Which card is generally superior - 560TI or 6950?

[Ilias]

Fermi based cards can have weird behaviours and equally weird compatibility issues http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401. I still believe however that Nvidia cards have better image quality and better driver support than AMD cards.

 

[RussianSensation]

Starcraft II runs noticeably faster on Nvidia hardware when running with AA.

Yup. Bottom of this page.

 

[96Firebird]

Does anybody know which of these two cards would be better in Starcraft 2? 1920x1080 ultra with AA 60FPS is what I'd like to be experiencing.

I was thinking I would go with the 560, but this thread has made me reconsider a bit. Newegg currently has a HIS 2GB for $235 (CAD) AR. Is this a reference (unlockable) model?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814161355

Neither card will give you what you're looking for, unless you turn the AA down. This is the most recent article I can find that uses SC2, and neither card meets your criteria. Although the 6950 seems to get closer.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/powercolor-hd6950-1gb_8.html#sect3

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

560tI will hit the ram wall. But overclocked it can keep up with a stock 6970. But not at high resolutions.a.

 

[Kingkazma]

ehhhh i got the ASUA DirectCUII 560ti due to cuda.
in all honesty, i now realize i rendered almost everything with my 2600k anyways and CUDA was only used for drafting which IS STILL WORTH GETTING IT OVER THE 6950 but not as useful as i thought it would be.

but in all honesty, get the 560 ti and if i were you get the DirectCUII and OC it, it got me to NEAR 570 speeds (1-2% difference at that point)

but if you strictly just game, get the 6950, unlock if you wish.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Neither card will give you what you're looking for, unless you turn the AA down. This is the most recent article I can find that uses SC2, and neither card meets your criteria. Although the 6950 seems to get closer.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/powercolor-hd6950-1gb_8.html#sect3

Dang, I didn't realize that AA in SC2 could bring video cards to their knees like that. Unless I spring for an SLI or CF setup (not gonna happen), it looks like I might have to settle for jaggies if I want 60 fps on ultra. Should the 560 or the 6950 be able to give me that equally well?

 

[GaiaHunter]

Dang, I didn't realize that AA in SC2 could bring video cards to their knees like that. Unless I spring for an SLI or CF setup (not gonna happen), it looks like I might have to settle for jaggies if I want 60 fps on ultra. Should the 560 or the 6950 be able to give me that equally well?

Sincerely I don't know what scenarios they use to test this.

I've tried to check the tomshardware scenario but it wasn't available at least in the European server.

At 1680x1050 with a 6850 (875/1100) + phenom II X4 @3.6 GHz, Ultra but no indirect shadows (I think this only work on the campaign anyway) with either MLAA or 8xAA the performance drop isn't that big compared to no AA, either watching a replay of a 1vs1 or a 4vs4 replay.

Sure in a gigantic battle frames will dip, but generally they are still above 30.

On the other hand I can't see that much IQ difference between no AA and AA on SC2.

 

[Skurge]

Starcraft II runs noticeably faster on Nvidia hardware when running with AA.

Not sure about that, most benches have them neck and neck. Besides MLAA works great in SC2 and has like a sub 5% performance cost. So i would give the radeons the edge in that game.

 

[Makaveli]

Sincerely I don't know what scenarios they use to test this.

I've tried to check the tomshardware scenario but it wasn't available at least in the European server.

At 1680x1050 with a 6850 (875/1100) + phenom II X4 @3.6 GHz, Ultra but no indirect shadows (I think this only work on the campaign anyway) with either MLAA or 8xAA the performance drop isn't that big compared to no AA, either watching a replay of a 1vs1 or a 4vs4 replay.

Sure in a gigantic battle frames will dip, but generally they are still above 30.

On the other hand I can't see that much IQ difference between no AA and AA on SC2.

This i'm too busy with base management and scouting and fighting to worry about AA in SC2. Its a non factor you will never have time to sit there and look at jaggies unless your playing with novice users. Time spent wisely in that game will equal victory or lack of death.

 

[Keysplayr]

So let me get this right -

A TWIMTBP title shouldn't be considered a viable benchmark unless it favors AMD hardware, is that what you're saying?

This nonsense has to stop.

I don't think I could be in any more agreement. But I think you need to take this to moderator issues, or PFI. Ask Idontcare which route to take.

 

[Keysplayr]

What about this one? What does it say?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning/23.html

This tells me that the two cards we are talking about here are within a few % of each other. 6950 has the 25x16 advantage.

Also tells me these were pre- 270 series drivers for all Nvidia cards tested.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning/5.html

 

[GaiaHunter]

I don't think I could be in any more agreement. But I think you need to take this to moderator issues, or PFI. Ask Idontcare which route to take.

I agree.

I would like to suggest that tviceman also reports the other way around, seen in posts like this one, for example.

