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Radeon HD 6950 2GB vs Radeon HD 6970

Intro

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB uses a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this specific card. It features 1408 SPUs along with 88 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 6970, which comes with a clock frequency of 880 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1375 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 200 Watts
Radeon HD 6970 250 Watts
Difference: 50 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6970 is 10% quicker than the Radeon HD 6950 2GB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970 176000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 160000 MB/sec
Difference: 16000 (10%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6970 is a little bit (more or less 20%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 6950 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970 84480 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 70400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 14080 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6970 is superior to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, though only just barely. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970 28160 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2560 (10%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

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Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 6970

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model Radeon HD 6950 2GB Radeon HD 6970
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year December 2010 December 2010
Code Name Cayman Pro Cayman XT
Memory 2048 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 800 MHz 880 MHz
Memory Speed 5000 MHz 5500 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 200 watts 250 watts
Bandwidth 160000 MB/sec 176000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 70400 Mtexels/sec 84480 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 25600 Mpixels/sec 28160 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 1408 1536
Texture Mapping Units 88 96
Render Output Units 32 32
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 40 nm
Transistors 2640 million 2640 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 11 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.1 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6970

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Comments

5 Responses to “Radeon HD 6950 2GB vs Radeon HD 6970”
JD says:

Could you compare HD6950 2GB with HD6970 mod to the factory HD6970?

Mike says:

JD it would be the same.

swiftymicvey says:

If the 6950 was flashed bios to 6970 will it give the same fps and same performance ?

Cant decide on graphics card for 3 Displays - Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com says:

[...] CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity Theoretical benchmark for 6970(1gig) vs 6950(2gig) Radeon HD 6950 2GB vs Radeon HD 6970 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare The 2 gig 6970 will give the higher resolution, but performance should be about the [...]

LarsV12 says:

@swiftymicvey .. No it won't perform as good as a stock 6970, as its behind on the TMU's, core & memory clocks. Unless any of the folk talking up the 6950 can magically bump the TMU's and simultaneously bump the core & memory on a 6950 to the same level, it will still be behind overall in benchmarks and in real-time, 3D gaming performance. No amount of wishful thinking will change that.

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