AMD Radeon 6970/6950 Retail Pictured, released Dec 13-17, $500/$375 pricing

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Zargon

Lifer
Nov 3, 2009
12,218
2
76
that could merely mean that production got started late, and not that yields are low.

Its also good for creating some prexmas-launch fever. I would have preferred them out for BF/CM but what can ya do
 

PlasmaBomb

Lifer
Nov 19, 2004
11,636
2
81
^ There was the rumour of a shortage of DrMOS from a supplier...

Though I think AMD denied that.
 
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Triggaaar

Member
Sep 9, 2010
138
0
71
most likely the OcUK forums. Don't forget that the price rises in January are at least partly down to our VAT rates going from 17.5% to 20% :(

Edit: linky

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18217697
Thanks for the reply and link, appreciated. That thread doesn't have the pricing, just "You will be very happy with our pricing." from the OP. I guess the prices were elsewhere in the forum, but not official. EDIT - Ok, 2 hours later (I'm ashamed) I have actually found the prices, and they seem fairly official, thanks.

The smoke and mirror secrets and leaks has got me far too excited, and I may well buy a card on impulse, and not get what I really need. Must remain rational.
 
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Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
59
91
Plenty of HIS cards ready for launch at OcUK:

his2.jpg

lol at the fire-extinguisher standing by at the ready (on the right)! :D
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Go back and read the date on that article. It reads Monday, November 15th. Fail!

I think he meant that if you took 30 days to build up inventory by delaying your launch from Nov 15th to Dec 15th, then sure you will have tons of cards manufactured in 1 month waiting to be sold. This is not how the 580 was launched. Also, if HD6970 is priced lower by a significant amount (i.e., $70-100), then it will of course sell more units than GTX580.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
How much performance does it cost to limit to 190watts compared to the full 250watts?

I can understand people that dont need the extra performance, or have a lower rated PSU, might stay at 190watts mark, but wouldnt most want the extra performance?

*pushes the magical switch to the 250w marker, watches performance climb*

Is the effeciency of the chips performance/watt differnt at differnt volt/watt values? Im guessing the 190w value might be for people that care more about the electrical bills than the 250watt value users?

I think that the "switch that shall not be named" was a bad idea for amd. clearly they wanted to continue to get the street cred from lower heat/noise/thermals but they also wanted to go for the performance crown. anybody who buys a 6970 is just going to keep it constantly on the 250w setting, barring the extremely rare scenario of "I want to upgrade my rig but want to wait 3 mos for a new psu so I'll get 6970 and run it at 190w mode until then". just doesn't seem like it was needed, and it will highlight that nvidia's arch is just as efficient as amd's until you go for the very top end. at which point both company's tdp's go out of control, not just nvidia's. amd should have either sold out all the way for high performance or kept their small ball/low tdp strategy in effect.
 

Arkadrel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2010
3,681
2
0
Plenty of HIS cards ready for launch at OcUK:

his2.jpg


Originally Posted by Gibbo
Thats just 6970's and only 1/3rd of what we have in stock for launch.


For those thinking 6950, well I have nearly 1000pc of those in stock ready for launch as well.
biggrin.gif



Needless to say this is a true *HARD* launch!
biggrin.gif

163 is less than 1/3 of the cards of 6970s he has, so ~490-500 cards?

~500 6970s
~1000 6950s

Thats alot of cards for 1 seller, in the uk.
I wonder if supply is like this all over the world? That would suggest it is a hard launch.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
6970 x2 vs 480 x2 and seeing 50% differnce in performance @ 5760x1080... that would shut the case, for surround vs eyefinity with multi screen setups.

well, the 2gb vram vs 1.5 gb is significant at such a high resolution, just like gtx 480 had the advantage over 5870 1gb at 25x16.
 

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
I think that the "switch that shall not be named" was a bad idea for amd. clearly they wanted to continue to get the street cred from lower heat/noise/thermals but they also wanted to go for the performance crown. anybody who buys a 6970 is just going to keep it constantly on the 250w setting, barring the extremely rare scenario of "I want to upgrade my rig but want to wait 3 mos for a new psu so I'll get 6970 and run it at 190w mode until then". just doesn't seem like it was needed, and it will highlight that nvidia's arch is just as efficient as amd's until you go for the very top end. at which point both company's tdp's go out of control, not just nvidia's. amd should have either sold out all the way for high performance or kept their small ball/low tdp strategy in effect.

Great post. The honest truth in GPUs today is that if you want small TDP you have to go to a less-powerful GPU. Sure, some GPUs are more efficient than others, but you just can't get a top-tier GPU with a <100w TDP. Won't happen. If anything, they should TDP bin their top GPUs and offer lower-power versions at a small premium for people who do want a more efficient CPU. This works in the CPU market, albeit CPUs are the not the same as GPUs, the idea could work similarly.

What really helps is to keep idle power in check and engineer the GPU to scale power usage as efficiently as possible with load. For games that are less demanding on the GPU, having a dramatically lower-TDP will make a huge difference. As will idle GPU power usage, because a lot of time our GPUs do sit idle for most people.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
And this is the latest pricing from Gibbo at OCUK:



If true, and 6970 is close to the 580, then it will sell really damn well. FWIW, those are basically 58xx launch prices, without the supply issue, so that's very nicely priced.

5-10&#37; slower than the 580 but $100 cheaper is a-okay in my book

lol @ the 5830 description. maybe you CAN shine a turd if your name is gibbo!
 

tviceman

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2008
6,734
514
126
www.facebook.com
First review.

Crossfire 6950s here I come:)

That's not really a review, and there is nothing that is impressive about these benchmarks. There are no crossfire results and performance for the hd6970 is ranging from anywhere almost as fast as a gtx580 to noticeably slower than a gtx570.
 
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96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,714
316
126
Yeah that review isn't too great, doesn't really tell much. I'll be waiting for the game reviews, those usually tell how it is. Unless I missed something, I can't read the language.
 

Arkadrel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2010
3,681
2
0
look at this:

6970.png




stock 6970, Heaven 2.1 benchmark, 1920x1080 4AA ~67.7 fps

Tessellation performance seems much improved.
 
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tincart

Senior member
Apr 15, 2010
630
1
0
People keep comparing that result @ 1920 x 1080 to GTX580 results @ 1920 x 1200.

Anyone know of a 580 result with the same settings?
 

Lonbjerg

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
4,419
0
0
look at this:

6970.png




stock 6970, Heaven 2.1 benchmark, 1920x1080 4AA ~67.7 fps

Tessellation performance seems much improved.

One would almost be tempted to saying that 2 x fixed tessellations engines dosn't quite give 2 x the performance...

AMD GPU's...no longer "unified" :D
 
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Skurge

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2009
5,195
1
71
Anyone think is a bit.... dumb that we have 2 parallel threads talking about the same thing?
 

heflys

Member
Sep 13, 2010
72
0
0
naw, this is nothin' compared to 4 different amd iq threads right before 69x0's release.

Geeeeezzz.....It took me a minute to click on these topics, since folks have now bumped those old IQ topics. Anyway, I'm very excited about these cards.