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6950 or GTX570
- Thread starter Kei
- Start date
Coming from the same site that put the 580 ahead of the 6970 in DAII.
Even though it couldn't even run properly until Nvidia fixed the driver at a much later date?
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There seems to have been a big rush of posts since i last looked in. (post #15) I bought the sapphire after all, even though i'd spent most of the day thinking about moving over to nvidia for a change. (had to order some bits for my brother and dad at the same time this evening) I've got my fingers crossed that it will unlock ok. Will admit i'm not fond of the cooler on the card. I've not run a standard cooler since my 7500, though I don't think my VF-700 is up to the job. I'll see how things go with the standard cooler before i consider ruining the warranty by changing it.
As said in the OP i still game at 1280x1024, so I'm not going to be stressing the card hard until i replace the screen. I usually run a system for a minimum of around 3 years. Since starting out with pc's back in 1999 I've only had 5 graphics cards. (voodoo 3, Radeon 7500, 9800, X850, 3870 and now a 6950)
As said in the OP i still game at 1280x1024, so I'm not going to be stressing the card hard until i replace the screen. I usually run a system for a minimum of around 3 years. Since starting out with pc's back in 1999 I've only had 5 graphics cards. (voodoo 3, Radeon 7500, 9800, X850, 3870 and now a 6950)
It's not a standard cooler though, yes it looks like AMD's reference cooler but it's Sapphires Vapour Chamber:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/VaporX/VaporX_paper.html
I've used one before and they are very quiet while also keeping the temps down as well.
Good choice as your keeping it for 3 years, imo the extra vram will see you good.
Yep, thats what I just did, moving from a 4890 Vapor 2Gb.
Soldato
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- 6 Feb 2010
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- 14,583
Problem with that cheap 6950 is it is a VTX...not really sure if people comfortable taking chances with them after so many people having problems with the VTX 6870...
yet earlier you were recommending the vtx 6970 over the 6950 toxic(the card that's £18 more, the other 6970s are £280+)
the his icq was £270 between 19th-26th and the toxic was £248, at that point I would have said the 6970 icq was the better choice but now that the toxic is £240 and the icq is £290 you do the math.
I got mine when they were £230 and sold the deus ex codes for £20 each, so worked out at £210 each(I bought 2 so £420, both of which unlock). the £222 was a good price tho recently(was tempted to get a 3rd for tri-fire but having spent so much upto that point already, plus would have needed a new psu and case).
Soldato
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- 6 Feb 2010
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Emmm...where did I recommend that?
I only expressed my agreement with the opinion of another member that the Toxic is now so expensive (£20-£30 more expensive initially), that a decent brand 6970 wouldn't cost much more. I don't recall specifically recommending any 6970
fowler002 I know you love the Toxic to death and have been recommending it against and again, but the current price of £20-£30 extra is a bitter pill to swallow. As I have said before...the Toxic is only a good consideration if it is AT LEAST under £230.
Got my sapphire today, flicked the bios switch when i installed it and on first boot it was detected as a 6970 and has been running fine. Had a small experiment with OC capabilities and got to 975 / 1450 before it froze up at default voltage. Was stable at 960 / 1400, but i'm leaving it at stock speeds for now. The cooler isn't too bad hits low 80's running at about 45% which is slightly audible but not too bad. 50% is the upper limit as it starts getting well loud.
A bit disappointed that there were no games in the box, the pictures on here show both deus ex and dirt 3. Was at least expecting deus ex. Just got to wait for the 11th for skyrim to arrive now.
A bit disappointed that there were no games in the box, the pictures on here show both deus ex and dirt 3. Was at least expecting deus ex. Just got to wait for the 11th for skyrim to arrive now.
Had a small experiment with OC capabilities and got to 975 / 1450 before it froze up at default voltage. Was stable at 960 / 1400, but i'm leaving it at stock speeds for now. The cooler isn't too bad hits low 80's running at about 45% which is slightly audible but not too bad.
At low 80's on a reference cooler, it would be screaming at you.
Mate, you've got yourself a good un!
1.2v and you'll be probably be hitting 1GHz!
Drop OC a post in the customer service thread here and ask them about the Steam codes for your games if they aren't in the box or sent to you via email:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=116
They are usually quick to respond too.
At low 80's on a reference cooler, it would be screaming at you.
Mate, you've got yourself a good un!
1.2v and you'll be probably be hitting 1GHz!