Its a interesting article/perspective, IMHO, if a gamer was going to spend 1000 dollars, a bigger picture than this would be appropriate.
Based on the games tested.
I would say the same if Crysis 2, Civ 5, Hawx 2, Lost Planet 2 or Dirt 2 were the limited games selected. If they were the 580 NON o/c SLI would perform similar/faster to TRI-fire.

Makes no sense that AMD cards aren't considered properly benchmarked because some games were used instead of some others or that NVIDIA games aren't considered properly benchmarked because some games were used instead of some others.

 

[Keysplayr]

I agree.

I would like to suggest that tviceman also reports the other way around, seen in posts like this one, for example.

Huh? Why can't you report it? The energy you expended here could have been used to that end? No?

 

[GaiaHunter]

This tells me that the two cards we are talking about here are within a few % of each other. 6950 has the 25x16 advantage.

Also tells me these were pre- 270 series drivers for all Nvidia cards tested.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning/5.html

Exactly like the review you linked to.

And by the way, ATI: Catalyst 11.1.

I answered to your post since it seemed to me that you were implying driver improvements.

But since all the of these reviews used the same drivers for all the cards (with the exception of the launch GTX560 review) and in all of the reviews the performance numbers (when available) vary a few frames up or down, it is hard to consider that the drivers were responsible for significant improvements one way or the other. Seems to me the game selection and number of games tested had a bigger impact.

Huh? Why can't you report it? The energy you expended here could have been used to that end? No?

I thought it was the same problem and so there was no need to flood IDC with reports.

If my support to your suggestion diminishes it I'll retract it.

 

[SickBeast]

Currently I'm using a GTX 280 (comparable to a GTX 460 768MB) and it's not good enough to run the game perfectly at ultra, let alone with AA. Things with a lot of lighting effects slow the game down quite noticeably, so I have to turn down some of the settings to high . As for the CPU, I think my i5 750 @4.0 should be good enough... I just need to decide between a 6950 and a 560. SC2 is currently the only thing I play, although it would be nice to have a bit of future proofing, which would seem to favour the 6950... tough decision, especially considering the 560 is $40 cheaper.

SC2 needs a highly clocked i7 to even approach 60fps at maximum settings in that game.

That said, in your case, a GPU upgrade is in order. Your system is not balanced.

In my case, I found that dropping the shaders and the physics a notch each made a noticeable difference. There was also one other CPU related setting that I was able to scale back a bit for another boost.

As a matter of fact, there should really be a SC2 patch to allow it to exploit quad cores properly. The current code base is a joke.

 

[Keysplayr]

If my support to your suggestion diminishes it I'll retract it.

Great! I only wish I knew what you were talking about. Just report it dude.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Great! I only wish I knew what you were talking about. Just report it dude.

I was just waiting for your blessing.

 

[badb0y]

Generally, it's a wash since both cards are within a few percentage points of each other AND both can be OCed to get as fast as the GTX 570/AMD 6970 level of performance.

I say pick your favorite color and roll with it.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

My opinion
1. 580
2. 6970=570
3. 6950 2gb
4. 560 ti

6950 over 560 ti is my answer.

 

[tviceman]

I don't think I could be in any more agreement. But I think you need to take this to moderator issues, or PFI. Ask Idontcare which route to take.

I have no desire to go to PFI and I don't see the grounds in which to report it. It's of his opinion that unless a TWIMTBP title specifcally performs better on equivalent AMD hardware, then it should not be used. It's kind of hard to argue with someone's opinion when he believes what he says.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

If all else fails buy a Xbox

 

[Vesku]

Thanks!
Yah mean like this one?
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6950_Twin_Frozr_III/23.html

Where's Dragon Age 2 in their game line up, not seeing it? ;p I prefer HardOCP's methodology for actually getting a fuller picture. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/25/galaxy_geforce_gtx_560_ti_gc_video_card_review/5

In the case of 560ti vs 6950 2GB, I think it comes down to planned game playing resolution and personal graphic card company preference. Both excellent cards for this generation of GPU.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

This i'm too busy with base management and scouting and fighting to worry about AA in SC2. Its a non factor you will never have time to sit there and look at jaggies unless your playing with novice users. Time spent wisely in that game will equal victory or lack of death.

This argument could be made for any game really, but I would agree that I don't NEED AA. Some of the posts here have made me realize that it's not realistic anyway within a reasonable budget. Having a steady 60 FPS is nice in that game though... even when it slows down to 40 FPS it feels choppy if you're used to 60.

 

[Skurge]

This argument could be made for any game really, but I would agree that I don't NEED AA. Some of the posts here have made me realize that it's not realistic anyway within a reasonable budget. Having a steady 60 FPS is nice in that game though... even when it slows down to 40 FPS it feels choppy if you're used to 60.

Use MLAA