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To overclock both cards today we used Catalyst Control Center initially, then pushed higher with the Sapphire TRIXX overclocking tool. All of our samples overclocked to almost identical levels so the screenshots may not be directly linked to the cards in this review. This is because they are all the same reference design from the same production line batch.
First, the XFX HD6950 graphics card:
Our maximum overclock was only 50mhz on the core to 850mhz and a whopping 200mhz on the memory to 1450mhz (5800mhz effective). While the core has only limited overclocking headroom, the memory makes up for this. The quality of this Hynix memory is as good as we have seen.
Next, the XFX HD6970 graphics card:
The XFX HD6970 faired a little better on the core, peaking at 950mhz. Memory reached similar speeds to the HD6950 card, achieving 1475mhz (5900mhz effective).
If ever you needed to see the performance differences between the last generation and the current generation AMD graphics cards then this is a good test to run. Tessellation performance due to the architectural changes noted earlier shows that a single overclocked HD6970 is capable of performing close to the HD5870's in a Crossfire configuration! An extra 4 fps are also gained from the HD6950 in an overclocked states.
At these overclocks, temperatures on both cards rose by around another 3-4 C under load.
Wow this is incredible performance levels, price isnt bad either. cant believe the test 2 is delivering the same levels of performance as the XFX black edition 5970s in crossfire X. thats really interesting !
I think these are good boards, even though a lot of people will be disappointed with the fact the 580 is still leading the single card attack
CFX x 3 is awesome . blown away by the frame rates its generating. Noise might not suit everyone though :p
The price is the biggest selling point. I dont think they are the performance killers we expected, but the 280 price for the 6970 means its actually only 30 more than the 5850 was at launch. thats quite a good figure for them to achieve. I think they are doing what they do against intel in the CPU sector. drop pricing as low as poss.
Way to go, lol Crossfire in x3. thats a nice addition. XFX seem to love Kitguru. scaling is good in some of the games, but not so good in others. unigine at 133 fps caught my eye. mental
That was brilliant read. loads of testing and AMD have made a rockin card. the 6950 seems to be really well price positioned. cFx3 was fun, thanks
Nice work Zardon, get some sleep, too much for one man 🙂
Shit on a stick. CF x 3 is awesome. ill be sitting here green with envy, knowing I was shovelling snow from my driveway while I knew you were playing games with that setup
I wasnt expecting 3 way CFx to work so sun out of the gate. that should really kick nvidai in the nuts. im all for that.
Hey zardon if you are finished with the 40 cards you have can you send a few my way for a long term loaner? 🙂
Many people seem disappointed about the fact the 580 is still the performance king.
What about the price? 420 quid for a graphics card? its 140 quid more than the 6970. no thanks.
The bundle needs to be better. We need to start getting converters for 3 screens. mini displayport? no monitor supports that as far as I know apart from apple. a big converter cable like powercolor offer would be much better than anything else ive seen. No more Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’s please, everyone has this game, years ago. Seems odd that no partners are selling these with better 3 screen out of the box suppotr. cables, converters etc.
@ Long Flow. I think you need to realise that about 0.5 percent of the potential audience have more than one screen, regardless of what AMD try to push. I agree in theory though, its hard to sell 3 screen cards if you need converters etc, as well as a displayport monitor. Sapphire should sell a flex gaming edition, that would sell bucketloads. Something more powerful than a 5770 !
over 100c in 3 way sli. They need to put the slots further apart in some motherboards for this. three cards in 3 way generate such heat and its pushed into the cards beside. Love the performance, but the noise and temps would put me off immediately. dual CFx though for certain. ill probably get two 6950’s in Cfx in the new year.
These are really great cards. I dont care for a 430 quid board, 220 quid for the 6950 though? yes please !
I think that most enthusiast gamers will stretch to £300 for a board, putting the 570 and 6970 in the top end for most people. id like to see the followup with 570 against 6970. the three monitor support is a selling point, ive already two screens, one more is only 130 quid. if I want this with 570 I need another card. nvidia are lagging here. but I prefer their drivers. no idea what to buy now 🙁
awesome work , those are mega cards. need to sell my dog to get some.