again, my apologies for any confusion I may of caused, I was just curious.

Actually, no.
The Radeon HD 5000 series aren't inferior to the HD 6000 series.
The HD 6000 series have a better handling of DX11 and tesselations than the 5000 series.
The Radeon HD 6870, that you're opting to buy, comes close to a HD 5870, but just barely. It definitely beats a HD 5850.

 

[jakeyLoo]

From how I usually read it...

The 1st number is the series number.

The key is the 2nd number. The 2nd number shows whether the card is the higher-end entry or the lower-end entry.

In your case, 5970 vs 6870, you can see that while the 5970 is of the 5 series, it was a top-end card, compared to the 6870 which is the 6 series, but slightly lower-end card. Hence the difference.

To adequately upgrade on a previous series, your 2nd and 3rd numbers must be equal or higher!

I hope I'm not wrong lol. Feel free to correct me.

 

[pit_1209]

that is the new herarchy and as you can see the second number will tell you the segment and the segment will tell you an approximate perf and value

 

[Earnie]

5xxx IS the last generation, but they didn't make many changes between the last and current gens, so a 6xxx is only a little better usually than a 5xxx.

wrong!the 6000 series is way better,the one major change is scaling in crossfire.

 

[amuffin]

Depends on which 6xxx card you are comparing to the 5xxx series.

 

[pharoahhalfdead]

Aeradom, you are not wrong when you said you thought AMD jumped around on their number scheme. I might be reading your question wrong, but it sounds like you don't already know the info I'm about to give you. They recently swtiched up the way they prioritized their cards.

AMD's top of the line cards used to have an 8 for a second digit, like 38xx, 48xx, 58xx. While their second tier card had a 7 like the 37xx, 47xx, 57xx, but that has changed.

When the 5000 series came out, they changed their dual card to 5970 unlike the 4870x2.

When the 6000 series emerged, the high end card now had a 9 for a second digit instead of the 8, example the 69xx is the new top card, and the second tier cards became the 68xx, third tier 67xx.

It used to be that you could tell automatically that the x8xx was top dog, now it's not the case. If you already new this, sorry, but the way you worded you questions and statements made it sound like you didn't.

 

[Earnie]

Depends on which 6xxx card you are comparing to the 5xxx series.

if you compare the replacement 6000 card for the 5000,its a better card.there is no depends.
a 6970 is better than a 5870
a 6950 is better than a 5850..etc..

 

[jaguarskx]

The Radeon 6xxx series represents a transition to AMD's model rankings.

In the past it was simple. The HD 3850 was faster than HD 2850. The HD 4850 was faster than the HD 3850. The HD 5850 is faster than the HD 4850. However, the HD 6850 is not faster than the HD 5850. The HD 6750 and HD 6770 are just rebranded HD 5750 and HD 5770 video cards. All cards below the HD 6750 follows the traditional convention so that the HD 6670 is faster than the HD 5670 (by about 10% on average).

AMD shifted the HD 58xx's models up to the HD 69xx name scheme. Therefore, overall the HD 6850 and HD 6870 were actually a little slower than the HD 5850 and the HD 5870, respectively. And the real successors to the HD 5850 and HD 5870 are the HD 6950 and JD 6970.

The HD 6xxx series introduced more efficient DX11 support and better XFire scaling. With the introduction of the HD 7xxx series, everything is basically back to normal. The HD 7850 will be faster than the HD 6850, the HD 7950 will be faster than the HD 6950, etc. However this time around the HD 7650 and HD 7670 will be rebadged HD 6650 and HD 6670 video cards.

 

[mactronix]

Rather than try to make any sense of the numbering scheme, why not just compare the cards performance in a set of benchmarks like this.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/29.html

Mactronix

 

[Gman450]

^+1
Bencmarks are the best way you can get the idea.

 

[Aeradom]

Best answer selected by Aeradom.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey