AMD Radeon HD6950/6970(Cayman) Reviews

[Loque]

smart move to produce little stock of 2gb 5850/5870's at high price so they can put it in 69x0's

most reviewers even act as if the 2gb versions never existed.. hmm.. need to grab another 5850 2gb card

[Nintendork]

yeh totally agree, from the HW Canucks review it only really wins in like 2 tests, Sits pretty much on par with the 570 like 5% better give or take.. 2560x1600 and higher resolutions is where its at though, 2gb ram does come in handy for something.. After being hyped up for a whole week waiting for reviews i might skip cayman and go with SLI 570s, seems like a better deal..

That depends on what reviews you want to read. HardOCP, anand, tcpup, cayman looks pretty good.

Aim for 580 for much less. So it's like a 570 with OC.

[tajoh111]

I was realistically pessimistic about performance and after reading, techpowerup, anandtech and hwcanucks, I don't want to get any of these cards and I am still disappointed in performance. It really is disappointing considering some of the hype of this product. I don't know how the users that hyped this up to be r300 and genuinely thought it was going to be such a product are feeling, I pity their disappointment because I felt the same about fermi and cypress.

Nonetheless, this has got to be the smallest performance increase from AMD ever, even when recycling and modifying old technology. Its not as disastrous, but the only time AMD had such a small increase between generations was between 1950xt and 2900xt. This is not worthy of the 69xx name. The bad naming combined with the disappointing performance really makes this more disappointing than usual.

If the gtx 580 and cayman has taught us anything, until we switch to a new node with big chips, you can't expect miracles to happen with performance.

[Nintendork]

The one to blame should be TSMC at the end for this "new generations".

[Johnny87au]

I was realistically pessimistic about performance and after reading, techpowerup, anandtech and hwcanucks, I don't want to get any of these cards and I am still disappointed in performance. It really is disappointing considering some of the hype of this product. I don't know how the users that hyped this up to be r300 and genuinely thought it was going to be such a product are feeling, I pity their disappointment because I felt the same about fermi and cypress.

Nonetheless, this has got to be the smallest performance increase from AMD ever, even when recycling and modifying old technology. Its not as disastrous, but the only time AMD had such a small increase between generations was between 1950xt and 2900xt. This is not worthy of the 69xx name. The bad naming combined with the disappointing performance really makes this more disappointing than usual.

If the gtx 580 and cayman has taught us anything, until we switch to a new node with big chips, you can't expect miracles to happen with performance.

its somewhat true what your saying but think about the 6990, im guessing since AMD didnt give us the full shader count this time round the 6990 should have it all! Besides look at the CF 6950s it seems these cards rock in CROSSFIRE, amd always has.. in some of the benches i looked at it even beats some of the 580 SLI scores.. i think we have a winner!

[generics_user]

6950 is a real winner but 6970 looks like a letdown, amd could've done better
power numbers are disappointing, while nvidia improved on their last cards amd got worse


looks like nvidia won this round

[TheBreezyBB]

its somewhat true what your saying but think about the 6990, im guessing since AMD didnt give us the full shader count this time round the 6990 should have it all! Besides look at the CF 6950s it seems these cards rock in CROSSFIRE, amd always has.. in some of the benches i looked at it even beats some of the 580 SLI scores.. i think we have a winner!

the 6950 in CF is fantastic it beats the 570 in SLI in most of the tests. Now, the 6990 speculation will begin!

As for the cards I don't know which to buy yet " I need to buy the 30" monitor first "

[tajoh111]

its somewhat true what your saying but think about the 6990, im guessing since AMD didnt give us the full shader count this time round the 6990 should have it all! Besides look at the CF 6950s it seems these cards rock in CROSSFIRE, amd always has.. in some of the benches i looked at it even beats some of the 580 SLI scores.. i think we have a winner!

The CF performance is kind of nice but for a new 6xxx series don't you expect more. I mean, if we compare it to any of the past generations, you simply got alot more performance. Everytime we jumped from one high end generation to the next, we got a bigger jump from AMD. This jump was so small in comparison. As I imagine, alot of people here have 5870's and 5850's. For those people, there has never been so little incentive to upgrade from one generation to the next. It would be far better for them to just get another card and CF the last generation.

