AMD 6900 reviews thread (UPDATED)

[thilanliyan]

That review shows results typical to all reviews, and that is that @ 25x16, for that very small market segment, the 6970 is the way to go. But, for the vast majority of people, unless they just want an AMD card, the 570 is the better solution price/performance, and espcially the 570 OC which is the same price, but further exceeds it performance wise.

Take a look at this compilation of results (from cusideabelincoln):
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...3YV9GQVV2a251T1E&hl=en&authkey=COCVz9EL#gid=0

The 6970 is not just matching a 570, it beats it consistently, and even matches/beats the 580 sometimes. If you're going to say the 570OC is the better buy then it is the better buy compared to the 580 as well, considering the 6970 is close to the 580, especially at the higher resolutions.

And actually take a look at this:
http://translate.google.com/transla...hd-6970-und-hd-6950/&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

They benched with the 10.10E drivers (which are newer than 10.11 AFAIK) AND they benched with HQ texture filtering for 6900 cards with Q for nV cards and the 6970 handily matches/beats the 580 and the 6950 handily matches the 570, especially at 1920+ res and when AA and AF are cranked up (and who wouldn't want to on these cards).

Just to be clear, I'm not saying the 6970/6950 are better than the 580/570, just that it is not so cut and dry as you are making it out to be.

 

[nyker96]

HardOCP seem to have a glowing review for these new cards. From performance stand point, they are a little disappointing I say for me, but that's because NV surprised w/ 570+580. however, I think these parts are priced right. adding more competition to 300-400 range doesn't hurt.

 

[Zargon]

Chuckle, chuckle. That's probably not what you really meant, but I'm sure setting Powertune to -20% will ensure you have as minimal fps as possible. Along with minimal heat and noise too, so there are benefits!

yeah I think he maybe meant highest min fps

 

[Genx87]

Seems to be a solid launch. But definately didnt knock Nvidia out of the high end. The 6970 is slightly faster than the 570 on avg. But is also more expensive. The 580 seems to consistently be faster. Should be interesting to see what their driver team can do. I suspect they should see a good increase in performance. Unless they are seeing the same efficiency right now as Anand noted. In that case we have to wait until the next node shrink and new archs to come out.

 

[Zargon]

HardOCP seem to have a glowing review for these new cards. From performance stand point, they are a little disappointing I say for me, but that's because NV surprised w/ 570+580. however, I think these parts are priced right. adding more competition to 300-400 range doesn't hurt.

link?

edit: nvm

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/12/14/amd_radeon_hd_6970_6950_video_card_review

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Take a look at this compilation of results (from cusideabelincoln):
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...COCVz9EL#gid=0

The 6970 is not just matching a 570, it beats it consistently, and even matches/beats the 580 sometimes. If you're going to say the 570OC is the better buy then it is the better buy compared to the 580 as well, considering the 6970 is close to the 580, especially at the higher resolutions.

And actually take a look at this:
http://translate.google.com/translat...n&hl=&ie=UTF-8

They benched with the 10.10E drivers (which are newer than 10.11 AFAIK) AND they benched with HQ texture filtering for 6900 cards with Q for nV cards and the 6970 handily matches/beats the 580 and the 6950 handily matches the 570, especially at 1920+ res and when AA and AF are cranked up (and who wouldn't want to on these cards).

These cards do well with 8xAA:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...899-amd-radeon-hd-6970-hd-6950-review-24.html

It's a shame more sites don't test high levels of AA at 1680 and/or 1920. Put the new EQ mode to it's paces where it makes the most difference; see how it does against Nvidia's CSAA.

 

[Elfear]

I would think the evidence points to more room for improvement for NV actually.

Consider the fact that the GTX 580 is a faster card pretty much across the board but Xfire'ed 6970s can beat GTX 580 SLI. The raw GTX 580 performance is there, but the SLI scaling is not. Given that multi-gpu performance is heavily driver dependent, I imagine NV can close this gap with drivers. Actually, If NV plans to launch a dual GF110 card to compete with the 6990 their SLI scaling will have to improve.

I don't know. The 5800 series had some nice improvements over its life (don't know exact % increase) and it was using the same VLIW5 as the previous 3 generations. I'd think if any series had the most potential for driver improvement in the future it would be the 6900 series since it made a rather significant change to VLIW4. The Anandtech article seemed to imply the same potential.

That's not to say that people should buy a card based on performance increases that could come. They shouldn't if one card currently shows a better price/performance ratio. But if you have to choose between two similar cards at a similar price point (GTX 570 vs 6970 for example), I'd bet on the AMD cards showing the biggest gains in the future.

 

[happy medium]

Then why did you mention the GTX570?

Because if you look at some benchmarks or the graph I linked its a tie with the 6970.

gtx580 vs 6970, win for Nvidia
gtx570 vs 6970 tie
gtx570 vs 6950 win for Nvidia

The only real question is will the 6990 beat a gtx595(dual gtx card) ?.


Hd5970, why would you buy it now?

 

[MentalIlness]

Because if you look at some benchmarks or the graph I linked its a tie with the 6970.

gtx580 vs 6970, win for Nvidia
gtx570 vs 6970 tie
gtx570 vs 6950 win for Nvidia

The only real question is will the 6990 beat a gtx595(dual gtx card) ?.


Hd5970, why would you buy it now?

How is it a win for Nvidia...when you pay around $100 premium for 10% more performance? $10 for every 1% gain for performance ? That does not = a win.

Unless you are looking at "maximum" frames per second only at he resolution you pick.

 

[thilanliyan]

Because if you look at some benchmarks or the graph I linked its a tie with the 6970.

And if you look at others it is a clear win for the 6970 against the 570. I can pick and choose to make the 6970 look good even against the 580. It's pointless though because one set of benches is not enough to declare one the winner over the other, especially this generation of cards. See what I'm getting at?

