Okay, so let me state for the record, again, that I am one of "those" guys…
You probably know a few of them, or have heard about them in some capacity. They might described alternatively as the "computer guy", a "techie", "fanboy", etc. etc.
The point is I'm the kind of guy that likes to have the latest and greatest technology: I am a gadget geek, a peacock of many newfangled gizmos!
My first and foremost passion is the PC. The PC was my gateway drug into the world of technology. Way back in the 90s I bought my first computer and it felt as if I had had a religious conversion. The dawn of personal computing (and by "personal" I mean a device that would gain monumental significance in my life) began…
Over the ensuing years I have built many machines for myself, friends and family. So its fair to say I've invested a lot of time in research and keeping up with current trends in technology.
Which brings us to this posting. My "pre-Christmas" graphics adapter was powered by the amazing Radeon HD5850 chipset. A revolutionary piece of hardware that garnered rave reviews around the planet. It was a very respectable piece of hardware and it played my games admirably.
My "problems" began when I upgraded my monitor to a 1080p capable display. My HD5850 would begin to "bog down" at higher resolutions. Full graphics eye-candy brought my graphics card to it's proverbial "knees". I knew I would need something more powerful.
I decided to upgrade and for awhile I was planning on going the Nvidia route. Nvidia's GTX 570 caught my attention for a few weeks, but I had reservations because I had used a Radeon card for so long. Besides, AMD's Catalyst drivers were thoroughly hooked into my system and I knew I would have a devil of a time purging my registry WITHOUT performing a complete reformat of my machine.
Gah!
A reformat of my system was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.
So I waited… and waited… and waited... I researched and did my due diligence as I waited. Finally, AMD released their enthusiast line of GPUs: the 6900 series cards.
If you want to a thorough review of these cards I would suggest many of the tech sites who have posted more "professional" reviews (you know, the sites that have the fancy graphs and "professional" commentary, complete with fanboy commentary). However, what this blog post will attempt to achieve is an anecdotal account of my initial impressions of this card.
So I waited… and waited… and waited... I researched and did my due diligence as I waited. Finally, AMD released their enthusiast line of GPUs: the 6900 series cards.
If you want to a thorough review of these cards I would suggest many of the tech sites who have posted more "professional" reviews (you know, the sites that have the fancy graphs and "professional" commentary, complete with fanboy commentary). However, what this blog post will attempt to achieve is an anecdotal account of my initial impressions of this card.
So here we go!
Size: This card is big! I'm talking 11" of big! Not only is this card big, it's thick as well, it's gotta be, the video card shroud houses a rather large "blower" style fan and "vapor" chamber cooling solution. I think most male porn stars would be jealous of this video card's dimensions. Fortunately I was able to fit it in my Antec Nine Hundred Two. The Nine Hundred Two isn't the most spacious case on the market, but it is able to accommodate the physical specifications of most newer generation video cards. The fact that the power connectors for the HD6970 are located on the side makes all of the difference.
Size: This card is big! I'm talking 11" of big! Not only is this card big, it's thick as well, it's gotta be, the video card shroud houses a rather large "blower" style fan and "vapor" chamber cooling solution. I think most male porn stars would be jealous of this video card's dimensions. Fortunately I was able to fit it in my Antec Nine Hundred Two. The Nine Hundred Two isn't the most spacious case on the market, but it is able to accommodate the physical specifications of most newer generation video cards. The fact that the power connectors for the HD6970 are located on the side makes all of the difference.
Heat: This card gets HOT! The card is fully encased in heat dissipating materials which ensures that the tremendous amounts of heat the card generates are somewhat tamed. Under full load this card get noticeably warm to the touch, but unlike the 4800 series video cards, doesn't get hot enough to warm your computer case or burn your fingers. Thankfully the card quickly cools, thanks to the power management systems built into the physical hardware itself. I'm not a big fan of hot video cards, but AMD has really come a long way in lowering the temperatures with it's power management hardware/software schemes. Additionally, the inclusion of a "vapor chamber" style heatsink, a'la Nvidia's "Fermi" GPUs, helps keep the heat generated by the HD6970's GPU in check.
