Anyone else opt for a 6950 over a 6870?

[tokie]

Just pulled the trigger on an XFX 6950 since it was 15% off. I was leaning towards getting the 6870, but PowerTune and EQAA pushed the 6950 over the edge for me. I'm upgrading from a 4830 so hopefully I should get a big jump in performance.

I was apprehensive because for an extra ~$50, the 6950 seems to jump from a hypothetical 40 fps on the 6870 to 43fps or something on the 6950. I'm really hoping ATI increases the performance greatly with future drivers. They haven't let me down in 6 years, so hopefully I don't get burned this time.

 

[Alaska Wolf]

Where did you purchase it from?

 

[tokie]

Where did you purchase it from?

Newegg Boxing Day sale. $4.99 shipping as well.

 

[Cheesetogo]

You got it for $255? Nice!

 

[hclarkjr]

newegg has one for $279.99 right now after rebate with free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125356&cm_re=6950-_-14-125-356-_-Product
wish i would have seen that sale you got yours for though

 

[RaistlinZ]

Should be night and day compared to a 4830. What CPU do you have, and what res do yuo game at?

 

[tokie]

newegg has one for $279.99 right now after rebate with free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125356&cm_re=6950-_-14-125-356-_-Product
wish i would have seen that sale you got yours for though

Newegg Canada has 15% off everything if you pay with PayPal for the Boxing Week Sale. For once I got a better deal as a Canuck without crossing the border.

Should be night and day compared to a 4830. What CPU do you have, and what res do yuo game at?

My res is 1080p, and my CPU is an E5300. It's only @ 3.3GHz right now but I'm going to take it up to 4GHz. I know it will still be a bottleneck, but it's the best I can do right now.

 

[Amart]

Your CPU will not be a big bottleneck at 1080p for the majority of recent PC games.

From The Game Rundown: Finding CPU/GPU Bottlenecks, Part 2"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738.html

I wish Anandtech would perform a similar exploration - the games where Quad Core boosts performance already work well with Dual Core - the biggest impact is still the GPU choice, as there isn't a case where having Quad Core pushes something from "unplayable" to "smooth".

 

[GaiaHunter]

Your CPU will not be a big bottleneck at 1080p for the majority of recent PC games.

From The Game Rundown: Finding CPU/GPU Bottlenecks, Part 2"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738.html

I wish Anandtech would perform a similar exploration - the games where Quad Core boosts performance already work well with Dual Core - the biggest impact is still the GPU choice, as there isn't a case where having Quad Core pushes something from "unplayable" to "smooth".

Thanks for the links. Really interesting articles.

I'm not a fun of tomshardware that much either but sometimes they do have some interesting articles that aren't the norm out there.

 

[hclarkjr]

Just pulled the trigger on an XFX 6950 since it was 15% off. I was leaning towards getting the 6870, but PowerTune and EQAA pushed the 6950 over the edge for me. I'm upgrading from a 4830 so hopefully I should get a big jump in performance.

I was apprehensive because for an extra ~$50, the 6950 seems to jump from a hypothetical 40 fps on the 6870 to 43fps or something on the 6950. I'm really hoping ATI increases the performance greatly with future drivers. They haven't let me down in 6 years, so hopefully I don't get burned this time.

how do you like it so far? what made you pick XFX over the other brands other than the warranty?

 

[betasub]

Yes, I went with 6950. 2GB of RAM was a winner for me, along with 3-screen gaming from a single card, and then for improved Crossfire support for when I add in a second (non-reference) card.

 

[Davegod]

Yeah just about to order a 6950. Basically figured that the newer card was going to get the good driver support/improvements for a lot longer.

 

[Borealis7]

flash it to 70!

 

[toyota]

Your CPU will not be a big bottleneck at 1080p for the majority of recent PC games.

From The Game Rundown: Finding CPU/GPU Bottlenecks, Part 2"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738.html

I wish Anandtech would perform a similar exploration - the games where Quad Core boosts performance already work well with Dual Core - the biggest impact is still the GPU choice, as there isn't a case where having Quad Core pushes something from "unplayable" to "smooth".

his E5300 is nothing like two cores of an i5. these reviews that come to conclusions on how many cores we need based on disabling cores of an i5/i7 are asinine.

 

[formulav8]

Try out flashing your 6950 to a 6970. Apparently a few successes thus far. http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159