[Dezmen]

hope there will be no reviews in 10 hours xD wanna sleep xD

[cold2010]

GTX 570 = King of the Ring = 350$

HD 6970 = fail = 370$

AMD WTF

[Nintendork]

Seems some people look at averages where they include 1024x768/1280x1024 and the like. Seriously, would you buy a card of this level for those resolutions?





Places at the right position with an awesome price. Is that not a win?


And this average includes FC2/Hawx wich are known as being Nvidia's pets. And the once nvidia's users favorite metro 2033 now gets the AMD love.


HardOCP conclusion (mostly what I think):
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/..._card_review/9

[Johnny87au]

Well really all depends what resolution you play and the budget you have to spend, I agree with AMD only taking a small leap forward but atleast we have there latest card to look forward too! Nvidia has released its high end cards which are 580/570/480 AMD hasnt, seems to me amd is playing it smart look at the price/performance on the 6950 compare to the 570, the 570 is pretty much on par with the 6970 yet the 6950 smashes it when doubling up, Cant always expect a card to be released which is gonna take the crown yet yield the best temps/power consumption and prices! I say wait for the 6990 with full shaders!! Thats what this thread should of been about, so many peeps expecting high end performance what a shame though... @breezy i'd go CF 6950s for sure.. Cant beat the price to performance ratio..

[highoctane]

Places at the right position with an awesome price. Is that not a win?

Its definitely priced nice relative to performance but fails to live up to the pre-release hype, we where expecting a Jedi but we got a Padawan.

[delasneo]

I think the HD 6970 and HD 6950 is good for high end.

The HD 6970 with the performance -5% less or similar to GTX 580 in 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 (full AA, AF) and 140$ less

The HD 6950 with the performacne same to GTX 570 in 1920x1200 and 2560x1600( full AA, AF) and 50$ less.

Especially in 8xMSAA and the first 8.9 beta driver.

I Think we can see the true increase for new architecture in the next driver 11.1

[tajoh111]

Seems some people look at averages where they include 1024x768/1280x1024 and the like. Seriously, would you buy a card of this level for this resolutions?





Places at the right position with an awesome price. Is that not a win?

The reason it is not win for alot of people is there was such a small performance jump from this generation. If you look at alot of the sig of people that wanted to get this card, they have a 5870.

People were expecting more performance from a new generation from AMD. Considering what AMD did with Barts on the same technology, on a smaller die, it was only right for people to expect alot more from a chip that is more than 50% bigger and using completely new technology.

The price to performance is good but it just matches the gtx 570 in this regard. Alot of people expected AMD to crush NV in this regard and it really doesn't. The only really positive review was HARDOCP and thats about it. Some people are positive like hardwarecanucks, but most are on the fence or disappointed, particularly with the 6970. The 6950 is good too, but it is not really a knockout. Especially when compared to AMD past products.

I can't believe alot of you guys were slamming SKYMTL last week for trying to control your expectations and not to expect so much. He was probably the closest to giving accurate performance for the 6970 and he had an NDA.

[kadozer]

Well there's always next year. Looking forward to the next huge thread and checking in several times a day for the latest chiphell rumor.

[Chrono Detector]

I blame TSMC or GlobalFoundries or whoever supplies both AMD/ATI and NVIDIA those wafer chips for scrapping 32nm and going to 28nm causing delays, if 6xxx was on 32nm it would have been better. Bad move. Being stuck on 40nm obviously had limitations and now I see that why ATI had to cut the shader count in order to reduce power consumption and heat output.

[highoctane]

The only really positive review was HARDOCP and thats about it

Well hardocp has a different method of testing, two different brands get tested with different settings, not what you would call apples to apples but thats their thing I guess.

[Nintendork]

Its definitely priced nice relative to performance but fails to live up to the pre-release hype, we where expecting a Jedi but we got a Padawan.

They're not priced at $400+. So they stay with their 4000/5000 motto, more sales and marketshare.

Yes, a Padawan with Anakin skills.

[tajoh111]

In canada the price of the gtx 570 is much better because of the bundles.

Here are the 6970's.

http://www.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=6970

Look at what this gtx 570 comes with and other are like it too.

http://www.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=gtx+570

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=57...=MSI/MicroStar

1. Just Cause 2 (PC Game) Coupon for Digital Download *NVIDIA Promo Only* (a $59.99 value!)
1. StarCraft II Free Trial Coupon for Digital Download *NVIDIA Promo Only* (a $14.99 value!)
1. Metro 2033 Free PC Game Coupon for Digital Download *MSI Promo Only* (a $49.99 value!)
1. Mafia 2 (PC Game) Coupon for Digital Download *NVIDIA Promo Only* (a $49.99 value!)
1. Ubisoft Tom CLANCY''''S H.A.W.X 2 (PC Game) Coupon for Digital Download *NVIDIA Promo Only* (a $49.99 value!)

