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Which 6950?

sirp

sirp

sirp

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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376
I am unsure about which 2 gig 6950 to buy..please help!

Does it matter which one, are they all the same, more or less? I 'might' pop another in my new build in the future, and will be going on an MSI P67A G053 board probably.

really not sure which 'brand' to pick up.
 
Depends on how much money you have to throw at it, though I would probably go with the MSI Twin FrozR III, just because the Twin FrozR cooling systems have been so successful in the past.
 
If you will never plan to get another 6950 2GB for CrossfireX in the future then just go for any one.

If you do plan to go CF in the future then I recommend OTES designs (i.e. reference cooler)
 
ok...how do I know exactly if it has a reference cooler (sorry for being dumb)

does this one or not?

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5

realistically, I will most probably upgrade the card rather than crossfire to be honest.
 
sirp said:
ok...how do I know exactly if it has a reference cooler (sorry for being dumb)

does this one or not?

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5

realistically, I will most probably upgrade the card rather than crossfire to be honest.
Click to expand...

OTES means most of the heat would be exhausted outside the case. The card you linked is just a non-reference cooler design, which dumps most of the heat inside your case.

If you'll just go for single card setup anyway, then non-reference cooler design could be slightly cooler and quieter.
 
some good advice here - Im debating about which 6950 I would like to get also ...

my favs are the msi twin frozn 3, dual fan sapphire and the new toxic ... I hear mixed things about the toxic thou (higher heat, noisier, may or may not ul ...)

I am starting to lean toward the msi just not sure how loud it is under load and idle
 
I have the MSI Twin FrozR III Power Edition

It looks good and the cooler is great, idles at 35 and hits 58 at max stress test wth only 40% (deffault) fan speed

I cannot hear a thing from it until I up the fan speed to about 75% and above but even then its still not that noisy when all you can hear are gun noises and grenades going off everywhere lol =D
 
I wouldn't recommend the Twin Frozr III 6950

compared to the twin frozr II 5850 i had earlier this year, it's noisier and considerably warmer,

also overclocking it more seems lacklustre at best ( best i've had is 920clk and 1400 memory ) ( and yes, that was MSI's own afterburner :rolleyes: )
 
Seraph said:
I wouldn't recommend the Twin Frozr III 6950

compared to the twin frozr II 5850 i had earlier this year, it's noisier and considerably warmer,

also overclocking it more seems lacklustre at best ( best i've had is 920clk and 1400 memory ) ( and yes, that was MSI's own afterburner :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...

hmmm well dont know what your 5850 ran like - so it was noisier and warmer ... like how much warmer?
that oc doesnt seem too bad - I realize a lot of reviews had theirs much higher but you got to figure they probably get sent the creme of the crop chip to review. IMO Id take a 920/1400.

From what I read that sapphire dual fan is a little quieter but its missing some mem heatsinks ...
 
my 5850 used to idle at 30c, 6950 idles at 40-45 and maxes at 55-60, 5850 used to top out around 45-50

added to that, pretty sure the main OC'ing problem is no voltage tweaking natively with afterburner, it's just seems a bit daft imo and i'm sure more could be gotten from the card if voltage tweaking were possible
 
cheers for the discussion, I think I will go for the HIS card, as its in stock and seems a decent card from reading around.
 
Seraph said:
my 5850 used to idle at 30c, 6950 idles at 40-45 and maxes at 55-60, 5850 used to top out around 45-50

added to that, pretty sure the main OC'ing problem is no voltage tweaking natively with afterburner, it's just seems a bit daft imo and i'm sure more could be gotten from the card if voltage tweaking were possible
Click to expand...

hmmm; I thought there was a bios out there with a voltage tweak ... I owned a powercolor 6970pcs+ for err 2 days (had to send back for rma back to the states (fun fun)) and that thing under kombustor got up to 87c -
something was wrong with it - kept getting errors and crashes even when I downclocked it ...
 
Seraph said:
my 5850 used to idle at 30c, 6950 idles at 40-45 and maxes at 55-60, 5850 used to top out around 45-50

added to that, pretty sure the main OC'ing problem is no voltage tweaking natively with afterburner, it's just seems a bit daft imo and i'm sure more could be gotten from the card if voltage tweaking were possible
Click to expand...

unless I'm missing something doesn't afterburner have a voltage setting you can change? at least have read that you could change it with the 5850 twin frozr ii(have had 1 for the past several months but not ventured into ocing it with afterburner yet, just recently had a little play with the ccc overdrive to 750mhz clk left the mem at stock).

I've been reading a few reviews of the toxic all have been able to unlock the shaders(tho as you say sapphire may have sent them hand picked ones), I', tempted to order 2 for xfire so hope both unlock.

reviews for the different 6950 models(1gb and 2gb) so you can decide which to go for http://www.techpowerup.com/reviewdb/Graphics-Cards/ATI/HD-6950/
 
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