 

[Teizo]

HardOCP seem to have a glowing review for these new cards. From performance stand point, they are a little disappointing I say for me, but that's because NV surprised w/ 570+580. however, I think these parts are priced right. adding more competition to 300-400 range doesn't hurt.

Yeah, they test @ 25x16, and at that resolution the 69xx offer a better value. So, if you have a monitor that size, then those are the cards to get.

Other review sites do a more comprehensive review which include more mainstream res's, and in those res's NV has the edge since the extra RAM is not needed. I imagine the larger die size of NV's cards made it so they couldn't afford to add the extra RAM to be able to compete better @ 25x16, but since that is a very small market niche...that was something they could live with.

 

[Zargon]

a 500 buck GPU is a win for nvidia only, not for the consumer

 

[MentalIlness]

And if you look at others it is a clear win for the 6970 against the 570. I can pick and choose to make the 6970 look good even against the 580. It's pointless though because one set of benches is not enough to declare one the winner over the other, especially this generation of cards. See what I'm getting at?

Exactly.

Because I could post this chart. From a "respectable" reviewer.

Do you see what I did here ?

 

[nitromullet]

But I think on single gpu perspective AMD possibly has a larger improvement potential - look at those games where the 6950/6970 barely beat the 5870.

That is true. The inconsistencies in the the 6970 performance points to one of two things IMO. Either they have room to make up for it in the drivers or the architecture is a little unbalanced.

I think NV single gpu performance is already very good. Although, I'm sure there is still some performance to be found. NV is still in the early stages of 500 series drivers. This is evident from the fact that all of their newest drivers support their new cards only. They always do this at launch - they basically get the new cards up and running, then they fold the new drivers back into their "unified driver" and tweak performance.

Either way, I don't necessarily see room for improvement as a good thing. I'm glad it's there in a way, but it also sort of makes me feel like I'm buying beta hardware.

 

[busydude]

gtx570 vs 6970 tie

How is 570 Vs 6970 a tie?

 

[MentalIlness]

Yeah, they test @ 25x16, and at that resolution the 69xx offer a better value. So, if you have a monitor that size, then those are the cards to get.

This is exactly what I am saying. But still, being over $100 cheaper for the 6970....would someone still have to purchase a GTX580 since a 6970 at lower resolutions renders the game unplayable?

6970 is simply the better card at the highest settings/highest resolution. And going down in resolution, does not give a GTX580 an advantage what so ever being over $100 more.

Any of these cards will play anything at any resolution. But there is only one "better" card for the extreme high end.

GTX580 = $500 +
______

Awesome performance at all resolutions.

6970 = $369
____

Awesome performance at all resolutions. And better at extreme resolution with higher in game settings while being a $100/$130 cheaper.

 

[Teizo]

a 500 buck GPU is a win for nvidia only, not for the consumer

If AMD could command the price, don't kid yourself...they would. They did have those 5970's price really high to begin with, and espcially the 2GB versions. The 6990 won't come cheap.

AMD priced their cards were they had to, not where they wanted to. The $500 price point is where the top card has generally been placed, though I imagine with the advent of APU's, and the 28nm die, cards in that range won't be around much longer.

 

[WelshBloke]

If AMD could command the price, don't kid yourself...they would. They did have those 5970's price really high to begin with, and espcially the 2GB versions.

AMD priced their cards were they had to, not where they wanted to.

Thats fairly irrelevant though, why they are cheap doesn't matter as long as they are cheap.

 

[Zargon]

and if it was AMD doing that with the 6970, and nvidia had the 580 lower, I would have said the same thing about nvidia

 

[Teizo]

Thats fairly irrelevant though, why they are cheap doesn't matter as long as they are cheap.

Yes, that is true. But people shouldn't be blaiming Nvidia for charging what the market has always accepted is the accepted price of the top GPU. And if AMD could...I can assure they would too. They aren't pricing their cards the way they are out of the goodness of their hearts.

and if it was AMD doing that with the 6970, and nvidia had the 580 lower, I would have said the same thing about nvidia

Ah, well I clearly misunderstood you then perhaps. My bad. Still, my point holds

 

[happy medium]

I bet that 500$ for the 6970 and 375$ quote for the 6950 in Groverfindings thread was right.

If the 6970 was to face the gtx480 and the 6950 was to face the gtx470, that would have been right on the money.

I bet they adjusted clocks and price before launch , thats why the 69xx series was delayed.

 

[busydude]

But people shouldn't be blaiming Nvidia for charging what the market has always accepted is the accepted price of the top GPU.

I guess no one is blaming Nvidia, its just that AMD made it really hard to choose between $100 and 10% increase in performance.

 

[happy medium]

I guess no one is blaming Nvidia, its just that AMD made it really hard to choose between $100 and 10% increase in performance.

Lets face it most people who have the money for a 400$ card have the money for a 500$ card. They buy the 500$ card because they can and, because its faster. I know I would.

 

[Lonbjerg]

Where is Silverforce11 today? :hmm:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30915045&postcount=489
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30907384&postcount=255

Or Akadra...something...

 

[MentalIlness]

Lets face it most people who have the money for a 400$ card have the money for a 500$ card. They buy the 500$ card because they can and, because its faster. I know I would.

Really ? I have $700 remaining to finish the upcoming build. And if I can save an additional $100 for "other" hardware like a even faster CPU. I know I would.

1920 Res + GTX580 = $688 *Cheapest 580
1920 Res + 6970 = $548 *Cheapest 6970

$140 in savings for "something else" like a faster CPU.

So why not ?

Highlighted part above, the only person that would do this, are NV fans. And there is nothing wrong with that.

You know what I am a BIG fan of.....?? My money.