AMD Radeon HD6950/6970(Cayman) Reviews

[flopper]

ccc 10.12a
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...12ahotfix.aspx

support for 5x1 eyefinity and cayman

[Lanek]

For Eyefinity, + CFX and tri CFX ( vs SLI ), Hardware heaven have some result .( for what it worst )

[Oztopher]

ccc 10.12a
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...12ahotfix.aspx

support for 5x1 eyefinity and cayman

Is that the newest driver then? Because atm i have 8.801 but that hotfix is 8.79.6

[SKYMTL]

is that the 1GB version of the 6950?

Yup!

[zalbard]

I'm trying to work out if it's good at DX11 or bad (same with AA). I can't fathom out the scores from the reviews, they seem everywhere.

It's very good at both. The AA performance hit is less than for GTX580. DX11 games perform really well (it's much closer to Nvidia's offers in DX11 games than in DX10 games, for whatever reason). The tessellation performance with "light" and "normal" settings is good (compared to Nvidia's cards), it's lagging behind when tessellation levels are set to "extreme", but that's only used in benchmarks right now.

[Particle]

I should elaborate: Performance or functionality in general wasn't a concern for me as I'm sure XF works in EF like it did on 5K cards. I'm only interested in if the frame timing issue that was so bad on 5Ks in EF mode is gone. To put it another way, if a user used two 5850s in crossfire to play Bad Company 2 using Eyefinity, their framerate might climb from 30fps to 70fps. Despite this, it was jerkier and didn't feel even as smooth as playing with one card. This is an issue that isn't told by fps. I need someone who has sat down to play to elaborate on if they've had this on 6K hardware, but their information only counts if they were able to notice it in 5K cards initially. Everyone has a different threshold where they even notice, just like for refresh rates on CRTs.

[Lanek]

Is that the newest driver then? Because atm i have 8.801 but that hotfix is 8.79.6

if it's the 8.79.61, It's based on the release press driver, they have release it as hotfix for 10.12a ( 10.12 was not support 69xx ) ..
but seriously i don't know if this driver is different or not, need check the D3D "numbers" .

[Enoc]

I think AMD did a good job with cayman and barts and puts them in a position to really brake Nvidia...talking about price...

performance wise, AMD can slap to 6870 and call it 6990 and is game over for the gtx580, we know 6870 crossfire consumes less in idle and load compared to the 580, or slap two 6950 and powertuned them ...or slap together something between the 6870 and 6950(something between 1120sp and 1408sp) ...any of those 3 positions is game over for Nvidia...
thats AMD strategy since the 4000 series...always the top range card is a dual gpu...

Nvidia did a good job with the 500 series and caught AMD off guard...but AMD has the solution for it...
either way is good for us(consumer) , better prices from both sides

[Manicdan]

whats the per SP performance efficiency between barts and caymen? has anyone done that math yet?

[Oztopher]

if it's the 8.79.61, It's based on the release press driver, they have release it as hotfix for 10.12a ( 10.12 was not support 69xx ) ..
but seriously i don't know if this driver is different or not, need check the D3D "numbers" .

Well i just installed it for the sake of testing, it's 8.79.6.2.

But 10.12 WHQL is newer on all levels, 3d, 2d, D3D, opengl etc.

Trying to run 3DMark 11 to see the difference but i keep getting a black screen on the first physics test after it loads graphics tests run fine...

[Lanek]

huum what gpu you use ? and check your OpenCL + DX11 drivers, can come from this . ( Physics test use Bullet ( OpenCL) + Directcompute5.0 (DX11) for rigid body )

[SKYMTL]

whats the per SP performance efficiency between barts and caymen? has anyone done that math yet?

Without taking the revised fixed function stages, etc it is about 12% when not processing special functions. When processing SFs, performance is around -5 to -10 %.

[Tenknics]

AMD doesn't want to support CUDA

Does adobe still use the gpu if you have it a secondary card (likea physx card) and not as the primary display card?

Yea its not really about AMD supporting CUDA. Why would they? Its their biggest competitors tech, and its not like its a standard.

The problem is AMD not being aggressive enough and lacking the developer support that Nvidia does. I'm pretty positive Nvidia just threw adobe a lot of money early in the dev cycle of CS5 suite and made it so it only worked with CUDA based cards..Yea thats kinda wrong if you ask me but I also think AMD dropped the ball. Did they even attempt to reach out to Adobe?


