Which card is generally superior - 560TI or 6950?

[SaltyNuts]

Looking at a few comparisons they look pretty close - any opinions as to which one to go with?

Also, can both cards to SLI?

Thanks!

 

[mnewsham]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131393

Or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162074

I would go with the 560Ti i posted because it is just about 200 bucks AR with similar performance to the 6950.

 

[SickBeast]

I say get neither and go with a GTX 460 for less money. Overclocked it can easily match a GTX 560.

I've seen the 1gb versions going for $120AR lately.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

The 6950 is faster overall, the GTX560 will generally only be faster in games that heavily favor nVidia

the 6950 also has even higher potential if we consider unlocking and overclocking which would net 6970/GTX570 level performance.

But that doesn't make the 6950 a sure thing, as other posts suggest, it might not be the best price/performance, of which that all comes down to where you want to draw the line.

 

[SickBeast]

After all the horror stories about unlocking the 6950, I would be very careful if I were to do it. You need to keep the memory frequency reasonably low to avoid killing the card.

 

[nvidiaintelftw]

my neighbor jsut got a GTX560Ti and its a great card. I would love me some GTX560Ti Sli

 

[gdansk]

my neighbor jsut got a GTX560Ti and its a great card. I would love me some GTX560Ti Sli

Your name renders any of your opinions into doubt... although the GTX560 Ti does look like a nice card in this situation.


This is an ad hominem personal attack.

Ad hominem circumstantial points out that someone is in circumstances such that he is disposed to take a particular position. Ad hominem circumstantial constitutes an attack on the bias of a source. This is fallacious because a disposition to make a certain argument does not make the argument false; this overlaps with the genetic fallacy (an argument that a claim is incorrect due to its source).

Personal attacks are in violation of the forum's posting guidelines:

1) No trolling, flaming or personally attacking members. Deftly attacking ideas and backing up arguments with facts is acceptable and encouraged. Attacking other members personally and purposefully causing trouble with no motive other than to upset the crowd is not allowed.

Please do not post like this in the future, reconsider your approach to your fellow forum colleagues and engage them in civil discourse regarding the technical content of their posts and not your prejudice against them as a poster based on their username, their join date, their post count, etc.

Idontcare
Super Mod

 

[nenforcer]

nVidia cards can do SLI the GTX 560 Ti you mentioned.

ATI Radeon HD cards do what is called Crossfire.

They are both equivalent multi-GPU technologies using PCI-E bridge adapters.

 

[RussianSensation]

After all the horror stories about unlocking the 6950, I would be very careful if I were to do it. You need to keep the memory frequency reasonably low to avoid killing the card.

It's not memory frequency that's dangerous for 6950 cards. Instead it's memory voltage. It's not a problem however since you can just run a Mod 6950 unlock script on your 6950's BIOS. This way you will get the full unlock of 1536 SPs and keep the memory voltage stock. In fact, PowerColor has a 6950 PCS+ version of the card. With that BIOS, you get 880mhz GPU speeds and 6950 memory speeds. Then you can just overclock the memory to 6970 speeds without problems -- that's 6970 in a nutshell. :thumbsup:

I would go with an HD5870 or GTX560 if overclocking wasn't part of the equation. Otherwise, I'd spend the extra $40 and grab a 6950 and unlock it into a 6970. All 3 of these cards are great for the price. Performance wise, the 5870 is actually the best value of these 3 since it costs $190. The cheapest GTX460 1GB I see on Newegg is $160 atm. That makes no sense since the card is 38% slower than an HD5870 at 1920x1200.

 

[Arkadrel]

6950 via bios flash turned into a 6970 (unlocking shaders)

for ~245$ on newegg after Mail in rebates, you get a 6950->6970.

Sickbeast mentions horrior stories, well I havnt heard of them... and since like 97% of them unlock, its worth the gamble. Even if yours doesnt unlock, 6950 vs 560... the 6950 a tiny bit faster.

 

[3DVagabond]

After all the horror stories about unlocking the 6950, I would be very careful if I were to do it. You need to keep the memory frequency reasonably low to avoid killing the card.

It's more likely that nVidia will release drivers that will kill your card than you'll kill your 6950 by unlocking it.

 

[timma]

buy 6950 OC~

 

[Keysplayr]

Looking at a few comparisons they look pretty close - any opinions as to which one to go with?

Also, can both cards to SLI?

Thanks!

Yup, cards are pretty close until you factor is price and feature set.
Others will attempt shut down of this nonsense, but the features are there non-the-less. Better tesselation performance with heavier tesselation loads, PhysX, and CUDA support. Now, just because "I" appreciate these features doesn't mean everyone will as I'm totally certain you're about to find out.

Check my sig. I do favor Nvidia products over AMDs. Always have even after using both products numerous times over the years up to and including 5870.
I like the 560Ti. Powerful, quiet, pricing is good.

Yes, 560Ti can SLI. The ATI version is crossfire for the 6850.

 

[Arkadrel]

Better tesselation performance with heavier tesselation loads.
(which no games make use of atm, mainly shows in tess heavy benchmarks)

PhysX.. how many games support GPU only PhysX? on the pc? ~20 games?

CUDA is dieing... Directx's alternative DirectCompute, and OpenCL are replaceing it, withtime less and less CUDA only software will be around.


