*** The Official ATI Radeon HD 6970 & 6950 Reviews, Discussion and Overclocking Thread ***

[Lustral]

Just received and installed my HIS 6970 and I have a question for those of you who also have one. What are your 2D frequencies? seems to me that the well known Catalyst "bug" is preventing my card to use the proper 2D frequencies (250/150) and is instead stuck with 500/1375

Did u have a previous Radeon Card installed ?

If so , all you need to go is goto CCC and restore default settings

 

[Mr Krugga]

OCP are AMD biased.

Funny that you mention it, you used to quote [H]ard|OCP reviews every time you wanted to prove that Nvidia beats ATI to death

If you've read that review, you'd realise that HD6970 is faster at 2560x1600 in any game even though it uses 8xAA compared to 4xAA with GTX570. Apples-to-apples comparison and HD6970 is 15% faster than GTX570. More memory helps a lot I think.

They only pay $20 extra for the HD6970 over GTX570 in the US.

 

[jorzeh]

Lookie what i got in the post this morning

4870x2 accel above and if im totally honest in some games like Re5 the 4870x2 is walking over the 6970 but AVP the performance is insane.. even with DX11 full tessilation.

Alittle disappointed at the noise though.

 

[Duff-Man]

I think that the selection of games run by hardOCP painted a better picture of the 6900 than with other reviews. HardOCP generally only run a small selection of recent games (due to doing more in-depth analysis of performance for each game), and this time around their selection was mainly games that the 6900 handles fairly well.

Not that I'm trying to suggest they were chosen for this reason (i.e. bias), but when you choose only a small selection of games there is always the possibility that your results won't quite fit in with the larger trend. I don't think HardOCP have any particular bias to one side or the the another.

 

[Chewie]

That's the result of the bug, but if it's well known, what's the cause? Are you running more than one monitor or something?

I know it has indeed to do with the multi monitor management but in my case I have only one 24' plugged.
I had a Radeon 5850 before and I did try to restore all settings to default but no luck

 

[Triggaaar]

I think that the selection of games run by hardOCP painted a better picture of the 6900 than with other reviews.

I simply thought it was that HardOCP test at higher resolution, which suits the 69xx series more. For example, Civ 5 is a game where nvidia beats AMD, but in that review it says "The AMD Radeon HD 6950 and GeForce GTX 570 are on equal footing in this game", which means the 6970 beats the 570. (the 580 is faster still, but for this comparison that doesn't matter).

 

[Duff-Man]

I simply thought it was that HardOCP test at higher resolution, which suits the 69xx series more.

That's a fair point as well... The 6900 series does seem to perform proportionally better at the higher resolutions.

Still, with Civ 5 anandtech have the 570 beating the 6970 very heavily at 2560*1600, 4xAA It's hard to know what to make of this result...

 

[Chewie]

Even tried to install different and more recent drivers (found on Sapphire website) but still no luck, no proper 2D frequencies

 

[chris_uk333]

Decided to cancel my 6950 order and stick with my 5850 after seeing benchmarks...Not a big enough difference to warrent the change.

My 5850 is still a darn good card

 

[adwol48]

Well my 6970 has arrived currently doing a fresh driver install. One thing that struck me is the weight and length of it, it's longer than my 4870x2 and seems to weigh only slightly less. Maybe that's down to the vapour chamber cooler used.

 

[Triggaaar]

Still, with Civ 5 anandtech have the 570 beating the 6970 very heavily at 2560*1600, 4xAA It's hard to know what to make of this result...

Yes, good point. It is confusing, how are we supposed to choose cards

In the AnAnd review
6970:
@ 1680x1050, max quality, 0xAA = 35.2
@ 2560x1600, max quality, 4xAA = 34.5 (not much of a drop)

570
@ 1680x1050, max quality, 0xAA = 38.7
@ 2560x1600, max quality, 4xAA = 43 - what? It gets faster!

Can anyone explain what that's all about?

 

[Chewie]

Well my 6970 has arrived currently doing a fresh driver install. One thing that struck me is the weight and length of it, it's longer than my 4870x2 and seems to weigh only slightly less. Maybe that's down to the vapour chamber cooler used.

Could please check what are your 2D(idle) frequencies once everything's installed? I'm curious to know if it is just me having an issue or if it is indeed a Catalyst related bug and therefore it will affect everyone.
Cheers

 

[gareth170]

my 6950 idle at 250/150.

 

[adwol48]

Could please check what are your 2D(idle) frequencies once everything's installed? I'm curious to know if it is just me having an issue or if it is indeed a Catalyst related bug and therefore it will affect everyone.
Cheers

nope after fresh install of everything my idles are 250 core and 150 mem

 

[Fanatic]

My 6950 installed, last night I did a quick Unigine benchmark on my 4870, and I have done one on my 6950 now. I did the benchmark twice for each and took the 2nd set of results.

Idle clocks 250/150

 

[Sycho]

What ccc did you download guys? the 10.12s 77mb one or the preview?

 

[Fanatic]

I used the drivers off the CD. The preview drivers don't support the card.

 

[Chewie]

Raaah I don't get it, why my idle frequencies are playing around like that
I use the the most recent Catalyst I could found, 10.12 for HD69xx on Sapphire website (had the special 10.11 RC2 for HD 69xx before that).

 

[[TW]Sponge]

Hereford 1 - Brighton 1, Hereford relegated out of the football league. I presume you're doing football scores, and Nvidia/AMD are having a staff match right?

Lucky I am a Tottenham fan, can't stand to watch Hereford if I'm honest!

 

[Cryfreeman]

I have a 4870 and was thinking of maybe a 6850.. I dunno, just dont think WOW looking at that.

Any game results between the 2?