Drop OC a post in the customer service thread here and ask them about the Steam codes for your games if they aren't in the box or sent to you via email:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=116
They are usually quick to respond too.
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Soldato
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- 9 Jan 2008
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- London/Camberley
GTX570 everytime.
look in the box carefully as there should be a voucher with the dirt 3 code, you need to go to amd.com/dirt3promo and fill it out. once you do that it'll ask you to scan/take a photo of the voucher and send it to them, a fee days later they'll send you a new code which you enter again onto their website and finally they'll email you the steam key(enter in steam as normal). its a bit long winded as couple months back the site was hacked and the codes where stolen.
with deus ex you should get an email with a code that you enter at and.com/deusexpromo(I believe that correct, it should tell you in the email), they will then email you the steam key.
Marine-rx the toxic is the best 6950 so it does carry a bit of a premium over other 6950s, with other 6950s being £220-£230(well the vtx comes in at ~£200, and deals mean other brands are £210) £240 isn't unreasonable for the toxic(if you look around can get it cheaper) after all it's still cheaper than a 570.
Nope, no vouchers anywhere in the box. Also bought a phenom II x4 965 for my brother at the same time and that didn't have a deus ex voucher either.
All i got in the box was:
1. The manual
2. DVI-VGA adaptor
3. 6 + 8 pin pci-e power cables
4. CD with case sticker
5. X-fire bridge
6. Sapphire SSC membership registration card
All i got in the box was:
1. The manual
2. DVI-VGA adaptor
3. 6 + 8 pin pci-e power cables
4. CD with case sticker
5. X-fire bridge
6. Sapphire SSC membership registration card
Permabanned
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- Suffolk
Well, the GTX570 1.25GB outperform the 6950/6970 2GB in BF3 by a fair margin:
Unlocked 6950 2GB or 6970 2GB might be able to overclock to close to stock GTX580 speed, but GTX570 will overclock BEYOND stock GTX580 speed.
To be honest, I think the price of 6950 2GB and GTX560Ti 2GB has gone a bit overpriced....at £185-£205 was where they used to be, but now their price has gone up £225~£250. In comparison, the GTX570 dropped from £270~£280 down to £250 is a steal IMO.
That chart is not very good at all, in fact it is off with most cards. If you turn of msaa x4 but have it set to high on the other setting and have everything else on ultra and 16af on the 6950 you will get 50+fps. Untill AMD release new drivers to fix the aa issue.
In fact that chart is total garbage, the other reason is maybe running on stock CPU's.
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Does it mention dirt3 anywhere on the box? there should be a sticker/marking on the box about dirt3 if there is a voucher in it.
for the deus ex code(for the toxic, not sure how it works for the CPU) if you haven't revived an email from ocuk yet try contacting them them about it.
Permabanned
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Yeah Deus Ex is via email I think, dirt 3 is voucher same as Batman.
Soldato
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- 6 Feb 2010
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You seem to be missing the point. 4xMSAA is one of the most common settings that people use for games...what's the point of saying "turn off MSAA" to try to ignore one of the slight weakness of the 69xx cards? May be you would want to send all reviewers a message to tell them they shouldn't do review with AA applied, as it might make AMD card looks bad?
Sure if people would want to game with no AA applied, then it doesn't really matter if people were getting AMD or Nvidia card since their performance would be pretty much on par, but when 4xAA is applied, the 69xx cards usually take a heavier hit on frame rate (particularly on the minimum frame rate) than Nvidia's cards...specifically the GTX470/GTX480/GTX570/GTX580, and my post on #16 is an example of this. And also, take note that AMD tell its users to use Nvidia's FXAA instead of MSAA in BF3, so it clearly that they are awared that their cards' MSAA's performance is simply not that great in the game.
I don't see what you are trying to prove here...the OP took the gamble and got the Sapphire 6950 2GB Toxic, and it managed to unlock, and I'm happy for him for that. But I stand firm on my opinion that there are room for improvement for AMD card's performance in the context of MSAA application. I suspect the reason for AMD's card tends to take heavier hit on frame rate with the application of MSAA than Nvidia's Fermi (GTX470/GTX480/GTX570/GTX580...not GTX560Ti or below that uses a slightly different architecture) is due to their architecture design; GTX560Ti and lower also seem to have the same issue on taking heavier frame rate hit with the application of MSAA as well.
Anyway, I hope both AMD and Nvidia would deliver mid-range or below cards (not just high-end range) using architecture that the frame rate won't take too huge a dive with the application of MSAA for their next gen release.
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