AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB

Rob Williams · 01-31-2011, 12:34 AM

AMD last week released a 1GB variant of its popular Radeon HD 6950 graphics card, and to see how the performance would be throttled with the GDDR cut, we benchmarked both versions with the latest Catalyst 11.1 driver. Does the 1GB card and its $20 savings prove too hard to ignore, or should the 2GB still be the one to scoop up?

Read through our full look at AMD's HD 6950 1GB card, and discuss it here!

TheCrimsonStar · 01-31-2011, 10:11 AM

what the heck is up with that?? the 1GB version beats the 2GB?? Maybe you should try re-benching the 2GB 6950 with the new 11.1 catalyst to see if the results change? That makes no sense to me...

Rob Williams · 01-31-2011, 10:16 AM

Both cards were benchmarked with 11.1a. Before publishing, I even swapped cards again to do follow-up tests... results were the same.

TheCrimsonStar · 01-31-2011, 10:22 AM

hmm...wow. That's really odd. That reminds me I need to get 11.1a. Don't have the hotfix yet. I read it gives a ~40% fps boost in Metro 2033

Doomsday · 01-31-2011, 11:10 AM

weird this be! I still cant get how the GTX570 consumes soooo much less power though!!?

Rob Williams · 01-31-2011, 12:53 PM

I'm looking into things once again to see if there was a flaw in our testing.

I've been overclocking the 1GB card for a future article, and I noticed that at boot, the memory clock was 1300MHz, not 1250MHz. But if I open up GPU-Z, it shows 1250MHz as the default.

Once done overclocking I'm going to uninstall the overclocking tool and driver and re-install the driver and see what GPU-Z states.

Doomsday · 01-31-2011, 01:04 PM

^^ spammer epidemic!!

Rob Williams · 01-31-2011, 01:12 PM

Posted that and went away... came back and realized I double-posted. Nice.

Optix · 01-31-2011, 01:46 PM

*bans Rob*

Phew! I think we finally go the ring leader.

GFreeman · 01-31-2011, 05:27 PM

Could it be that the 1gb version VRAM has tighter latency then the 2GB version? Just a thought that crossed my mind. Of course a slight accidental overclock can make a little difference between the two cards as well.

TheCrimsonStar · 02-01-2011, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GFreeman

Could it be that the 1gb version VRAM has tighter latency then the 2GB version? Just a thought that crossed my mind. Of course a slight accidental overclock can make a little difference between the two cards as well.

or it could be that the 2GB has more memory sectors to render, and it makes it slightly slower.

TheCrimsonStar · 02-01-2011, 11:35 AM

Well, someone in the clan I'm involved with had a comment about this. He looked at the specs in your test system, and it's ultra high-end. He thinks that most games can't utilize 2GB of VRAM, and combine that with how much RAM you have (I think 8GB), he thinks the GPU might be the bottleneck in this test because you have so much extra RAM. Is that possible?

Rob Williams · 02-01-2011, 11:57 AM

If all it took was additional RAM to be added to the PC to alleviate GPU issues, we might not see 2GB cards at all ;-)

Our rig is "ultra high-end" because we want to make sure it's not a bottleneck. It's all left up to the GPU at that point to strut its stuff. I don't think the mass of RAM we have installed has anything to do with it at all, nor do I believe a lower-end machine would see benefits on the 2GB card.

Rob Williams · 02-01-2011, 01:46 PM

I did an OS restore and installed the driver fresh on the card, and it ended up not being overclocked on the RAM... it was stock 800/1250. I guess the reason I saw 1300MHz on the memory at one point was just because I -was- overclocking at the time, and somehow the memory but not the core remained overclocked through a reboot. In the end, 1300MHz memory wasn't even what I got for a max overclock, but rather 1290MHz, so AMD certainly didn't try to pull a fast one here.

THUMPer · 02-15-2011, 09:09 AM

but will the 1gb version unlock to a 6970 still?

01-31-2011, 12:34 AM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB AMD last week released a 1GB variant of its popular Radeon HD 6950 graphics card, and to see how the performance would be throttled with the GDDR cut, we benchmarked both versions with the latest Catalyst 11.1 driver. Does the 1GB card and its $20 savings prove too hard to ignore, or should the 2GB still be the one to scoop up? Read through our full look at AMD's HD 6950 1GB card, and discuss it here! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

01-31-2011, 10:11 AM	#2
TheCrimsonStar Tech Monkey Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Strawberry Plains, TN Posts: 816	what the heck is up with that?? the 1GB version beats the 2GB?? Maybe you should try re-benching the 2GB 6950 with the new 11.1 catalyst to see if the results change? That makes no sense to me... __________________ Intel Core i5-2500k @ 3.3GHz ASUS Sabertooth P67 Corsair XMS 1600 8GB (2 x 4GB) XFX Radeon HD 6970 Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W Corsair H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler Windows 7 Professional (x64)

01-31-2011, 10:16 AM	#3
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	Both cards were benchmarked with 11.1a. Before publishing, I even swapped cards again to do follow-up tests... results were the same. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

01-31-2011, 10:22 AM	#4
TheCrimsonStar Tech Monkey Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Strawberry Plains, TN Posts: 816	hmm...wow. That's really odd. That reminds me I need to get 11.1a. Don't have the hotfix yet. I read it gives a ~40% fps boost in Metro 2033 __________________ Intel Core i5-2500k @ 3.3GHz ASUS Sabertooth P67 Corsair XMS 1600 8GB (2 x 4GB) XFX Radeon HD 6970 Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W Corsair H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler Windows 7 Professional (x64)

