Get a Fresh 570 or a get a 6950 and unlock it to 6970?

[jarraramjad]

hi guys....i wanna ask that what should i get a gtx 570 with a core i5 2500k or a 6950 and unlock it to a 6970 with an i7 2600k?all other specs are same 4 GB vengence antec EA 750 CM scout case 1 TB carvair Black plz aid me!

 

[jfem]

I'd go with the 6950.

 

[cburke82]

There is no guaranteed unlock, so here is what I did. try to find a local store that will match online prices. Purchase a 6950 and unlock it. As far as I know they all unlock at this point some can unlock in windows some you have to use the DOS cmd prompt. However some are unstable when unlocked. The first card I got was Diamond's 6950, it unlocked fine but i got artifacts. So I returned it and got a XFX model. It unlocked fine and is running stable at 6970 shaders and clock speeds. Do make sure you have good airflow in your case it will get hot.

 

[ubercake]

If you don't care about the warranty (or you have a local store that will take your return), try to unlock the 6950.

Otherwise, the 570. If you ever decide to add a second card, in my opinion, the driver support with SLI is preferable to that of crossfire.

 

[wolfram23]

Well a 6970 unlock would be sweet, but I kind of would lean on the 570 right now. Just my opinion though.

 

[17seconds]

The prices on the GTX 570's are coming down right now with rebates, so you might be able to find a good deal. Even unlocked the 6950 will not outperform the GTX 570, and there's a good chance it will end up being a bit noisier as well. Today's review of the 6990 includes the 6970 and GTX 570 as well.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6990-antilles-crossfire,2878-9.html

 

[cburke82]

If you don't care about the warranty (or you have a local store that will take your return), try to unlock the 6950.

Otherwise, the 570. If you ever decide to add a second card, in my opinion, the driver support with SLI is preferable to that of crossfire.

if you read the reviews right here on toms the 6900 series now performes better in crossfire than the 570 in sli

 

[cburke82]

The prices on the GTX 570's are coming down right now with rebates, so you might be able to find a good deal. Even unlocked the 6950 will not outperform the GTX 570, and there's a good chance it will end up being a bit noisier as well. Today's review of the 6990 includes the 6970 and GTX 570 as well.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6990-antilles-crossfire,2878-9.html

just paid $275 for my XFX 6950 that unlocked easy and smooth. you can also find it on newegg for 259 after rebate. thats about a $100 diff. Now i will say I wouldent plan on the unlock route unless you have a local store with a pricematch and that will take the card back, as my first card would no unlock and be stable at the same time. But if you do have such a local store that would mean a pair of 6950 xfire would save you around $200 and give you the same performance sometimes better due to the newly improved scaling that brings this series above sli at least for now. One last thing if you plan on doing these unlocked cards in xfire make sure you have good mobo spacing 70c with slighly boosted fan speeds ( 40-50%) if the second slot were to close I could see heat issues

 

[17seconds]

if you read the reviews right here on toms the 6900 series now performes better in crossfire than the 570 in sli

That is one of those myths that doesn't stand up to the available data. After spending considerable time crunching data on this, I can fairly say that the dual gpu scaling between the GTX 500 series and HD6900 series is about the same. The thing that can be honestly said is that the 6900 series scales better than the 5800 series.

 

[17seconds]

PNY GTX 570 + free Just Cause 2 and free Mafia 2 + Lifetime Warranty + free shipping: $310
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133370

 

[cburke82]

That is one of those myths that doesn't stand up to the available data. After spending considerable time crunching data on this, I can fairly say that the dual gpu scaling between the GTX 500 series and HD6900 series is about the same. The thing that can be honestly said is that the 6900 series scales better than the 5800 series.

I was quoting this article here.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818-16.html

it shows better scaling than the 500 cards, it is only a small 2-3% but still better scaling combined with a possible $200 ( 2 cards) price diff unless you are an extreme gamer with money to burn I think the 6950 is the better deal, I would not pay $370 for a 6970 but if you can unlock a 6950 for $270 that is a great deal.

in the 2 higher res benchmarks the 6970 gets 5-7 more frames per second so if you can unlock 2 6950's ( on tech power up the XFX cards are 67 out of 68 unlocked with no issues ill roll dice on those odds) what you have is the best performing 2 card set up now with the price just over $500.

Also with the duel bios you dont have to worry about bricking your card. My diamond had issues but a simple flip of the bios switch brings it back to normal so you can flash slot 1 back to normal.

And I dont remember the website but im sure it easy to find if you google unlock 6950. There was a site that did benchmarks showing that the unlocked 6950 performs exactly like a 6970.

 

[plznote]

Mafia II is $7.50 on Steam right now.
Seemed okay to post it here.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/50130/

 

[ubercake]

if you read the reviews right here on toms the 6900 series now performes better in crossfire than the 570 in sli

True. I got good framerates with my crossfire setup too, though I had to put up with a many driver issues while FRAPS was showing me those great numbers (flicker, HDMI/DP audio drivers wouldn't install, 2nd card staying at 100% utilization after gaming sessions, etc...). The issues would clear up in one driver release and then be re-introduced 2 driver releases down the road. This was only on my crossfire setup. I ran crossfire for a year and was waiting for the magic bullet that would solve each driver-related issue and it didn't happen, so I switched to Nvidia and SLI. I haven't had any issue running in SLI

It was no longer about the performance. AMD drivers support their biggest customer base only: the single-card customer. On the other hand, Nvidia produces good drivers for all their customers. The Nvidia drivers just work.

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