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Which 6950 for CF?

A

apav

Gawd
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
524
Hey guys, I'm building my first computer and I'm going to get 2 cards. I'm wondering which graphics card is better for the job.

This is the card I'm most likely to get:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102945

But for $25 more, I can get this guy, which is is OC'ed and can be unlocked to 6970:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102951

I plan to play BF3, Skyrim(graphics mods and such when they are released) and future games all settings maxed at 1080p. I feel like both of these cards can handle that in CF setup, but is it worth to choose the toxic over the dirt 3 edition? Also, how is the toxic's cooling? It has a reference card design over the other's dual fan setup, will it run hotter?

Also do you think the toxic will still be in stock and will either of these cards most likely be on sale for black friday? I'll probably pick them up then.

Thanks guys!
 
Personally, I'd go with the Toxic because for $50 more ($25/each) you get a card that is essentially a 6970 and can overclock pretty good in general. Plus, it looks like the Toxic cards come with Dirt 3, so you could always sell one or both of the Dirt 3 Coupons and make it almost the same price as the Dirt 3 Ed. The Dual Fan design will push air around inside the case whereas the Referance cards will exhaust most of that hot air through the back and out.
 
SaViOr- said:
Personally, I'd go with the Toxic because for $50 more ($25/each) you get a card that is essentially a 6970 and can overclock pretty good in general. Plus, it looks like the Toxic cards come with Dirt 3, so you could always sell one or both of the Dirt 3 Coupons and make it almost the same price as the Dirt 3 Ed. The Dual Fan design will push air around inside the case whereas the Referance cards will exhaust most of that hot air through the back and out.
Click to expand...

I see.. so now the question is buy now while they're in stock(they must've gotten a big shipment, they've been in stock all day).. or wait till black friday and hopefully they're on deal or a shell shocker deal for them.. Do you think newegg will know if they will be going on sale anytime soon? I'm not sure if I should wait to maybe get them cheaper because I'm not building to December or just get them now
 
If you have the funds it wouldn't hurt to get them now. I doubt that these would be on a Black Friday Deal or shell shocker, but you never know. If they did wind up on some deal I don't think they'd be discounted any more than $15 or so and that cost can be equaled out by selling the Dirt 3 coupons as I mentioned earlier (unless you plan to use both). Being as these are few of the models left that are able to unlock to 6970s and OC well at the same time, I'd expect the availability of these to decline especially once BF3 and Skyrim are released and people feel the need to upgrade their video cards.
 
SaViOr- said:
If you have the funds it wouldn't hurt to get them now. I doubt that these would be on a Black Friday Deal or shell shocker, but you never know. If they did wind up on some deal I don't think they'd be discounted any more than $15 or so and that cost can be equaled out by selling the Dirt 3 coupons as I mentioned earlier (unless you plan to use both). Being as these are few of the models left that are able to unlock to 6970s and OC well at the same time, I'd expect the availability of these to decline especially once BF3 and Skyrim are released and people feel the need to upgrade their video cards.
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Well the thing is, I won't actually be able to start building to December since I won't be home until then, so if they are both DoA, it will be past the 30 day warranty- can I still rma to the manufacturer? And what if they fail to 6970 bios, does that brick the card?

My understanding was reference cards can get loud hot(since it has one fan) but this might be different. I don't know though, these could be totally different, they just seem older designed.
 
Current latest info I've heard is the dirt 3 will not unlock. Sapphire is rigging it to not unlock purposely. As for the toxic. I would definitely buy. However since you mention that you aren't going to build until december I'd say wait until then and resurrect this thread or start a new one as who knows what can change and what will be available by then.
 
Don't flash a 6950 with a 6970 bios. The RAM voltages are different and can damage your card. Just flash them with an unlocked shaders 6950 bios. Also, there's a 100% chance of the Toxic Edition cards unlocking. I'm not quite sure about the Dirt3 Edition though.
 
dpk33 said:
Don't flash a 6950 with a 6970 bios. The RAM voltages are different and can damage your card. Just flash them with an unlocked shaders 6950 bios. Also, there's a 100% chance of the Toxic Edition cards unlocking. I'm not quite sure about the Dirt3 Edition though.
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There is definitely no 100% chance of a Toxic unlocking. Quite a few people have Toxics that didn't unlock. To be clear, the toxic cards come with a bios switch the default position has a bios with 1408 shaders running at 880GPU and 1300 Memory (5200 effective) The second bios position has the same effective clocks but that bios has the full 1536 shaders unlocked. The kicker is that your GPU has to be unlockable. Some are not as in they are laser blocked at the factory. So even though the switch and bios are supplied the unlock isn't guaranteed. I would concede that there is a good chance of them unlocking as some people have gone and bought 2 or 3 and had both or all 3 unlock. But still to tell someone 100% is a bit misleading, not that you did it purposely or with malice but nonetheless... misleading.
 
So I ordered 1... how much of a performance increase overall in games like Battlefield 3 will I get if I get another one and crossfire them?
 
At 1080p? All you'really gonna gain with a second one is more levels of AA, and I dunno about you but I don't stop to smell the roses or admire the jaggies while playing BF3. :p

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/03/battlefield_3_open_beta_performance_image_quality/2

I think a second one is overkill at 1080 for most games... Specially if you hope to OC it. Might help with very busy scenes but is that seriously worth $250 more?