And yes ATI cards DO work, but not with Adobe's Mercury Engine which powers Premiere Pro Cs5 (as in they don't accelerate or enhance it). In photoshop and illustrator, they both recognize my ATI mobility 4000 series and allow me to turn on OpenCL gpu rendering. So when I do/render any major effects or filters, or when I zoom in and out, or scroll through a large image, it's all handled on GPU. Its actually nice and smooth. I just wish it worked in Premiere

[Dimitriman]

Well I think I remember a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away Crossfire had poor scaling...
That memory has become an old fiction story.

[Particle]

Scaling has been pretty good for a while (50%+ often), but 6Ks kick it up a notch. It isn't the scaling I'm worried about.

[Oztopher]

huum what gpu you use ? and check your OpenCL + DX11 drivers, can come from this . ( Physics test use Bullet ( OpenCL) + Directcompute5.0 (DX11) for rigid body )

6950 Tried to update direct x, already have the latest. How do i go about updating OpenCL? Or is that included with the driver package?

I got it to run when i was using 10.12 WHQL... so it's pointing at 10.12a being the issue.

[Lanek]

you should have it allready installed so, try google AMD Open CL SDK you will fall on their official Stream / APP OpenCL site (AMD developper ) grab the last version and see what it give... Check too if reinstall 3Dmark give anything..

But we are offtopic a little bit there . just hope you fix it.

[Dezmen]

//updated.... Tnx Gaul for the XS review

[Oztopher]

you should have it allready installed so, try google AMD Open CL SDK you will fall on their official Stream / APP OpenCL site (AMD developper ) grab the last version and see what it give... Check too if reinstall 3Dmark give anything..

But we are offtopic a little bit there . just hope you fix it.

Yep. That's the end of it, fixed it, thanks

I'm happy with my 6950, offers about the same performance (in DX10) as my 4890 crossfire setup but with just over the power consumption of a single 4890.

[flippin_waffles]

I think AMD did a good job with cayman and barts and puts them in a position to really brake Nvidia...talking about price...

performance wise, AMD can slap to 6870 and call it 6990 and is game over for the gtx580, we know 6870 crossfire consumes less in idle and load compared to the 580, or slap two 6950 and powertuned them ...or slap together something between the 6870 and 6950(something between 1120sp and 1408sp) ...any of those 3 positions is game over for Nvidia...
thats AMD strategy since the 4000 series...always the top range card is a dual gpu...

Nvidia did a good job with the 500 series and caught AMD off guard...but AMD has the solution for it...
either way is good for us(consumer) , better prices from both sides

There isn't a big hurry to get the 6990 out since they still own the performance crown. It doesn't look like there will be any confusion over who owns the top end once it does debut though. I doubt nv will be able to compete with it in perf/dollar.

As far as hardware goes, Cayman should be a pretty good core for a multi GPU solution thanks to PowerTune (mobile also).

/ I could definitely be wrong!


[edit]

here's a pretty important review http://www.widescreengamingforum.com...eatured_Review

[KoHaN69]

With the 6850 being $155AR http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1569476
I really expect 6900 prices to come down at least $50

[Johnny87au]

@dezmen thanks for the great thread bookmarked for future reference , bet ur so tired huh? Stack up on some mother cans haha..

[Sn0wm@n]

are the asus volt tweaks card supplied with a way to control voltage and how wide is their supported voltage range ????

[Oztopher]

how wide is their supported voltage range ????

Exactly what i'm wondering.

But we want voltage control first, at least

[Heinz68]

Based on the Crossfire reviews in the OP, looks to me the Cayman Crossfire performance is great.

AMD needs to work on drivers for single cards and they might also get a winner there, (based on current prices).

Waiting for the HD 6990, the great CrossFire scaling is good news for me.

Quote from Guru3D Radeon HD 6950 CrossfireX review "Final Words & Conclusion"

I have to admit I was a little surprised by the excellent performance scaling we see on the R6950. Where the single card is a little so-so to position, we can surely recommend going the CrossfireX route. Granted, two cards will set you back a chunk load of money at roughly 550 EUR, but the performance gained here is truly amazing.

Today's article will not only show you the CrossfireX performance of these two cards, but also will roughly reveal what AMDs to be released product under codename "Antilles" will bring to the market in terms of performance. Antilles will replace the Radeon HD 5970, a dual-GPU solutions merged into one graphics card.

And we have to tell you, where we are a little puzzled about the Radeon HD 6950 all by itself, but in CrossfireX this solutions seems to kick ass massively.