Thinking of buying asus hd 6950 2gb directcu II

karl2002 · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:13

Little bit of a issue here .

Im not sure if my motherboard will have enough slots or room for it or if my psu will handle it as its a 750watt psu

I know my case will have plenty of room as its a antec 1200 case so plenty of room in that case so pretty much worried if my psu will have enough power to power my whole system

Looking to buy this
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-254-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

specs are

Mobo: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-183-GI
intel 930(no oc)
Patriot Viper 6GB
Psu: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-018-CS

Looking to replace my old 5850 1gb as it finally gave up on me. just hoping ill be able to power the new card or if ill have to get a new psu?

Thanks

TheRealDeal · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:17

That psu could probably run crossfire 6950's so 1 will be no problem. Your motherboard will be fine also.

pgi947 · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:24

Just remember that the DCUII is almost 3 slots thick, which by looking at your motherboard might make a future crossfire setup a little tricky (if thats on the cards), unless there is good clearance in your case to use the bottom lane.

Surveyor · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:27

Motherboard and psu will be fine.

Just remember that it's a 3 slot wide card so it will take up this much space on the motherboard so Crossfire would be tricky:

Have you not looked at any of the other HD 6950's?

There are several that are a lot cheaper.

harmony · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:33

As Surveyor said above, CrossfireX of two cards might be tricky.

a) The Gigabyte motherboard is a bad choice for SLI/CrossfireX, because the PCI-E spacing is stupid - you'll have to do sandwitch (back-to-back) SLI/CF if you want X16 X16 mode. It requires a pair of dual-slot cards, while the temperature and noise won't be good.

b) If you use the first PCI-E slot and the last PCI-E slot for CrossfireX, then Antec 1200 should be a problem for the lower card - if I remember correctly Antec 1200 is also with poor design of such situation: not enough free PCI-E bracket slots left for the lower card, since the Antec 1200 only comes with 7 PCI-E bracket slots.

Other than that, your PSU should be able to handle 6950 2GB x 2 CrossfireX.

However, keep in mind that, you gain very little performance increase by "upgrading" from a single 5850 to a single 6950 2GB. You only gain great performance boost by upgrading from a single 5850 to a pair of 6950 2GB in CrossfireX.

I would wait for the 28nm cards in such case.

Surveyor · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:38

harmony said:
As Surveyor said above, CrossfireX of two cards might be tricky.

I can't take all the credit, pgi947 said it first while I was typing my post.

karl2002 · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:41

harmony said:
As Surveyor said above, CrossfireX of two cards might be tricky.

a) The Gigabyte motherboard is a bad choice for SLI/CrossfireX, because the PCI-E spacing is stupid - you'll have to do sandwitch (back-to-back) SLI/CF if you want X16 X16 mode. It requires a pair of dual-slot cards, while the temperature and noise won't be good.

b) If you use the first PCI-E slot and the last PCI-E slot for CrossfireX, then Antec 1200 should be a problem for the lower card - if I remember correctly Antec 1200 is also with poor design of such situation: not enough free PCI-E bracket slots left for the lower card, since the Antec 1200 only comes with 7 PCI-E bracket slots.

Other than that, your PSU should be able to handle 6950 2GB x 2 CrossfireX.

However, keep in mind that, you gain very little performance increase by "upgrading" from a single 5850 to a single 6950 2GB. You only gain great performance boost by upgrading from a single 5850 to a pair of 6950 2GB in CrossfireX.

I would wait for the 28nm cards in such case.

Thank you for the advice shame is that i cant Wait till the 28nm cards due to my old 5850 giving up on me that it dosnt even work anymore heh With battlefield 3 and other games like dues ex so close to release i need to get a new card pronto so i can game again You see So waiting really isnt something i can do currently with open beta for bf3 in sept i want to be able to crank it up to the max settings as i preordered bf3 so ill be given 48hours early to bf3 beta.

So i do think the Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II is a good choice plus I can claim most or if not all of the vat back on it.

karl2002 · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:43

But i probs wont be able to cross fire Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II correct? i i wanted to buy another one later on?

Surveyor · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:49

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 2048MB £199.99 exc. VAT.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB £166.66 exc. VAT.

You'd still be saving over £30 with the Sapphire even if you can claim the VAT back and you'd have a free game you can keep or sell on.

It wouldn't be ideal spacing but with a dual slot card you would at least have the option of Crossfire.

I'm not trying to convince you one way or the other. Just suggesting the alternatives.

At the end of the day it's your money so get whatever you're happiest with.

Surveyor · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:54

karl2002 said:
But i probs wont be able to cross fire Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II correct? i i wanted to buy another one later on?

No.

A second card would need to fit in the very bottom PCI-E slot and hang over the edge of the motherboard where an 8th expansion slot would be.

Like this if the second card was dual slot:

Some cases have room for this but the Antec 1200 doesn't. It only has 7 expansion slots on the rear of the case.

Two dual slot cards would fit like this:

Not ideal spacing but at least they'd fit.

You could always put a dual slot in the first slot and the Asus DirectCU II below that if you did get the Asus but that would block all the connectors along the edge of the motherboard:

karl2002 · 22 Aug 2011 at 19:59

Surveyor said:
No.

