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6950 Vs 570

Soldato
Joined
16 May 2007
Posts
3,220
Either is fine. a lot of the 6950's overclock to 6970 speeds with little change in temps which makes the cards about even. The 2GB of VRAM on the 6950 is the reason I bought one as it allows you to push the graphics settings higher. Appart from this they are very similar.

Going to 8GB of RAM makes the game run more smoothly.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
140
Location
Edinburgh
Thanks for the input guys. Still not 100% but leaning towards the 570.

Also, not playing BF3 at all on the PC, had it on the Xbox360. PC was bought originally for Starcraft 2 and Diablo (if it ever comes out).
 
Associate
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31 Jan 2012
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Droitwich, UK
BF3 is the only game I own that struggles on my Asus GTX 570 (or struggled, it's currently in the process of being RMA'd) but only when deferred AA is enabled at Ultra settings, 1080p resolution and only on the larger maps at that. I've not had any frame rate issues in other games, in fact it's been a stellar performer which reaches nice overclocks too (900/1075).

I haven't tried Skyrim yet but generally I get better performance than my mate who owns a similar rig but with a Sapphire 6950 2GB (he wasn't able to use the second 6970 BIOS successfully). The extra RAM of the AMD card may be a factor in future titles but by then the chip may not have enough grunt for those titles. If you were happy with the 6950 then you won't lose out if you go for another one, but on the other hand a GTX 570 would give you a performance boost in a number of titles. Ultimately it depends on which games you play I suppose.
 
Associate
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24 Jun 2009
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London
This isn't even a discussion. 570 is better hands down. Where the 1.3 GB VRAM will limit your FPS in the 570, the 6950s slower GPU will be a bigger limitation still. Get the 570. Don't listen to all the Harmonies who tout VRAM as the big thing without even giving due consideration to GPU bottlenecks
 
Associate
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2 Feb 2010
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345
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London
Ok just realised its at 2560... Not sure if you can still get V1.0 6950's but you could unlock it to a 6970. Failing that the 570 would probably still be better owing to its speed advantage.
 
Associate
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1 Jan 2007
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1,150
+1 for the 570, i game at 2560 x 1600, and i do not run out of vram in any game i play, including bf3, but i do have and extra 200mb or so than the 570, i do not think the vram issue that people keep complaining about is as bad as people think,
 
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OP
Joined
7 Feb 2011
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140
Location
Edinburgh
thanks for all the advice guys, I have gone with the 570.

I'm not that clued up on RAM, but will I be able to mix ram? I have 2x2GB in there are the moment, if I add one stick of 8 or 2x4 in addition, will that work?

If not, is it better to replace with 2x4GB or get another 2X2GB
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Feb 2012
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14,431
Location
Peterborough
thanks for all the advice guys, I have gone with the 570.

I'm not that clued up on RAM, but will I be able to mix ram? I have 2x2GB in there are the moment, if I add one stick of 8 or 2x4 in addition, will that work?

If not, is it better to replace with 2x4GB or get another 2X2GB

Stick with dual channel. You should match the timings etc.
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Feb 2012
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14,431
Location
Peterborough
Sorry - RAM has timing settings which you can alter the bios and you should always match these settings across the sticks if you aren't using identical pairs of RAM.

As you currently have 2x2GB - presumably in dual channel (same colour slots in your motherboard) - I would say you'd be better off pulling them out and buying 2x4GB sticks. You can get decent RAM for under £40 nowadays.

There's definitely no benefit in plugging in 1x8GB.... or 2x4GB in addition to your current RAM but I'm not a RAM expert. Perhaps somebody else can give you a definite answer. I think if the timings and voltages aren't matched you'll face issues hence easier to pull those out and buy a new pair.
 
Caporegime
Joined
5 Sep 2010
Posts
25,572
+1 for the 570, i game at 2560 x 1600, and i do not run out of vram in any game i play, including bf3, but i do have and extra 200mb or so than the 570, i do not think the vram issue that people keep complaining about is as bad as people think,

You do have a problem with a lack of VRAM at that resolution.

At 2560x1600 the 2GB HD 6950 and HD 6970 beat the GTX 570, at lower resolutions it's the other way around.

It can only be the extra VRAM.

Battlefield 3 VGA and CPU performance benchmark test

If you're going to game at 2560x1600 you should have got a card with more VRAM.
 
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