6950 vs 560 ti...

spudgun79 · 16 Mar 2011 at 12:59

aaaand again I'm torn. Can't decide. Need help!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752
or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

Both obviously can be flashed/o/ced to 6970 and 570 respectively.

But I cant decide. Is it really just down to personal preference (i.e ATI vs Nvidia) or does anyone have any experience in each cards performance.

I thought I'd decided on the 560, until I just saw a performance test of Dragon Age 2. The 6950 performs better in almost all tests. :s

arrgh!

Brumboy · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:02

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Cheaper

RavenXXX2 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:04

How about this for £202.

spudgun79 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:20

*edited*! that's the one I meant lol. doesnt make it any easier to choose.

RavenXXX2 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:22

I would go 480 SOC if your PSU is up to it, great cooler and overclocks for fun.

Freddie1980 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:26

You can flash. 560 ti to 570?

RavenXXX2 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:29

560ti would not be my choice.

Ezyryder · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:42

The 6950 can be found for ***** but even there I would go for the Gigabyte at £202, as it has got a better cooler and great warranty.

Mentioning competitor information is against the rules. Please make sure you read the No promotion of OcUK's competitors section of the FAQ. Thank you.

Mojo · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:42

Go for the 6950. It's faster at stock, and when both are overclocked it is still faster, plus you get an extra gig of RAM

Rroff · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:47

spudgun79 said:
I thought I'd decided on the 560, until I just saw a performance test of Dragon Age 2. The 6950 performs better in almost all tests. :s

arrgh!

Latest drivers have a massive, massive increase in performance and smoothness in DA2 - hopefully nVidia put out a proper beta/whql with the fix asap.

Neil has some info as well on it here from the 550 release drivers http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18252925

Relentless81 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:48

I went for the 560 and have no regrets, its munching on BC2 @ 1680 and 8xAA with 16xAF

Freddie1980 · 16 Mar 2011 at 13:53

6950 is cheaper and faster so its a bit of a no brainer if your not into brand loyalty add in the bonus of a possiable 6970 via a bios flash.........

Andrei23 · 16 Mar 2011 at 14:02

A plurality of rev 1 6950s are able to flash into 6970s. You would have to clock the gtx 560 pretty high to be able to keep up with a stock flashed 6950@70. Factor in the fact that some games may eat up more than 1 gig of video ram and you can draw your own conclusions. This is not to say that the gtx 560 is not a contender by any means, or that 2 gigs of ram will give you double the performance of 1 gig, but it falls a bit short, at least for the asking price (considering you can get a gtx 480 for the same amount of money). However, the gtx 560 does run cooler and, I would think, eat less power than a flashed 6950@70.

spudgun79 · 16 Mar 2011 at 15:46

RavenXXX2 said:
560ti would not be my choice.

Any particular reason why not?

For more info I'm looking at getting a whole new rig. i5 2500k, 4gb ram and relevant psu and case to which card I go for.

I've seen that the 6950s are quite large - I was lookin at getting the antec 100 or CM CM-690 -would these be big enough?

oh and also new screen. Most likely samsung 24" P2450. (possibly 120hz Benq not decided yet)

Cheers

RavenXXX2 · 16 Mar 2011 at 15:55

Simply because the 6950 will not be limited by 1GB of vram as the 560 is and the 6950 is the better performer even at stock clocks and no 6970 flash.

I know the 6950 will fit the Antec, not sure about the coolermaster.

tommybhoy · 16 Mar 2011 at 16:22

RavenXXX2 said:
Simply because the 6950 will not be limited by 1GB of vram as the 560 is and the 6950 is the better performer even at stock clocks and no 6970 flash.

The missus had to pick me off the floor there!

I would rule out the 560, and get either the Gigabyte 480 Special Edition or the msi 6950 and unlock it. It's up to you whether you want to go green or red as both perform about the same really.

wentalong · 16 Mar 2011 at 16:55

if i were you, i'd have to get the 6950, But ONLY because:

In reviews and benchmarks yes, the 6950 is faster, however these are at higher reolutions,
The 560 Ti however, does smash the 6950 on most games at lower resolutions, thats the only reason i got the 560Ti, (because im using a 19" 1440x900 Screen) but the 560 can be clocked at core 1GHz and like 2015Mhx memory if you lucky, i havent tried mine, as theres no point for me to overclock it as im getting gpu bottleneck, but i never knew you could flash the 560 to 570??

FrancesoNoir · 16 Mar 2011 at 17:23

There's not a shred of evidence I've seen that the 2gb of RAM on the 6950 makes any real world difference on current games @ 1920. May change for future games of course...

However, the flashable 6950 makes sense to a lot of people. I personally chose the GTX 560ti as it's super quiet and I am very sensitive to noise, aware that I have sacrificed a little in price/performance. It's at 1000 core now, got it rock-steady at 1.15v I think, and there it will stay at roughly 570 stock performance.

Neither card is a bad buy.

tommybhoy · 16 Mar 2011 at 19:24

FrancesoNoir said:
There's not a shred of evidence I've seen that the 2gb of RAM on the 6950 makes any real world difference on current games @ 1920.

No reviews go into the ccc and override a games setting though do they? I'm confident in saying that double the vram will enable higher iq settings.
Don't forget that you get 6970 performance unlocked without even overclocking.

ahenners · 16 Mar 2011 at 20:24

480 SOC at this price. Otherwise an unlockable 6950 over a 560