A second card would need to fit in the very bottom PCI-E slot and hang over the edge of the motherboard where an 8th expansion slot would be.

Like this if the second card was dual slot:

Some cases have room for this but the Antec 1200 doesn't. It only has 7 expansion slots on the rear of the case.

Thank you i understand now i guess ill sleep on it and try and figue it out lol

pgi947 · 22 Aug 2011 at 20:00

The 6950 TFIII's are on offer just now at £205 a pop, similar design to the Sapphire card Surveyor mentioned and comes with a healthy factory OC.

Though as mentioned if you crossfire your going to end up with back-to-back cards which could cause heating issues, perhaps buy one 6950 now, see how BF3 and other games hold up, and if needs be get a better spaced motherboard and another 6950?

Surveyor · 22 Aug 2011 at 20:05

See my edit for all the different permutations.

The MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III is a good card but on pre-order.

If you don't mind waiting a few days it's a worthy choice.

harmony · 22 Aug 2011 at 20:11

I do not recommend the 6950 TF3, as it's noisy and not suitable for CrossfireX. If the OP decides never going CrossfireX, then the DirectCU II is a better choice because it's the quietest one. For CrossfireX I recommend reference coolers, becaues OTES (Outside Thermal Exhaust System) would cause less overheating issues when doing sandwitch (back-to-back) CrossfireX. The Twin Frozr III will most likely suffer from overheating issues if doing back-to-back CrossfireX.

pgi947 · 22 Aug 2011 at 21:52

Are the TF3's really that noisy? I was under the impression they were one of the quieter non-reference 6950's, infact I 'nearly' bought 2 my self, but they were on a 2+ week pre-order so I went XFX (which are small and fairly quiet under 70% fan speed).

harmony · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:15

pgi947 said:
Are the TF3's really that noisy? I was under the impression they were one of the quieter non-reference 6950's, infact I 'nearly' bought 2 my self, but they were on a 2+ week pre-order so I went XFX (which are small and fairly quiet under 70% fan speed).

A single TF3 can be quiet (though not as quiet as a single DirectCU II). However when you put a pair of such non-reference coolers into one case for CrossfireX (e.g. the TF3), the lower card dumps most of the heat into the case where the upper card gets heat up. Further more, the airflow of such non-reference coolers can be easily blocked by the lower cards if installed next to it.

tommybhoy · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:39

harmony said:
For CrossfireX I recommend reference coolers, becaues OTES (Outside Thermal Exhaust System) would cause less overheating issues when doing sandwitch (back-to-back) CrossfireX. The Twin Frozr III will most likely suffer from overheating issues if doing back-to-back CrossfireX.

Reference coolers are useless at keeping the noise levels anywhere near acceptable though.

If you have a decent case with good airflow then the frozr's will do the job.

Lots of boards come with three slot spacing on the pci-e lanes as well so airflow will keep them cool enough.

Anyway, Sapphire do the toxic now that exhausts out the back:

tommybhoy said:
toxic coolers are very, very quiet and cool!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-274-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

'Sapphire have already pre-programmed the bios for ‘unlocked shaders’, although there is a possibility it may not work on some cards from the production line. We can consider this an ‘extra’, rather than a selling point as this feature may not work on all cards.'

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-hd-6950-toxic-edition-2gb-review/23/

Not a guarantee but you take your chances.

harmony · 23 Aug 2011 at 09:03

tommybhoy said:
Reference coolers are useless at keeping the noise levels anywhere near acceptable though.

If you have a decent case with good airflow then the frozr's will do the job.

Lots of boards come with three slot spacing on the pci-e lanes as well so airflow will keep them cool enough.

Anyway, Sapphire do the toxic now that exhausts out the back:

Are you sure you have tried both OTES reference cooler and non-reference cooler on the same GPU, in both single-card and SLI/CF setup?

For single-card setup, non-reference cooler is better;

For SLI/CF setup:
If there is room for the upper card to breath, then reference cooler and non-reference cooler perform similarly;
If it is sandwitch (back-to-back) setup, then reference cooler is far better while non-reference cooler is a nightmare.

Noise is related to temperature. Try sandwitch a pair of non-reference coolers and you'll know what is called "noisy"...

tommybhoy · 23 Aug 2011 at 11:21

harmony said:
Are you sure you have tried both OTES reference cooler and non-reference cooler on the same GPU, in both single-card and SLI/CF setup?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18270697

harmony said:
For single-card setup, non-reference cooler is better;

For SLI/CF setup:
If there is room for the upper card to breath, then reference cooler and non-reference cooler perform similarly;
If it is sandwitch (back-to-back) setup, then reference cooler is far better while non-reference cooler is a nightmare.

Noise is related to temperature. Try sandwitch a pair of non-reference coolers and you'll know what is called "noisy"...

If I was still using stock coolers then my xfire wouldn't work anymore as I would have taken a hammer to them!

harmony · 23 Aug 2011 at 11:30

tommybhoy said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18270697

If I was still using stock coolers then my xfire wouldn't work anymore as I would have taken a hammer to them!

I think you have just proved that non-reference cooler is just bad for sandwitch (back-to-back) SLI/CF. The temperature difference is very great there.