01-31-2011, 11:10 AM	#5
Doomsday Tech Junkie Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: KHI, PAK Posts: 1,539	weird this be! I still cant get how the GTX570 consumes soooo much less power though!!? __________________ PSU: Corsair AX850 - Case: Cooler Master HAF X - CPU:Core i7-2600k - Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT - Motherboard: Asus Z68 Maximus IV Extreme Z - Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB-1600Mhz - GPU: AMD MSI R6970 Lightning - HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB, Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green - SSD: Intel 520 Series 120GB - K/B: Razer Lycosa Mirror - Mouse: Logitech G700 - MouseMat: Steel Series 4HD - LCD: Samsung 2333SW 23" - Speakers: Creative Inspire M4500 4.1 - Headset: Logitech G35 7.1 "Do not look at a man's prayers nor his fasts, rather, measure him by how well he deals with others, the compassion he shows his fellow man, his wisdom and his integrity" - Umar Ibn Al-Khattab

01-31-2011, 12:53 PM	#6
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	I'm looking into things once again to see if there was a flaw in our testing. I've been overclocking the 1GB card for a future article, and I noticed that at boot, the memory clock was 1300MHz, not 1250MHz. But if I open up GPU-Z, it shows 1250MHz as the default. Once done overclocking I'm going to uninstall the overclocking tool and driver and re-install the driver and see what GPU-Z states. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

01-31-2011, 01:04 PM	#7
Doomsday Tech Junkie Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: KHI, PAK Posts: 1,539	^^ spammer epidemic!! __________________ PSU: Corsair AX850 - Case: Cooler Master HAF X - CPU:Core i7-2600k - Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT - Motherboard: Asus Z68 Maximus IV Extreme Z - Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB-1600Mhz - GPU: AMD MSI R6970 Lightning - HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB, Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green - SSD: Intel 520 Series 120GB - K/B: Razer Lycosa Mirror - Mouse: Logitech G700 - MouseMat: Steel Series 4HD - LCD: Samsung 2333SW 23" - Speakers: Creative Inspire M4500 4.1 - Headset: Logitech G35 7.1 "Do not look at a man's prayers nor his fasts, rather, measure him by how well he deals with others, the compassion he shows his fellow man, his wisdom and his integrity" - Umar Ibn Al-Khattab

01-31-2011, 01:12 PM	#8
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	Posted that and went away... came back and realized I double-posted. Nice. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

01-31-2011, 01:46 PM	#9
Optix Basket Chassis Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 1,653	bans Rob Phew! I think we finally go the ring leader. __________________ Intel i5 3570K, MSI Z77Z-GD55, 4x2GB Kingston Genesis 2133mhz, 120GB Mushkin Chronos SSD, 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue, Intel 210 cache drive, MSI 7850 Power Edition OC, Corsair H100, Silverstone Strider 750w Gold, Killer2100 NIC, Corsair 600T SE White, LG W2242, ROCCAT Kone+, Isku & Kave, 200GB Western Digital Scorpio Black external drive

01-31-2011, 05:27 PM	#10
GFreeman Coastermaker Join Date: May 2010 Location: Netherlands Posts: 249	Could it be that the 1gb version VRAM has tighter latency then the 2GB version? Just a thought that crossed my mind. Of course a slight accidental overclock can make a little difference between the two cards as well. __________________ AMD 64 X2 4200 @2.8Ghz (1,425v) CNPS8700 LED CPU cooler@2,537rpm Asus A8V deluxe (s939) Kingston Hyperx 2GB DDR@DDR400 (2,5-3-2-6-1T) Sapphire ATI 3850 AGP@901/2200 (1.275v) Zalman VF700-Alcu VGA cooler@2,650rpm CoolerMaster Truepower 550W

02-01-2011, 11:35 AM	#12
TheCrimsonStar Tech Monkey Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Strawberry Plains, TN Posts: 816	Well, someone in the clan I'm involved with had a comment about this. He looked at the specs in your test system, and it's ultra high-end. He thinks that most games can't utilize 2GB of VRAM, and combine that with how much RAM you have (I think 8GB), he thinks the GPU might be the bottleneck in this test because you have so much extra RAM. Is that possible? __________________ Intel Core i5-2500k @ 3.3GHz ASUS Sabertooth P67 Corsair XMS 1600 8GB (2 x 4GB) XFX Radeon HD 6970 Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W Corsair H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler Windows 7 Professional (x64)

02-01-2011, 11:57 AM	#13
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	If all it took was additional RAM to be added to the PC to alleviate GPU issues, we might not see 2GB cards at all ;-) Our rig is "ultra high-end" because we want to make sure it's not a bottleneck. It's all left up to the GPU at that point to strut its stuff. I don't think the mass of RAM we have installed has anything to do with it at all, nor do I believe a lower-end machine would see benefits on the 2GB card. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

02-01-2011, 01:46 PM	#14
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	I did an OS restore and installed the driver fresh on the card, and it ended up not being overclocked on the RAM... it was stock 800/1250. I guess the reason I saw 1300MHz on the memory at one point was just because I -was- overclocking at the time, and somehow the memory but not the core remained overclocked through a reboot. In the end, 1300MHz memory wasn't even what I got for a max overclock, but rather 1290MHz, so AMD certainly didn't try to pull a fast one here. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

02-15-2011, 09:09 AM	#15
THUMPer Coastermaker Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Indianpolis! Posts: 230	but will the 1gb version unlock to a 6970 still?

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