Tell us your purchase, HD 6900s.

[jimhsu]

Strange question - what is the most powerful card that I can get equal to or shorter than (takes out ruler) 9 inches? Preferably one with more clearance at the front end (i.e. away from the DVI ports). Currently have a 8800 GTS 512 that fits well except for the front end. Yes, this is an existing SFF build. If nothing is suitable, then I'll probably rebuild next spring/summer and look at more options.

 

[SirGCal]

gonna ride my 4890's until 7xxx series

I was thinking of doing the same thing with my OCd 4890... But I just got my 6-core and want a 'best of the' just once. I'm going to go 6970 I think... It should still be a nice upgrade from the 48xx series and again last me quite some time. If the 7xxx series were less than a quarter away, I might think otherwise but... I've been 'milking' this 4xxx card for so long...

 

[Triggaaar]

Finger over the order button!

 

[SirGCal]

currently using a sapphire 4850 512mb and im thinking of going to any 6950 or possibly strech to a 6970.

good upgrade or not?

It would be a nice upgrade... The question is would you notice. If the 4850 is serving you fine, what would you look for out of an upgrade? Turn more features on? Higher resolutions? If those are both maxed already for your setup, then the question would be; what do you expect from the upgrade?

Anyhow, I'm in a similar boat. And while yes I can run with most features turned on, there are the occasional drops. Plus, I have a bit of extra money to burn... I'm even giving a bunch to charity this season... But that's my specific situation, not the general situation. So weight what you expect against the cost and see if that adds up to a purchase for you or not.

 

[MangoX]

After all the hype about 6970 beating the 580 by 30-40% (I even fell for it too) and coming back down to earth, I just ordered 2 6950s. I'm upgrading from a 460 1GB which was just a placeholder as I sold my 5870 2 months back before the 6870 released. I almost picked up SLI 570s, but then after thinking some more about it I changed my mind.

After using a 5870 for more than a good half year I feel having more video memory is more important than a slight performance increase. Not saying the 5870 is a bad card, that's not true. It's very fast, but sometimes that 1GB VRAM is it's achilles' heel.

I don't know about other people, but I play PC games for the better experience and higher quality graphics, otherwise I'd stick with a console. I missed out on having AA (both on 5870 and 460) but it looks like 8xAA and high resolution is one of the 6900s strong points, and I'm sure going to love it.

 

[Owls]

here's the thing I noticed when trying to buy the single fastest card with the plan to SLI it later. I bought a XFX GTX 285 OC (was a good deal) back when it was released with the intention of SLI down the road. However, it is nigh impossible to find the XFX GTX 285 OC anywhere without paying through the nose now. I would still rather purchase the single fastest card I could afford but I would not make any plans to SLI/XFIRE any future cards.

 

[Elfear]

Grabbed two Gigabyte 6950s to replace my 5850. I would have just grabbed another 5850 but I needed the extra ram and the 6000 series have awesome Xfire performance. Hopefully they will overclock like mad.

 

[NIGELG]

Good choice....I think single 5850/70 users should keep what they have or upgrade to 6950/70 crossfire.

 

[jwright30]

Just got a Sapphire 6970 from the "egg" today(replacing 4850 1gb CF), and even went for next day shipping! Yay for impatience. I had been on the verge of going with the 570, but after looking at performance above 1920x1080 I decided to go with the 6970. Don't have a monitor with a rez higher than that now, but would probably be my next upgrade.

 

[MegaWorks]

This weekend I'm going to order me 2 XFX Radeon HD 6950, I'm buying a 24" monitor soon so I need that 2GB of ram.

 

[Obsoleet]

I have a 25.5" monitor, and I use a single 1GB 5870 Works great.

Staying with my 5870 for now. I'm not too interested in any card on the market outside of what I already have.
If the 580 drops to the 6970 price, I'll probably buy one of those (and NV works out a few driver issues that are showstoppers for me before then). Otherwise, the $380 launch day shipped 5870 has served me amazingly well and will continue to do so.

 

[SirGCal]

This weekend I'm going to order me 2 XFX Radeon HD 6950, I'm buying a 24" monitor soon so I need that 2GB of ram.

You won't need 2G of ram for that. Won't hurt obviously but it's not going to help either. You really need super-high res or multi-screen to get into that area. 1920x1080 or 1200 isn't going to hit a VRAM limit in any game I'm aware of today.

