AMD Radeon HD6950/6970(Cayman) Reviews

[Andrew LB]

GPU market share, on the other hand, show AMD and Nvidia more or less neck and neck - compare this to when AMD was 30-35% market share vs. Nvidia at 70-65% in 2008, just before the RV770 release. In fact, the latest results have AMD with a slight edge over Nvidia if you put discrete + integrated desktop & notebook GPUs together for both of them.

Here are some more accurate numbers: http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-gpu-m...clining-again/

Crazy how nVidia gained marketshare in Q3 of this year (july-sep) even though ATi had the dominant card in pretty much every price range.

No one is calling it a perfect success

Come on. You and everyone else who frequents these threads knows that if the tables were turned and this was nVidia's chance to STOMP on the competition with a massively powerful card over a year in the making after being recently trounced by a card all the critics said wouldn't be released till 2011 (GF110), you and the rest of the ATi peanut gallery would have flooded this thread with photoshoped images of houses burning down, and other crap.

I've commented on this phenomena many times over the years, on how incredibly different the ATi and nVidia crowds act when they either have a great success or an epic failure. Come to think of it, I have yet to see that type of behavior at all from the nVidia guys even though it is clear as day that ATi just spent almost a year and a half building a next gen graphics card that is actually slower than their previous generation. I believe that is historical in that of itself.

I was actually hoping for ATi to release a killer card in order to help bring the GTX580 within the purchasing range of my wallet. And as seen by the highly subdued response of the ATi fans here on this forum (and the crickets chirping)... this card was a dud.

oh... and please quit with the "power consumption" justification for this being a winner. Everyone knows global warming (now climate change. actually they recently changed it a third time) is a huge farce, and is looking to be largest financial scandal of modern history.

When I'm playing a game I want the most FPS , electric bill be damned. The last thing I'm' going to do when my framerate slows to a slide show is say to myself "wow!! look at all the electricity I'm saving!!!!".


It seems that currently most of the very vocal ATi crowd are still in the first stage of a 5 stage process typically associated with poor graphics card performance.

The five stages of grief are:

1-Denial-"this can't be happening to me", looking for the former spouse in familia places, or if it is death, setting the table for the person or acting as if they are still in living there. No crying. Not accepting or even acknowledging the loss.

2-Anger-"why me?", feelings of wanting to fight back or get even with spouse of divorce, for death, anger at the deceased, blaming them for leaving.

3-Bargaining-bargaining often takes place before the loss. Attempting to make deals with the spouse who is leaving, or attempting to make deals with God to stop or change the loss. Begging, wishing, praying for them to come back.

4-Depression-overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, self pity, mourning loss of person as well as the hopes, dreams and plans for the future. Feeling lack of control, feeling numb. Perhaps feeling suicidal.

5-Acceptance-there is a difference between resignation and acceptance. You have to accept the loss, not just try to bear it quietly. Realization that it takes two to make or break a marriage. Realization that the person is gone (in death) that it is not their fault, they didn't leave you on purpose. (even in cases of suicide, often the deceased person, was not in their right frame of mind) Finding the good that can come out of the pain of loss, finding comfort and healing. Our goals turn toward personal growth. Stay with fond memories of person.

Get help. You will survive. You will heal, even if you cannot believe that now, just know that it is true. To feel pain after loss is normal. It proves that we are alive, human. But we can't stop living. We have to become stronger, while not shutting off our feelings for the hope of one day being healed and finding love and/or happiness again. Helping others through something we have experienced is a wonderful way to fascilitate our healing and bring good out of something tragic.

[tifosi]

I was actually hoping for ATi to release a killer card in order to help bring the GTX580 within the purchasing range of my wallet. And as seen by the highly subdued response of the ATi fans here on this forum (and the crickets chirping)... this card was a dud.

Well, there's the problem right there. Just because it doesn't make your beloved GTX580 any cheaper doesn't make the card any better or worse for that matter. The fact is, if you look at a review done with latest drivers (hardocp) at 2560 x 1600, 6970 is awfully/ ominously close to GTX580 (especially in DX11 games) and still costs about $120-$170(for accelero cooler fitted one) less. So it is your pick really, HD6870 is all you need at lower resolutions. HD6950 & GTX570 at 1920 x 1080/ 1200 and that leaves the big boys to do their own bidding.

When I'm playing a game I want the most FPS , electric bill be damned. The last thing I'm' going to do when my framerate slows to a slide show is say to myself "wow!! look at all the electricity I'm saving!!!!".

Yes, fully agree with that one ... i have a competent PSU (HX750) and well there are times i wouldn't mind if the GPU sucks a little more juice... The only issue is that the ambient temperatures where i live, in India (well 70% of it), hover slightly above 40 Degrees Celsius, which can be a bit of a with the Nvidia cards from last generation and the current ones as well. Most of us here, will be recommending HD68xx and HD69xx (in limited scenarios) where crossfire HD68xx would not be possible, that is...