Sapphire hd 6950 or geforce gtx 480

[gherr74]

hello every 1...im looking to upgrade my lil old 4650 to

1. SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card (OC Edition)

or

2.EVGA GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) Video Card - 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, Dual DVI, HDMI, SLI, DirectX 11


which 1 do you guys think i should get.. almost same price range $25 difference

 

[rolli59]

I would get the HD6950 less heat and power usage and a massive upgrade from HD4650!

 

[kajabla]

What's the rest of your rig like, and what's your actual budget?
You should generally try to go for the latest generation with your tech purchases unless there's some reason not to. The 6950 is a generation ahead of the 480 (it came out with the Nvidia 500 series), but if the budget makes sense you should go for a Radeon 7000-series, maybe a 7850. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150608

 

[samuelspark]

GTX 480 will offer much better performance and when overclocked will match stock 580's. The only price is heat and a bit of noise. Probably more than what you're used to with your 4650. Need a beefy PSU as well.

 

[amuffin]

gtx 480.

 

[neon neophyte]

6950, hands down

 

[tonync_01]

Why are you choosing between just those two cards? In that price range you're probably better off with a Radeon HD 7850. Have you read this article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-4.html

 

[tjs4ever]

I can only say that sticking with an AMD card might be a smoother upgrade due to unified drivers. Also, AMD cards are generally more power efficient, which is important if upgrading an older machine. Why don't you specify your budget, and pc specs? Do you have a decent PSU?

 

[Ironslice]

The GTX 480 completely annihilates the 6950. The only drawbacks is that it is pretty hot and requires a lot of power.

What Power Supply do you have? You might have to ugprade regardless of the card.

 

[neon neophyte]

doesn annihilate my 6950, mines faster im most games. unlocked shaders and a 1ghz overclock will do that though.

 

[samuelspark]

doesn annihilate my 6950, mines faster im most games. unlocked shaders and a 1ghz overclock will do that though.

Overclock the 480 and it shoots past your 6950.

 

[neon neophyte]

no it doesnt, a stock 6970 beats a gtx480 in most games, and 1ghz over 880mhz is about the same overclock a gtx480 will see. does it with WAAAAAY less power usage as well. which is nice, for when i go to add a 2nd card. 2 gtx480s is just brutal on heat and power usage. bru-tal

 

[samuelspark]

???

Overclock the 480, you get a 580. 580 > 6970

 

[neon neophyte]

not greater than an overclocked 6970. not to mention im pretty sure i read the 6970 benefits from its overclock more than a gtx480 does

also does it with 120+ less watts which is stupid important if u ever crossfire/sli

 

[samuelspark]

Lol.

$350 6970 vs $220 GTX 480. No contest.

 

[neon neophyte]

yeah, gtx480s are going for a steal of a price right now. no doubt. on the flip side a new 6970 is far overpriced.

however, if you listen to the op he states theres only a 25 dollar difference, which makes the 6970 a better choice in that instance. regardless of which one is 25 dollars more

 

[samuelspark]

6950 =/= 6970

No guarantee to unlock.

 

[neon neophyte]

valid point

 

[samuelspark]

Please pick a best answer to close the thread as it helps the mods out a lot.

 

[Mastermalstrom]

Hello I'm in the Same boat as you i took the next step and ordered them bolth

I Have just bought a XFX 6950 and a EVGA GTX480

they bolth are Great Cards Super Fast

My Rig: win7 64 Ultimate Tpower 2 I45 E8400 4Gb Ram OCZ 750 PSU

Having two Problem with the 6950 makes High pitch noises some times and some stuttering in games, which is odd non yet with the GTX 480

http://www.hwcompare.com/8757/geforce-gtx-480-vs-radeon-hd-6950/

The GTX uses 50 more watts Whoopty do

Texel Rate
The Radeon HD 6950 is a lot (approximately 68%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 480

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, by far.

Hard to Say what one is better i am benchmarking with a few games will post results

so far for PassMark the 6950 got a 2747.3 in 3D and the GTX 480 got a 3153.3

so far Just Cause 2 got 34.35 FPS maxed and the GTX480 got 31 FPS maxed

Farcry 2 6950 average FPS was 60.16 and the GTX was 48 FPS

Drivers AMD 12.3 Nvidia 301.42

Have yet to benchmark Crysis, Crysis warhead, Cysis 2, BattleField 3, Saints Row 3, Mass effect 3 and Skyrim

So ill try to stay posted on this issue

Oh almost forgot to mention i went through 3 different brands of 7850's it has major issue would not suggest that card

 

[neon neophyte]

uses more than 50w more

 

[neon neophyte]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818-21.html

considerably more

 

[neon neophyte]

580 is a lil lower, but ya, still a beast

 

[Mastermalstrom]

was thinking idle not under load

 

[fantastik250]

Here is a benchmark for power consumption. I posted the MSI version since it's close to the sapphire OC edition by 10 MHz

Depending on the resolution you play at. The GTX 480 will be ahead by 4%(2560x1600) to 13% (1024x768)

Overall all the 6950 2GB is the better deal. Much lower power consumption, and minimal difference at higher resolutions for performance.