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Tell us your purchase, HD 6900s.

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toyota said:
its $169 shipped before rebate. I am thinking about it myself but tbh I dont wont to fool with AMD drivers.
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Assuming you're talking about the Sapphire 6850 at newegg it's actually $169 after rebate (I just put it in my cart and applied the rebate to check on that)

I'm in a bit of the same boat as Avalon, With 512MB I run into the VRAM limit a bit in SC2 with textures, and it limits my AA settings a bit in WoW. Generally though, the hit isn't big enough to make me upgrade. (4XAA instead of 8XAA to keep a 60fps average :GASP: )

Personally, I'm going to wait until next year, the shrink to 28nm should give us a pretty good performance boost, and it will also give AMD some time to work on the drivers for that new shader design.
 
maniac5999 said:
Assuming you're talking about the Sapphire 6850 at newegg it's actually $169 after rebate (I just put it in my cart and applied the rebate to check on that)

I'm in a bit of the same boat as Avalon, With 512MB I run into the VRAM limit a bit in SC2 with textures, and it limits my AA settings a bit in WoW. Generally though, the hit isn't big enough to make me upgrade. (4XAA instead of 8XAA to keep a 60fps average :GASP: )

Personally, I'm going to wait until next year, the shrink to 28nm should give us a pretty good performance boost, and it will also give AMD some time to work on the drivers for that new shader design.
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its $169 BEFORE rebate and I have it in my cart right now. there is a $15 promo code right there on item description.

there is even a thread in hotdeals about it. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2127982
 
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toyota said:
I hope you did not buy it thinking it was an upgrade for your sig pc because its slower than a 5850.
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Read post #50 😉

My 6970 arrives tomorrow and the 5870 arrives Monday. Kinda regretting spending that much on two video cards but they will replace the 4870 512 and 8800GTS 512 I currently have quite nicely. Can't wait to FINALLY be able to play BC 2 with max settings at 1920x1200.

Now I just need to wait for SB to come out and mobo's to be reviewed. Planning on finishing this build in Feb after 3+ years on this e8500 setup.
 
I got the cards installed but didn't have time to really mess around with them just a 3DMark 11 run.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/202092

P6568 3DMarks | Graphics score 8535 | Physics score 4127 | Combined score 3570

My Phenom2 x4 at 3.5ghz seems to have a big effect on my score compared to similar setups using faster processors, 🙁 my gpu score however is in line with other 6950 crossfire numbers.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
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ader098 said:
I got the cards installed but didn't have time to really mess around with them just a 3DMark 11 run.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/202092


My Phenom2 x4 at 3.5ghz seems to have a big effect on my score compared to similar setups using faster processors, 🙁 my gpu score however is in line with other 6950 crossfire numbers.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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If you don't mind me asking, are you using the 955BE? I was planning on a similar setup and hoping I didn't get bottlenecked. I only ask because your results link is not working for me.
 
RandomSanity said:
If you don't mind me asking, are you using the 955BE? I was planning on a similar setup and hoping I didn't get bottlenecked. I only ask because your results link is not working for me.
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Actually I'm using a 940BE overclocked to 3.5ghz wich seems to be the limit for this chip. I'm waiting for a deal on an X6 1090t which easily hit 4.0ghz from what I hear and even then I'm not sure it will be worth the upgrade. Maybe a Sandy Bridge or Bulldozer is in my future.🙂
P6568 3DMarks | Graphics score 8535 | Physics score 4127 | Combined score 3570
 
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ader098 said:
Actually I'm using a 940BE overclocked to 3.5ghz wich seems to be the limit for this chip. I'm waiting for a deal on an X6 1090t which easily hit 4.0ghz from what I hear and even then I'm not sure it will be worth the upgrade. Maybe a Sandy Bridge or Bulldozer is in my future.🙂
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going from your X4 to another AMD cpu will not be worth the upgrade. at 6950 crossfire level of performance and faster you are much better going to i5/i7 if you want a cpu upgrade.
 
I ordered two 6970's to crossfire, they should be here monday. I originally had a 5970 but I traded that to a user in the FS/FT section for his 5870 + cash, so it will be replacing a single 5870. Looking forward to getting them installed and playing around with them.

I got the cards through my workplace though, XFX boards for about $354 or something like that.
 
stock 6950x2 Powercolor. 800/1250mhz
4.3ghz copy i7 950
driver 12.10a

6950x2 heaven 2.1
bhzi28.jpg


6850x2 940/1140mhz heaven 2.1
20ifdp4.jpg


6950x2 3dmark 11 [6850x2 940/1140mhz 7675P som bäst. med HT on.]
2dl3ksl.jpg


6950x2 3Dmark06 [6850x2 27000p]
2ro6y5s.jpg
 
toyota said:
its $169 shipped before rebate. I am thinking about it myself but tbh I dont wont to fool with AMD drivers.
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AMD and Nvidia drivers really are on par with each other these days. Each company has its own set of specific issues, but I'd say they're roughly equal.
And Crossfire scaling is actually better than SLI with these latest generation AMD cards. Two 6850 in Crossfire for $310 AR are faster overall than a $520 GTX 580 at 1920x1200 while consuming less power at both idle and while under load. That's pretty impressive.
 
