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Radeon HD 6970 And 6950 Review: Is Cayman A Gator Or A Crock?
Last month, Nvidia launched its GeForce GTX 580, but we told you to hold off on buying it. A week ago, Nvidia launched GeForce GTX 570 and we again said "wait." AMD's Cayman was our impetus. Were Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 worth the wait? Read on for more!
Kingston 6 GB (3 x 2 GB) DDR3-2000, KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX @ 8-8-8-24 and 1.65 V
Hard Drive
Intel SSDSA2M160G2GC 160 GB SATA 3Gb/s
Graphics
AMD Radeon HD 6970 2 GB
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AMD Radeon HD 6950 2 GB
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Nvidia GeForce GTX 5701.25 GB
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Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB
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Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 1.5 GB
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Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 1.25 GB
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2 x Zotac GeForce GTX 460 1 GB SLI
Row 11 - Cell 0
2 x AMD Radeon HD 6850 1 GB CrossFire
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AMD Radeon HD 5970 2 GB
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AMD Radeon HD 5870 1 GB
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AMD Radeon HD 6870 1 GB
Power Supply
Cooler Master UCP-1000 W
System Software And Drivers
Operating System
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectX
DirectX 11
Graphics Driver
AMD 8.79.6.2RC2_Dec7 (For Radeon HD 6970 and 6950)
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AMD Catalyst 10.10d
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AMD Catalyst 10.10e (For Radeon HD 6850 1 GB in CrossFire)
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Nvidia GeForce Release 263.09 (For GTX 570)
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Nvidia GeForce Release 260.99 (For GTX 480 and 470)
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Nvidia GeForce Release 262.99 (For GTX 580)
Today's comparison includes one of the largest collections of graphics cards we've ever put into a single piece. Between the general benchmarks and the added CrossFire/SLI numbers, we've included two Radeon HD 6970s, two Radeon HD 6950s, two Radeon HD 6870s, two Radeon HD 6850s, a Radeon HD 5970, a Radeon HD 5870, two GeForce GTX 580s, a GeForce GTX 480, two GeForce GTX 570s, a GeForce GTX 470, and two GeForce GTX 460s. By my count, that's more than 47 billion transistors worth of graphics hardware on the test bench.
Much of this is the result of reader feedback, both in the comments sections of my stories, which I monitor as often as time permits, and on Twitter, which I'm able to check more regularly. Keep that feedback coming. Two notable take-aways from the last time around: I've added the GeForce GTX 460s for reference, and I've included more extensive CrossFire/SLI testing with scaling analysis.
That's more than 47 billion transistors worth of GPU.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Games
Lost Planet 2
Highest Quality Settings, No AA, 8x MSAA / 16x AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1900x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 11, Steam version
Just Cause 2
Highest Quality Settings, No AA / 16xAF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Bokeh filter and GPU water disabled (for Nvidia cards), Concrete Jungle Benchmark
Metro 2033
Medium Settings, AAA, 4x MSAA / 16x AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Built-in Benchmark, Steam version
DiRT 2
Ultra High Settings, 4x AA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Steam version, Custom benchmark script, DX11 Rendering
Aliens Vs. Predator Benchmark
Highest Quality Settings, SSAO, No AA / 16xAF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600
Thanks for the review Angelini, these new naming schemes are hurting my head, sometimes the only way to tell (at a quick glance) which AMD card matches up to what Nvidia card, is by comparing the prices, which I think is bad for the average consumer.
These cards are to GTX 500 series what 4000 series was to GTX 200. Not the fastest at their time but offer killer performance and feature set for the price. I too expected 6900 to be close to GTX 580, but it didn't turn out that way. Still, it is the card I have waited for to upgrade. Right in my budget.
Sorry all i read was this
"This helps catch AMD up to Nvidia. However, Intel has something waiting in the wings that’ll take both graphics companies by surprise. In a couple of weeks, we'll be able to tell you more." and now i'm fixated to weather or not intel's gpu's can actually commit to proper playback.
but from what i read at hardocp, though it is priced alongside the 570, 6970 was benched against the 580 and they were trading blows... So toms has it at par with 570 but hard has it on par with 580.. now im confused because if it can give 580 perfomance or almost 580 performance at 570 price and power then this one is a winner. Sim a 6950 was trading blows with 570 there. So i am very confused
This is hilarious... How long ago was it that there were ATI fanboys blabbering "The 6970 is gonna be 80% faster than the GTX 580!!!". And then reality hit...
