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Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Video Card Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Conclusion
Do good things come to those who wait? If you are looking for the latest in GPU technology from AMD then yes, you have made the right choice. Of course If you are looking for the fastest card AMD has to offer, then you might want to look at the HD6970. Both cards offer the same basic features; they both come with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, similar cooling, and same power tune features. In fact the only major difference is shader count and clock speed.
The Radeon HD6970 comes configured with a core clock speed of 880Mhz, 1536 Stream processors, 24 SIMD engines and a memory clock at 1375Mhz (5.5GB/s effective).
The Radeon HD6950 comes configured with a core speed of 800Mhz, 1408 Stream processors, 22 SIMD engines and a memory clock at 1250Mhz (5GB/s effective).
Normally the reduction in stream processors wouldn't have much effect on overall performance if you choose to overclock, however as you may have noticed in our overclocking section the max core clock for this card is 840Mhz Core and 1325Mhz Memory. Both of which we easily maxed out without any issue.
Overclocking tools like Afterburner or Sapphire TriXX may be able to overcome the limitation imposed by the CCC. Until then we would have to say, from an overclocking and enthusiast standpoint, the HD6950 is nothing more than a high end toy with no potential other than what you get out of the box.
We cannot judge the card solely on its overclocking potential and if you are looking for unmatched out of box performance, and have a desire for multi monitor gaming, the Radeon HD6950 should be on your short list.
The Radeon HD6970 comes configured with a core clock speed of 880Mhz, 1536 Stream processors, 24 SIMD engines and a memory clock at 1375Mhz (5.5GB/s effective).
The Radeon HD6950 comes configured with a core speed of 800Mhz, 1408 Stream processors, 22 SIMD engines and a memory clock at 1250Mhz (5GB/s effective).
Normally the reduction in stream processors wouldn't have much effect on overall performance if you choose to overclock, however as you may have noticed in our overclocking section the max core clock for this card is 840Mhz Core and 1325Mhz Memory. Both of which we easily maxed out without any issue.
Overclocking tools like Afterburner or Sapphire TriXX may be able to overcome the limitation imposed by the CCC. Until then we would have to say, from an overclocking and enthusiast standpoint, the HD6950 is nothing more than a high end toy with no potential other than what you get out of the box.
We cannot judge the card solely on its overclocking potential and if you are looking for unmatched out of box performance, and have a desire for multi monitor gaming, the Radeon HD6950 should be on your short list.
Good Things
Great Performance
Cool Running
PowerTune Performance/Power Adjustments
Multi GPU Support
Unrealized Overclocking
Cool Running
PowerTune Performance/Power Adjustments
Multi GPU Support
Unrealized Overclocking
Bad Things
Extremely Limited Overclocking
Power Tune does not "increase" performance
BIOS Flash microswitch?
Cooling fan at 100%, you remember the 60mm Delta? its worse
No cooling gap for Multi GPU configurations
Power Tune does not "increase" performance
BIOS Flash microswitch?
Cooling fan at 100%, you remember the 60mm Delta? its worse
No cooling gap for Multi GPU configurations
Ninjalane Rating