The tesselation reason though is a valid enough arguement for the 560 though, I guess the PhysX is too, if your playing one of those 20 or so games.

I still think 6950 unlocking to a 6970, means its value is better.
Power wise, it uses 20+ watts less on avg loads.


performance wise: 6950 > 560:

560 is closer to a 6870 than it is to the 6950.

560 is ~5% avg faster than a 6870.
6950 is ~8% avg. faster than a 560.

 

[AtenRa]

Depends on the game you want to play and resolution, up to 1080p they have the same performance. Both win in some games and loose in others but at 2560x1600 HD6950 will be faster.

GTX560 ti dont have that much better performance in tessellation than HD6950, i will say that they are the same.

Both overclock enough to even catch there higher end sister cards, the GTX570 and HD6970.

 

[supahnoobie]

It's an eye candy & your monitor resolution question!

And what I mean by that is it depends what resolution you're playing your games w/ plus the additional settings that make the game "look" good, for example all eye-candy settings set all to max plus 4AA/16AF etc...

While the 560 is a great overclocker, it's held back by the 1GB ram when all game settings are set to high. It can do "only" SLI not tri/quad SLI but the 6950 can. Anandtech just wrote how improved the CF scaling of the new AMD 69xx cards.

In a single 1920x1200 monitor you'll not see much difference between the two cards, but move up to a higher resolution or multi-monitor setups the 560 will struggle more than the 6950 because of the 1GB ram.

So, if you're only planning on running you're games on a single 1920x1200 you can choose between the two w/ no regrets, but w/ higher resolution gaming the 2GB ram of the 6950 will let you set eye-candy settings to a higher level.

 

[terry107]

6950 via bios flash turned into a 6970 (unlocking shaders)

for ~245$ on newegg after Mail in rebates, you get a 6950->6970.

Sickbeast mentions horrior stories, well I havnt heard of them... and since like 97% of them unlock, its worth the gamble. Even if yours doesnt unlock, 6950 vs 560... the 6950 a tiny bit faster.

I upgraded from a 9800GT to a 6950 last week. Took 10 minutes to install the card and unlock the extra shaders. Running at 900/1400 on stock voltage with low temps. If you get the 6950, make sure your case can handle it. It was a tight squeeze in the Antec 300.

 

[stahlhart]

Looking at a few comparisons they look pretty close - any opinions as to which one to go with?

Also, can both cards to SLI?

I'm have really good luck with the cards in my sig so far. I'm getting Vantage scores in the 39K range in SLI with the cards at stock and the 2500K in the 4.5GHz range.

Might want to look at the 580 or the 6970 if you ever have second thoughts about going the SLI/CrossFire route. I think that the pair of 560s runs just a bit ahead of a single 580 on average, so if you overclocked a 580 it would probably be about a wash both performance and price-wise, and you avoid potential SLI or CrossFire issues (microstutter, individual game profiles, etc.).

I went with SLI just for the first-hand experience of having done it mainly.

 

[96Firebird]

I'm surprised no one has asked this yet, but what motherboard do you have? I'm not knocking your intelligence, but you don't seem to know the difference between SLI and Crossfire. SLI is Nvidia's dual-card solution, while Crossfire is AMD's. Your motherboard may only be able to handle SLI, or it may only be able to handle Crossfire. In which case, if you were looking to get two cards, would be the dealbreaker. Also, what resolution are you running at, what games do you play, and how much room do you have for the card?

 

[aphelion02]

Yup, cards are pretty close until you factor is price and feature set.
Others will attempt shut down of this nonsense, but the features are there non-the-less. Better tesselation performance with heavier tesselation loads, PhysX, and CUDA support. Now, just because "I" appreciate these features doesn't mean everyone will as I'm totally certain you're about to find out.

Check my sig. I do favor Nvidia products over AMDs. Always have even after using both products numerous times over the years up to and including 5870.
I like the 560Ti. Powerful, quiet, pricing is good.

Yes, 560Ti can SLI. The ATI version is crossfire for the 6850.

The 6950 1GB is the 560Ti's competitor, and the pricing is pretty much equivalent. I have no idea why you are bringing the 6850 into the equation, thats a different card for a different price point, and tbh quite a low blow.

 

[96Firebird]

The 6950 1GB is the 560Ti's competitor, and the pricing is pretty much equivalent. I have no idea why you are bringing the 6850 into the equation, thats a different card for a different price point, and tbh quite a low blow.

Pretty sure he meant to say 6950 and not 6850. Typo is all.

 

[nyker96]

i'd say check the games you will play, in general 6950 is faster than 560ti, but not by much. however, from some reviews it seems they think the architecture of 6950 favors future games more than the 560ti. that's something to consider as well.

 

[load81]

performance wise: 6950 > 560:

560 is closer to a 6870 than it is to the 6950.

560 is ~5% avg faster than a 6870.
6950 is ~8% avg. faster than a 560.

Use the newest chart

 

[Arkadrel]

Use the newest chart

too many TWIMTBP titles

Battleforge,Call of Juarez, Civilization, skewer the results to much.

 

[96Firebird]

too many TWIMTBP titles

Battleforge,Call of Juarez, Civilization, skewer the results to much.

Yes, there is zero chance the OP plays those games.