AMD's new HD6970 range has impressed KitGuru, delivering stunning gaming performance at a very respectable price point. While nVidia certainly have the performance advantage right now with their GTX580, we really do love to game across three screens without having to purchase another graphics card.
Today we are looking at the new HIS HD6970 Turbo Edition, which offers enhanced clock speeds, for those who want a little extra performance. We will put it through its paces across multiple screens to see if it is the right choice for your next upgrade.
Product | AMD HD6970 | HIS HD6970 Turbo |
Core Clock speed | 880mhz | 900mhz |
Primitive Rate |
2 prim/clk
|
2 prim/clk |
Shader Architecture |
VLIW4
|
VLIW4 |
Stream Processors |
24 SIMD/1536 ALU
|
24 SIMD/1536 ALU |
Texture Units | 96 | 96 |
ROPs/Z-Stencil | 32/128 | 32/128 |
Frame Buffer | 2GB GDDR5 | 2GB GDDR5 |
Memory Width/Speed | 256 bit, 5.5 Gbps | 256 bit, 5.6 Gbps |
Power Connectors | 8 pin & 6 pin | 8 pin & 6 pin |
Display Outputs | 2xDVI + 2x mDP + HDMI | 2xDVI + 2x mDP + HDMI |
Well this is rather disappointing, especially after that sexy powercolor card you reviewed last week. I hadnt forgotten about it !
£20 for a 20mhz core increase and a bit of an OC on the memory? I can do that myself with CCC and spend that £20 on some drinks :p
Good cards, but I agree, this isn’t really hitting the spot for me, seems a bit cheeky really as its a complete reference design.
This is a nice card, all 6970s are nice ! powercolor card has me spoiled, that was awesome.
Fair score, I was thinking it might be a 7, but the hardware is that good that would be unfair. any higher than 8 is overly generous, as the powercolor one tested here last week is miles ahead and deserves the gold award.
Man, bad time for HIS to release this, after the powercolor PCS+, MSI HAWK, Sapphire Flex and the Asus GTX580 direct CU ! what awesome boards in the last week.
Yeah, dont really think this is such a good deal. id rather get a reference card for £20 less, and oc it myself.
I just bought a 6970 myself, picked it up for £260 and have overclocked it to 960mhz, faster than this HIS, and £40 less 🙂
yeah, im feeling smug, so what :p
Good review, thanks for the testing. ill give this one a miss and get their reference model, as our local store is selling it for £270 inc vat.
I dont mind HIS, good products with some of their range. This one however is a miss for me, because I dont think companies should get away with selling bios adjusted cards for £20 more. there is no extra work, and a ‘turbo’ sticker doesnt cost anything extra.
every HD6970 ever made hits 920mhz, so there is no hand selection going on here Zardon, that was a rather optimistic closing comment from you.
Waste of money, I can modified bioses myself and I dont have to pay £20 for the priveledge.
Good card, but its nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure they will sell many of these when there are alternatives offering better specifications and coolers etc.
very disappointing for a HIS release. Sad that they couldn’t put IceQ X on it. 6870 with IceQ is my dream card for now:)