I just clicked those Newegg links... Man, these cards have not come down in price at all over the last 5 months? I bought two stock 6950s in May for like $220 and $230 during specials/rebates, most of them were unlockable then so I just went with the cheapest (since I was getting 2).

I haven't even really gotten to enjoy the fruits of the 2nd card since I'm just now getting around to setting up my three screens for Eyefinity. Glad I waited a bit on those tho, the Dell U2412M were a much better buy at $300 (with free shipping) than what I was considering over the summer.
 
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127604

Better bundled game, $10 cheaper, and from what I hear the Twin Frozr HSF MSI uses is pretty good too... Most of the performance gain from unlocked 6950s comes from the OC itself, not the unlocked shaders. There's a $210 stock XFX with Dirt too, they have excellent service/warranties. You said you already got one so it's all moot probably. :p
 
Hmm, well here's my specs:
Asus P8Z68-V Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb 1600 DDR3
i5 2500k
1(or 2) 6950's toxic
1080p monitor(Still haven't decided on which)

Current games I know I will be playing are Skyrim(and graphics mods when they come out), BF3, AC Revelations and any future demanding games maxed out completely and have playable fps, 40 minimum, prefer 55-60 and up

Not sure if 1 card can handle that :p
 
i have the dirt 3 edition, havent tried to unlock, but with sapphire trixx i got a pretty decent overclock on it.
 
Impulse said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127604

Better bundled game, $10 cheaper, and from what I hear the Twin Frozr HSF MSI uses is pretty good too... Most of the performance gain from unlocked 6950s comes from the OC itself, not the unlocked shaders. There's a $210 stock XFX with Dirt too, they have excellent service/warranties. You said you already got one so it's all moot probably. :p
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I got 1 toxic, yet there is still an opportunity to cancel the order since they haven't charged me. That's why I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. I can always get some other 2gb 6950 and CF it and itll work fine, but I'm not sure.
 
Impulse said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127604

Better bundled game, $10 cheaper, and from what I hear the Twin Frozr HSF MSI uses is pretty good too... Most of the performance gain from unlocked 6950s comes from the OC itself, not the unlocked shaders. There's a $210 stock XFX with Dirt too, they have excellent service/warranties. You said you already got one so it's all moot probably. :p
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That's the 1gb version, the 2gb is $30 more ($10 more with MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127575

I'm not sure about the unlock rate on the MSI cards though

*edit* fixed prices for Toxic MIR
 
I'd either go with the Toxic cards, or spend a few bucks more and grab the 6970 sapphire (which is using the same PCB as the Toxic, the second revision reference board).

I've had no problems unlocking the Toxic and the Dirt 3 cards (3 for 3 on Toxic's, and 2 for 2 on Dirt 3 cards), all had the bios switch so it was safe to flash, without the switch I would not attempt it, although with a z68 board you can recover a bad flash (something I learned with the a GTX 460) thanks to virtu.

Of the two cards, I prefer the Toxic's rear exhaust as I don't want all the heat dumped back into my case. But if your going single card, or big case with lots and lots of airflow, the Dirt 3 card is fine.

Another thing to keep in mind, the 6970 and the Toxic card has the 8 + 6 pin additional power connectors, vs 6 + 6 on the Dirt 3 card. 8 pin is rated to 150 watt, 6 pin is rated to 75 watt, pcie slot supply's up to 75watts.

I like the Toxic cards, they work great and are very fast.

At 1920x1200 a single 6950's (or even 6970) is not going to cut it for BF3 with max settings, but it's easy enough to lower some items or not mind the dips in framerate that will happen when all hell breaks loose on a map. That's based on the beta and my unlocked Toxic cards, drivers and the full version of the game can certainly change that.
 
Oops, so sorry, spaced out and wasnt even looking at VRAM... Get a 2GB card for sure. I'm still really surprised at the prices of these cards, when i got mine in May they weren't even new, didn't they come out last winter? Whatever happened to NV/AMD at least renaming and re-releasing GPUs every 6-8 months?

They're actually priced a little higher across the board more than six months after release, heck more than 8 months i think. I'd probably still go w/the equivalent XFX at around $240 unless the cooling solution on the Sapphire is significantly quieter.

If the Toxic is no more than $20 extra great, otherwise I think stock cooing is fine. It's not noisy and easy to adjust, and it exhaust out the back too.
 
Thanks, I'm probably going to go with 2 toxics then :) I'm not sure what's not cutting it for you but what fps were you getting with 1 by itself and 2 cf'd?
 
Certainly :D I'm getting them tuesday and gonna try to unlock them and test them in my friend's rig. If they don't work, I'll rma and see if I can get a replacement. I won't be building until december, so I'll know by then that my toxics will both unlock and work like a charm :)
 
I would definitely get 2 6950s if you plan to play BF3 maxed out. I had 2 6950s before I upgraded to my 2x 6990s and in BF3 the 6950 CF was just enough. Now, keep in mind that Ultra in the BF3 Beta is equivalent to "High" in the Full Version so the second card is needed for sure unless you want to turn down some settings. Only reason I upgraded from the 6950s to 6990s is because I game at High Eyefinity resolutions and the 6950s just didn't have enough power to run the Big 64 Player Caspian Border Map, even at the lowest settings. But when I switched to 1080P everything ran perfectly on max, one card wouldn't be enough ;).

Enjoy!
 
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