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AMD's New Flagship HD 6970 Tested

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the more-pixels-please dept.

I.M.O.G. writes "Today AMD officially introduces their newest flagship GPU, the Radeon HD 6970, hot on the heels of the Radeon HD 6870 released at the end of October, then the NVIDIA GTX 580 in early November, which is Nvidia's current flagship card. Initial testing and overclocking results are publishing at first tier review sites now. While the HD 6970 is a strong performer and the price point is outstanding for consumers, the GTX 580 retains the flagship crown while the AMD 5970 keeps the single card performance crown with its dual GPUs on a single card."

11 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Confusing naming by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These video card naming schemes are just a confusing mess of numbers now. Are the 6000 series better than the 5000 series, or are they parallel series for different market segments?

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    1. Re:Confusing naming by KillaGouge · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree 100%, I recently purchased an ATI 6850 with my new system, but it seems that the 5970 still outperforms it. They need to either stick with an incremental naming system, or start adding Good, Better, Best next to whatever name they can come up with.

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    2. Re:Confusing naming by h4rm0ny · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, it's really not that confusing. The first number is the generation. So a 6xxx card is newer than a 5xxxx card. But a new low-end card is not necessarily better than last year's high-end card.

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      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
    3. Re:Confusing naming by rwa2 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Unless you have some sort of performance chart you can't tell shit.

      http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ gives a pretty comprehensive overview of just about every video card out there... this new AMD/ti video card will probably be added within the next few days. It's a great starting point before heading over to http://tomshardware.com/ or http://anandtech.com/ to read about all the details, caveats, and more comprehensive benchmark results.

      Also, it tends to be the only good resource out there when trying to make comparisons between different market segments (what notebook GPU could keep up with my desktop GPU?) or completely different generations (would this cheap embedded GPU actually be a decent upgrade from my ancient media player box?)

    4. Re:Confusing naming by MadTinfoilHatter · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...and a 9xxx card is older than either of them. It's all perfectly logical. :-)

  2. Excellent... by tygerstripes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just what I need to get my PC through a cold winter.

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  3. Re:Drivers! by armanox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Haven't had issues with ATi drivers since 2007.

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    I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
  4. Linux Support? by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 3, Interesting

    After a terrible Linux driver experience a few years ago with AMD, I switched to NVidia and have been fairly happy ever since. But these latest cards have me thinking of switching back on my next upgrade. How is the AMD Linux driver?

    I currently have two NVidia cards driving three monitors; does anyone have experience doing the same thing with the AMD driver?

    1. Re:Linux Support? by crabboy.com · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have a 5770 driving three monitors on Kubuntu and everything works as you would expect. Of course, I did have to pay an extra $100 for the active DisplayPort-to-DVI adapter...

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    2. Re:Linux Support? by GooberToo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hardware acceleration is available for both AMD and NVIDIA but is largely limited by whatever software you're running. So for example, flash is only accelerated on 32-bit NVIDIA for now.

      Generally speaking, NVIDIA still provides a superior driver experience and NVIDIA still have the far, far superior OpenGL implementation. AMD has come a long, long ways but it will likely be a year or two, or perhaps even more, before AMD can really challenge NVIDIA in both performance and quality on OpenGL/Linux.

      For the foreseeable future, NVIDIA is still the only sane option for 3D+Linux. Unless, of course, you're the gambling type.

  5. Ummm, kinda by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Informative

    They went more confusing than normal this time around. So let me try and break it down for you:

    The 6000 series are the replacements to the 5000 series. As time goes on, the 5000 series will be faded away. They use the same fabrication technology (TSMC 40nm) but are a redesign that is capable of accomplishing more on the same amount of silicon, mostly thanks to redesigned shaders.

    Ok clear enough? However the problem is they fucked with the in-generation naming. Previously the 5870 was the highest end single GPU card, now the 6970 is. As such the situation you have is:

    5750->6850
    5770->6870
    5850->6950
    5870->6970

    In each case the 6000 series part is faster by a reasonable bit, say 20ish%, than the 5000 series part it replaces. All features are supported by both generations of cards they are both DirectX11/Shader Model 5.0 cards.

    So the 6000 series is just a minor refresh, getting more out of the same amount of material basically, which is really nice. The confusing part is the change in making. If you buy a 6870 to replace a 5870, you'll be disappointed to find you have a small performance decrease because the 6870 is actually analogous to the 5770 part.

    As a practical matter if you already own a 5000 series card and are happy with it, keep it. The new cards are a bit faster but not so much as to be worth buying. If you are looking at a new card, then look at the 6000 series as they give you more performance at a given die size. If you are looking at a used or cheaper card, then maybe look at a 5000 series since people are in fact getting 6000 series cards and dumping their 5000 series.

    Either way you have a fully current part, one that supports all the latest graphics tech.