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Radeon HD 6950 2GB vs Radeon HD 6970

Intro

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB features a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 1408 SPUs, 88 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 6970, which features a GPU core clock speed of 880 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1375 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1536 Stream Processors, 96 Texture Address Units, 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

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 6970 should theoretically be a small bit better than the Radeon HD 6950 2GB overall. (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 (approximately 20%) more effective at AF 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 running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6970 is the winner, not by a very large margin though. (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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach 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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