AMD Radeon HD 6950/6970 Thread

**mrcrusty** · December 14, 2010, 09:24 PM

Just thought I'd open this up before another one comes up later on. I will edit this post for any reviews, etc when they actually come out.

They are officially listed on newegg for pre-order.

The HD 6950 is priced at $299.99 and the HD 6970 is priced at $369.99.

Dammit Nvidia, that's how you price a graphics card. Looking forward to some price drops in future.

Reviews are out.

Guru3d

TechPowerUp

Hardware Canucks

Tom's Hardware

PC Perspective

Anandtech

Hardware Heaven

Summary and Thoughts:

The general consensus for the new cards is that they do not match up with Nvidia's GTX 580 and GTX 570 cards. They are much cheaper than their counterparts, but it is clear that performance wise, they are simply inferior.

Overall, it's underwhelming. I don't consider it a failure because the prices are low in comparison to Nvidia's pricing, and they are still very powerful cards. However it's obvious that the Cayman cards do not live up to the hype.

On a positive note, the HD 6950 is decently priced and performs as a good successor to the HD 5870 and provides good competition with the GTX 470. Neither card is a bad buy to be honest, but they could've been better.

Another positive note, these cards have 2GB of VRAM, meaning that the higher the resolution (and settings), the better they perform in comparison to the competition. So Multi Monitor gamers have something good to take away from these cards.

From TechPowerUp:

**Jaketh** · December 14, 2010, 09:29 PM

son of a

**Sir Shfvingle** · December 14, 2010, 09:45 PM

I hope that this release also results in price drops from past AMD cards as well i.e. the 6870. I wouldn't have to hope that if I had a dang job though...

**mrcrusty** · December 14, 2010, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by Sir Shfvingle

I hope that this release also results in price drops from past AMD cards as well i.e. the 6870. I wouldn't have to hope that if I had a dang job though...

Haha, even with a job, I'm hoping for a price drop.

I don't think the 6850/6870 will move too far. Nvidia's GTX 570/580 are really feeling the heat though. If AMD's cards can match the Nvidia ones in performance, AMD will have them by the balls for another few months.

**Big Boss** · December 14, 2010, 11:10 PM

Reviews up! I wonder how much losing 32nm screwed up AMD.

**mrcrusty** · December 14, 2010, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by Big Boss

Reviews up! I wonder how much losing 32nm screwed up AMD.

Wow I am disappoint. Editing the OP now.

**Big Boss** · December 14, 2010, 11:54 PM

Its pretty obvious AMD wasn't expecting the 500 series from nVidia, and that these were meant to be on the 32nm process.

**mrcrusty** · December 15, 2010, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by Big Boss

Its pretty obvious AMD wasn't expecting the 500 series from nVidia, and that these were meant to be on the 32nm process.

See, I don't buy that, because the HD 6970 still didn't live up to expectations. AMD were saying that it was 20-25% faster than the GTX 480 and it simply wasn't. So GTX 500 series aside, it is still disappointing. It makes the pricing less impressive. In fact, it makes Nvidia's GTX 570 look quite attractive.

Unless the launch drivers are terrible and AMD pull a rabbit out of their collective hat, the HD 69xx cards are somewhat underwhelming.

**Big Boss** · December 15, 2010, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by mrcrusty

See, I don't buy that, because the HD 6970 still didn't live up to expectations. AMD were saying that it was 20-25% faster than the GTX 480 and it simply wasn't. So GTX 500 series aside, it is still disappointing. It makes the pricing less impressive. In fact, it makes Nvidia's GTX 570 look quite attractive.

You don't buy what? That these cards were aimed at beating the GTX400 series not the 500s, or that these were meant to be on a 32nm process.

Bear in mind that these two points weren't supposed to be at the same time. These were meant to be on a 32nm process as a chip called Ibiza, probably with 1920 processors. 32nm would have meant lower heat, higher clocks, and, as I just stated, more processors.

Once the 32nm process got cancelled, AMD aimed these at the 480/470. Why do you think there was a delay when nVidia released the 500 parts? No one expected those, not even AMD, and they were caught by surprise. Performance levels show that these are competitors to the 480/470, not the 580/570.