This gtx is priced like a normal one but comes with 4 games. The 6970's and AMD card's in general sparely come with anything. With a bundle of 4 games, it's a crazy value compared to anything out from either side. Its things like this that make me not even want a 6970 or 6950(note I am not buying a gtx 570).

[z3d.]

Well, considering that in most of reviews they used 10.10 or 10.11 drivers, don't you think that the real performances will be clear when AMD releases 10.12? I mean, the Big Cayman could run nearly as fast as Gtx580 with some (5+10%) driver encrease!

[Vardant]

They're not priced at $400+. So they stay with their 4000/5000 motto, more sales and marketshare.

They are priced to stay competitive, nothing more, nothing less.

We've already seen, that they can take advantage of the situation and hike the prices...

[highoctane]

They're not priced at $400+. So they stay with their 4000/5000 motto, more sales and marketshare.

They seem priced more relative to performance/price of the competition, which is why we like competition.

Yes, a Padawan with Anakin skills.

You know anakin may of had allot of potential but he got burned ugly.

Maybe it should be we expected a wookie fight and got an ewok.

[Nintendork]

The difference between 570 and 580 is tiny. So talking about 6970 is talking about both of them, is not like the 580 is a hell lot faster than his little brother. On average we can call 6970 a "575" with reasons to improve with drivers cause of the new arc(and fix some games with bizarre numbers). Fermi just waits to Kepler.

[saaya]

Places at the right position with an awesome price. Is that not a win?

barely faster than a 470 and notably more expensive
same speed as a 570 and costs more...
by what definition is that a "win"?

HardOCP conclusion (mostly what I think):
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/..._card_review/9

you mean this:

If the GeForce GTX 580 had not just shown up, the Radeon HD 6970 would have blown the doors off of the GeForce GTX 480.

lol what?
thats ridiculous, even if the 580 had not shown up the 6970 would have been a let down... 5870 rocked, people expected a 580 but got the 480 which was a dissapointment cause it was only around 15% faster

then the 5870 successor comes out and... is barely faster than the 480... how would the 6970 have been an awesome card if the 580 had not come out?

i couldnt disagree more...

The least expensive GeForce GTX 580 as of writing this is $509.99. Compare that price with the MSRP that AMD is asking for the Radeon HD 6970 at $369. That is a difference of $140!

whoop dee friggin doo, close to 400$ or 500$, if your spending 400$ you might as well throw in another 100$ and get the real deal, not to mention the 580 actually overclocks while the 6970 pretty much doesnt. 5% ocerclocks, pf, what a joke! the rumors about amd reworking the specs were obviously true, theres no way they planned to launch the part so close to its clockspeed limits...

The Radeon HD 6970 is an upgrade to the Radeon HD 5870

my 4ss...

AMD came to this party to win

...and got their 4ss handed to them with a cherry on a tooth-pick

i agree that the 6950 is a nice card, its barely slower than the 6970 and costs 100$ less, most importantly, 50$ less than the 570...
so the 6950 is a nice card, not great, but good...

but the 6970... amd should have launched the 6950 only in my opinion, cause what they are trying to sell as a 6970 now, and at 380$ thats definitely what hey are trying to do, this is just a joke and they are embarrassing themselves in front of the world... the 6970 should be called the 6950 XTX or whatever, but not 6970 lol...

and not because it sucks compared to the 570 and 580, but because it sucks compared to the 6950.....
570 and 580 are already close with 15%, the 6900s are only 10% apart and the price difference between them is the same as between then 500 cards. say what?

oh man... who would have thought... ati/amd were in the perfect spot, they had all they needed... and they once again stumbled over their own feet and fell flat on their face...
how, HOW i ask you, could you possibly expect a part that barely beats your competitors last gen product, to perform well one year later?
and who in their right minds would aim for such a small chip on a mature node, when what you actually want is a highend performance chip?

cayman looks really nice on paper and is a great engineering feat, but when it comes to actually using it, making it, and selling it, ati has failed...
great perf/transistor efficiency!
great die size!

but in the end, who cares?
customers was >X performance for <Y price...