Upgrade worth while?

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Weenis

I said WEENIS, not...
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Apr 10, 2006
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So I have a GTX470 1280mb (I think its 1.2gb essentially) from eVGA and I'm wondering how much of a boost I'd get if I went to a 6950/6970 in 2gb.

The reason I ask is when I got the 470 I was running 1920x1200. But now I'm on 2560x1600 and I'm wondering how much difference the additional horsepower and memory would make. I can't find too much definitive evidence other than the 6970 should be 25% or so faster.

Does this seem like a worthwhile jump or are new cards right around the corner?

I play pretty much everything under the sun, FPS included.. Battlefield 3 is looking mighty sweet...
 
i would say so - gtx 470 is on par with a gtx 560. 6950/6970 will offer a decent performance bump - but the main attraction is the 2gb vram if you are gaming @ 1600p. the 1.2gb offered by the 470 isn't really sufficient for that resolution, imo. no new cards anytime soon so i would make the switch, but only to a 6950 since a 6970 offers a minor performance boost for the price compared to the 6950, and you can always unlock a reference 6950 to a 6970 level of performance for free. you probably could get about $200 for your card, so it wouldn't cost much more to upgrade to a 6950 either, with 6950s going for as low as $250 right now ($230 after m-i-r). and at that resolution, more gpu power is desirable; so if cost wasn't an issue, i would crossfire a pair of 6950s if i was playing on a 30 inch monitor (you would have to upgrade your psu to do so in your case).
 
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kumquatsrus said:
i would say so - gtx 470 is on par with a gtx 560. 6950/6970 will offer a decent performance bump - but the main attraction is the 2gb vram if you are gaming @ 1600p. the 1.2gb offered by the 470 isn't really sufficient for that resolution, imo. no new cards anytime soon so i would make the switch, but only to a 6950 since a 6970 offers a minor performance boost for the price compared to the 6950, and you can always unlock a reference 6950 to a 6970 level of performance for free. you probably could get about $200 for your card, so it wouldn't cost much more to upgrade to a 6950 either, with 6950s going for as low as $250 right now ($230 after m-i-r). and at that resolution, more gpu power is desirable; so if cost wasn't an issue, i would crossfire a pair of 6950s if i was playing on a 30 inch monitor (you would have to upgrade your psu to do so in your case).
Click to expand...

I think 2x 6950 is a little bit overkill for 2560x1600, one should be plenty, but then a 6970 would be much better.
 
Stoly said:
I think 2x 6950 is a little bit overkill for 2560x1600, one should be plenty, but then a 6970 would be much better.
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why would a 6970 be better? isn't it the same card with more unlocked stream processors?
 
Weenis said:
why would a 6970 be better? isn't it the same card with more unlocked stream processors?
Click to expand...

The 6970 does have higher clocked memory, and do overclock a little better FWIW.

As long as you don't need 100% maxed settings (including AA and AF) in the more demanding games a single 6950/6970 can easily handle 2560x1600. I've been there myself. I'm not as hardcore as I used to be and don't mind dropping one or two settings to get playable framerates.
 
Stoly said:
Canned benchmarks?

This should give a better view, specially if OP intends to OC the card.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/04/18/asus_eah6950_engtx570_directcu_ii_vid_card_review/1
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so what if they're "canned"? they still give a general idea of performance between a single 6950 vs two 6950s across a wide spectrum of games, which was the whole point in the first place. 20-30 fps vs 40-60 fps in a game is a big deal at that res.

and the h review you posted shows the same story: one single 6950 can't handle that res if you want to play at the highest settings with aa at playable framerates. i'd wager bf3 would probably need more than a single 6950 to max it out at that res. at playable fps as well when it comes out if bf bc2 is any indication.

rUmX said:
The 6970 does have higher clocked memory, and do overclock a little better FWIW.

As long as you don't need 100% maxed settings (including AA and AF) in the more demanding games a single 6950/6970 can easily handle 2560x1600. I've been there myself. I'm not as hardcore as I used to be and don't mind dropping one or two settings to get playable framerates.
Click to expand...

i agree with this - if the op doesn't mind dropping settings then a single 6950 is fine. otherwise, like i said in my first post - if cost isn't an issue, i would crossfire two of em if i was the op.
 
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