Creig said:
AMD and Nvidia drivers really are on par with each other these days. Each company has its own set of specific issues, but I'd say they're roughly equal.
And Crossfire scaling is actually better than SLI with these latest generation AMD cards. Two 6850 in Crossfire for $310 AR are faster overall than a $520 GTX 580 at 1920x1200 while consuming less power at both idle and while under load. That's pretty impressive.
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well its more of a case of being comfortable with using Nvidia I guess. it does like Boderlands, GTA 4 and other games I am playing have more issues on AMD though. I have had AMD before and some things like simply forcing vsync from the control panel dont work. I also had an issue with missing fences in Clear Sky that went on for months and never got resolved until after I sold the card. I had a few other niggles too but bottom line is that I prefer to use Nvidia whenever possible.
 
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Pulled the trigger on the Sapphire 6970 myself. Think it will be bottle necked with an 720 x3 unlocked to 4 cores and oc to 3.5?
 
I've purchased a 6970 to replace my 4890 crossfire. I don't expect the performance to be much better but it will open me up to dx11 features and with my slightly dated crossfire only x48 board I figured it made more sense than a 570 for future upgrades. Shrug.

Crossfire doesn't work in dx9 windowed games, with the new graphics settings in wow I can't quite get ideal fps on a single 4890 at max settings and 8AA so it was about time for a faster single card. Not expecting much improvement in crysis etc. Might try the old 8800 as a physx card though 😀. Crysis 2 might warrant a second 6970 but we will see. If I have a new job by then I might end up with a better CPU as well.. though I really want to wait for socket 2011..

Oh, it was a HIS card. I was going to go sapphire but NCIX only had the HIS in stock that I could price match to newegg's lower prices. I go NCIX as the warehose is only a couple blocks away and they allow pickup.
 
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There much point upgrading a 4850 to a 6950 on a Core2Duo E8400 at stock? Running at 1680x1050 with all the bells and whistles I can get playable. I expect to upgrade the CPU etc in about a year.

XFX or Sapphire? There's also a Gigabyte card for £12 (~$20) more.

I'd be tempted to hold off for the factory overclocks with custom cooling (and see how the 1gb models are) but I guess they'll be 3-6 months away and that's the period I have free time.
 
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Davegod said:
There much point upgrading a 4850 to a 6950 on a Core2Duo E8400 at stock? Running at 1680x1050 with all the bells and whistles I can get playable. I expect to upgrade the CPU etc in about a year.

XFX or Sapphire? There's also a Gigabyte card for £12 (~$20) more.

I'd be tempted to hold off for the factory overclocks with custom cooling (and see how the 1gb models are) but I guess they'll be 3-6 months away and that's the period I have free time.
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a year from now when you decide to get a cpu we will have much faster gpus for the same money. at 1680 all you need is something like a 6850 or 460 with your stock E8400.
 
Can you guys do me a favor and let us know how the performance of your cards changes in the next driver release?
 
toyota said:
a year from now when you decide to get a cpu we will have much faster gpus for the same money. at 1680 all you need is something like a 6850 or 460 with your stock E8400.
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heck, im able to play sc2, bad company 2 @ 2560x1440 on my oc'd 6850. Its pretty amazing what performance "mid-range" buys you now. I really had slap myself a few times to keep my self from upgrading to a 6950
 
I was really tempted to go with a 6800 series card. It was the 2GB of memory & new architexture that swayed me over.

Also I do not like that my 6970 came without shrink wrap.
 
As an update:

I just installed my new 6970.

Sold the 4890 crossfire set up this morning for more than I thought I'd get for them (ah craigslist.. fellow came to the door with cash to boot..).

I'm rather pleased with the card so far. Raw performance is roughly the same as the 4890 crossfire I had before. (almost identical in Crysis anyway). The temperature hovers some 20deg cooler than the 4890s at load though (76 compared to mid 90s) and it is far quieter.

Have seen about a 120% increase in wow when you couple the dx11 code path in as well (yes wow can now take advantage of dx11) which is a huge bonus. As I said earlier this increase is in no small part from the second 4890 not working in wow.

Have not tried out dx11 beyond civ 5 and wow yet. But looking good so far.

So when compared to games where the 4890 cf worked perfectly (older shooters mostly) I'm about status quo but with about half the power consumption and a noise level that no longer gets above my other fans.

When compared to games where the lack of dx11 was annoying or crossfire didn't work there is simply no comparison. Had I not scored a great deal on the 6970 I would have likely gotten a gtx570, but I may end up with a 550/540 (or whatever they replace the 450/440 with) to do physX 😀.

The ah heck overclocked stupidly easily too. A testament to how conservative the bios limits are to the clocks. I slid both to the right as far as they go (950/1450) with no change to the power slider and everything works flawlessly with only a 2% increase in fan speed and no noticeable temperature increase... I can't fathom why these were not released as 950mhz parts at stock as the obviously stay under the TDP as there has not been any throttling...

What I expected, not surprised in either direction beyond the over clocking silly slider. Have to pull out the new AA modes for half life and so forth now though 😀
 
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I was hoping to buy a gtx 580 but I can't find a good one in stock anywhere (at least anywhere reputable) so I was wondering if any 6970 owners could share some advice. Is the 6970 absolutely worth it, even if it is slower than a gtx 580? Thank you.
 
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