 

[Dark Shroud]

You won't need 2G of ram for that. Won't hurt obviously but it's not going to help either. You really need super-high res or multi-screen to get into that area. 1920x1080 or 1200 isn't going to hit a VRAM limit in any game I'm aware of today.

There are more games than just Crysis that hit the limit. I think Metro 2033 was hitting the limit on the 5800s. RTSs & MMOs both do better with more VRAM just to smooth out game play. Having more VRAM just seems to help at high res in general. A year from now these 2gig cards are really going to show its worth it.

 

[toyota]

There are more games than just Crysis that hit the limit. I think Metro 2033 was hitting the limit on the 5800s. RTSs & MMOs both do better with more VRAM just to smooth out game play. Having more VRAM just seems to help at high res in general. A year from now these 2gig cards are really going to show its worth it.

I doubt there are any games that would exceed 1gb at just 1920x1080. I just checked Metro 2033 and with very high settings and 4x AA vram usage was 827mb. and those settings would barely be playable so adding both tessellation and dof on top of very high and 4x AA would not be playable. they really need to offer a 1gb model because the 6950 is hardly a beast of card that can run settings that would exceed 1gb at 1920 if that is even possible in the first place.

 

[gilljoy]

Im getting a 6970 hopefully and gona stick a 2nd one in my system when I start my full-time job ( currently a student)

should be good im excited

 

[Triggaaar]

Just got a Sapphire 6970 from the "egg" today(replacing 4850 1gb CF), and even went for next day shipping! Yay for impatience. I had been on the verge of going with the 570, but after looking at performance above 1920x1080 I decided to go with the 6970. Don't have a monitor with a rez higher than that now, but would probably be my next upgrade.

Basically ditto the above, although I'm more patient than you, and went for free shipping and a 5 day wait. Yay for patience - I've got some work today, the last thing I needed was a new GC arriving today. Real tough choice between the 6970 and 570 (6950 better value, but I wanted a slightly faster card).

 

[Burpy]

Anyway you cut it, upgrading from my current 9800GT will be heaven.

I plan on getting the ASUS/XFX 6950 2GB. Just need to decided which brand.

This will be my first ATI card. I've been gaming on nvidia, and before that, 3Dfx.

 

[Triggaaar]

Anyway you cut it, upgrading from my current 9800GT will be heaven.

I'll see your 9800GT to 6950, and raise you a 6600GT to 6970

I plan on getting the ASUS/XFX 6950 2GB. Just need to decided which brand.

Are you in the states? If so, get the cheapest (otherwise, where are you?)

 

[Burpy]

I'll see your 9800GT to 6950, and raise you a 6600GT to 6970

Are you in the states? If so, get the cheapest (otherwise, where are you?)

I'm from the US.

I figure the $10 difference isn't much, and will probably go with xfx for the limited lifetime warranty.

 

[toyota]

I'll see your 9800GT to 6950, and raise you a 6600GT to 6970

Are you in the states? If so, get the cheapest (otherwise, where are you?)

I sure hope the rest of your pc is not as old as that 6600gt...

 

[MegaWorks]

I just purchased the XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB

 

[Triggaaar]

I sure hope the rest of your pc is not as old as that 6600gt...

Nope, upgraded the rest a couple of months ago - i7 @ 4GHz, 6gig ram etc. I've not been using my PC for games except one old game.

 

[Avalon]

Waiting for a nice sale on a 6850. Saw a Sapphire for $169 shipped AR, but not sure I wan't to deal with rebates just to save $10. Running a 512MB 4850 now, and it's definitely getting long in the tooth. Need a gig of video RAM for some of my games now.

 

[toyota]

Waiting for a nice sale on a 6850. Saw a Sapphire for $169 shipped AR, but not sure I wan't to deal with rebates just to save $10. Running a 512MB 4850 now, and it's definitely getting long in the tooth. Need a gig of video RAM for some of my games now.

its $169 shipped before rebate. I am thinking about it myself but tbh I dont wont to fool with AMD drivers.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

I planned to buy a 6970 if the performance had been closer to a 580, but decided to get a second 5850 instead, seeing as they've got some decent deals on them right now. I did end up buying a 6850 for a second computer, so I guess I am participating in this generation, just not how I anticipated.