**mrcrusty** · December 15, 2010, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by Big Boss

You don't buy what? That these cards were aimed at beating the GTX400 series not the 500s, or that these were meant to be on a 32nm process.

Bear in mind that these two points weren't supposed to be at the same time. These were meant to be on a 32nm process as a chip called Ibiza, probably with 1920 processors. 32nm would have meant lower heat, higher clocks, and, as I just stated, more processors.

Once the 32nm process got cancelled, AMD aimed these at the 480/470. Why do you think there was a delay when nVidia released the 500 parts? No one expected those, not even AMD, and they were caught by surprise. Performance levels show that these are competitors to the 480/470, not the 580/570.

Well, I do agree that losing the 32nm process screwed them over, but I was expecting the HD 6970 to do better. The HD 6950 sits nicely along, but the HD 6970 was supposed to be significantly better than the GTX 480, and it isn't. That's why I said it's disappointing, even if you factor out the GTX 500 cards.

Also, look at the jumps in performance from AMD's single card flagship up till now. 3870 -> 4870 -> 5870 -> 6970.

Up until this iteration of cards, the performance has roughly doubled. That isn't the case this time. Probably because of the 40nm process they're stuck on using.

Well, at the end of the day, I'm not going to buy any of the new series cards with the possible exception of the HD 6870 so it doesn't matter to me that much, but equivalent performance between both AMD and Nvidia always produces competition and drives prices down. With a clear performance winner at clear price points, I doubt prices will come down soon.

**Jaketh** · December 15, 2010, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by mrcrusty

Well, at the end of the day, I'm not going to buy any of the new series cards with the possible exception of the HD 6870 so it doesn't matter to me that much, but equivalent performance between both AMD and Nvidia always produces competition and drives prices down. With a clear performance winner at clear price points, I doubt prices will come down soon.

you wont have to if the damn postal service delivers the friggin card

**Top-Tier-Tech** · December 15, 2010, 12:04 AM

Nvidia has the better value with the GTX570 compared to the 6970. In the benchmarks for the most demanding games (Crysis Warhead, Metro 2033, etc.) the 6970 and GTX570 are neck and neck (different review sites vary even on the same game titles). The 6970 costs $20 more and is louder under load. It uses almost exactly the same amount of power as the GTX570 as well, so AMD clearly priced this card poorly. No competition whatsoever. In older DX9 games the 570 pulls ahead even further.

The 6950 on the other hand is a good value. It does perform a wee bit under the GTX570 but costs $50 less. Although then you must consider how the GTX470 compares to the 6950.... Nevermind, the GTX470 can be found for $230 now and its performance isn't much under the 6950 that costs $70 more.

This is a very disappointing release from AMD after the successful 5000 series.

**craziii** · December 15, 2010, 02:10 AM

meh, from anatech's bar graphs, you are paying 200$ premium for like avg of 5 fps increase. I don't get why you guys are mad about this. if you are upgrading, the 360$ price tag is a win win for me. sli that baby, and you got a serious gaming rig. but what is the point when all pc games are just ports of console versions? they won't even push last generation of cards let alone the newest gen.

and explain relative performance? what is it?

**Fenon** · December 15, 2010, 03:32 AM

Just watched the review in this post, says the 6970's are loud and other stuff too. It's interesting.

**HansDuet** · December 15, 2010, 04:37 AM

I am not surprised.

Pricing is good and they're good cards but its not the second coming like hype made some people think.

**Freddie** · December 15, 2010, 07:17 AM

Hmm the 6970 is a bit of a let down, AMD can blame themselves as the 10.12 drivers don't support these cards and now they are tarnished. The 6950 looks good value though.

**atraps** · December 20, 2010, 12:02 AM

A rather disappointing release from AMD.

Originally Posted by ChaobSiroc

Even after the release of the 6900 lineup I am glad to have chosen the GTX570's.

With these cards my FPS in Metro 2033 on High settings with advanced PhysX effects turned on (PhysX uses a good bit of GPU power) fluctuate between 55-75 FPS. My old pair of GTX460's only got 30-50 FPS on High with advanced PhysX effects off.

I thought you had a GTX 580 and planned to SLI a second one?