Noise: Sadly, this card is noticeably louder than my HD5850. This card includes a larger fan and heatsink assembly and the inclusion of these devices increases the overall noise level associated with this video card. Fortunately though, the noise levels aren't all that distracting and I have not been bothered by the increased level of noise that this card's fan generates.
Noise: Sadly, this card is noticeably louder than my HD5850. This card includes a larger fan and heatsink assembly and the inclusion of these devices increases the overall noise level associated with this video card. Fortunately though, the noise levels aren't all that distracting and I have not been bothered by the increased level of noise that this card's fan generates.
Power: Not much to say here. I haven't noticed an increased in the overall power demands on my system. I freely admit that I'm a power supply evangelist when it comes to modern PC computing. A quality power supply is, simply, a must in modern electronics. Without a quality power supply, your system is doomed to all sorts of problems and general instabilities. My system has yet to crap out on me since installing this video card ***knock on wood***!
Performance: I detected an immediate improvement in the graphics performance of my system. I am now able to play all of my games at the native 1080p resolution of my LCD panel with all graphical details maxed out. To be fair, I was able to do this with my HD5850 card, however, I wasn't able to enable full 8X anti-aliasing and HBAO effects. Although these details may seem rather trivial in the grand scheme of things, the ability to enable these effects definitely adds to the "wow" factor of the games I enjoy playing. I am now able to get a full 60FPS (frames per second) in all of my games. This fact alone was worth the upgrade price. My games run buttery smooth and thats a big deal if you're a gaming geek like me. The HD6970 also includes a full 2GB of VRAM. VRAM is important for things like storing textures, which in turn affects the performance of things like the rendering of distant in-game objects. While it's true VRAM doesn't always indicate higher "performance" at lower resolutions, the lack of VRAM will definitely affect performance at higher resolutions The HD6970 is a beast when it comes to rendering textures and I have a gut feeling that the true potential of this card will come to fruition in the future, when its abundance of VRAM and monstrous tessellation performance is fully implemented.
Software: The Catalyst Control Center and the AMD drivers have been pretty solid for a long time now. Classically, AMD/ATI's drivers were knocked for their bugginess. Fortunately, that reputation has been repaired in recent years. The real world benefit of the work done by AMD is that I experienced zero "stability" issues after uninstalling and reinstalling the latest Catalyst driver (10.12, as of this writing)…
Price: Ahhh, price. The all important factor for the gamer on a budget. I paid way too much for this video card at my local electronics retailer and even though I paid about 30.00USD over the MSRP, the convenience of being able to bring this card back within the 30 day return period must be weighed against the expense and patience involved in returning a high priced item to an internet based retailer like Amazon or Newegg.
My final impressions of this card are mostly positive when compared to my HD5850. That being said, I do feel that I paid a premium for technology that was disappointing, especially when you factor in it's inability to outperform Nvidia's GTX 570, which is about 20.00-30.00USD cheaper.
Performance: I detected an immediate improvement in the graphics performance of my system. I am now able to play all of my games at the native 1080p resolution of my LCD panel with all graphical details maxed out. To be fair, I was able to do this with my HD5850 card, however, I wasn't able to enable full 8X anti-aliasing and HBAO effects. Although these details may seem rather trivial in the grand scheme of things, the ability to enable these effects definitely adds to the "wow" factor of the games I enjoy playing. I am now able to get a full 60FPS (frames per second) in all of my games. This fact alone was worth the upgrade price. My games run buttery smooth and thats a big deal if you're a gaming geek like me. The HD6970 also includes a full 2GB of VRAM. VRAM is important for things like storing textures, which in turn affects the performance of things like the rendering of distant in-game objects. While it's true VRAM doesn't always indicate higher "performance" at lower resolutions, the lack of VRAM will definitely affect performance at higher resolutions The HD6970 is a beast when it comes to rendering textures and I have a gut feeling that the true potential of this card will come to fruition in the future, when its abundance of VRAM and monstrous tessellation performance is fully implemented.
Software: The Catalyst Control Center and the AMD drivers have been pretty solid for a long time now. Classically, AMD/ATI's drivers were knocked for their bugginess. Fortunately, that reputation has been repaired in recent years. The real world benefit of the work done by AMD is that I experienced zero "stability" issues after uninstalling and reinstalling the latest Catalyst driver (10.12, as of this writing)…
Price: Ahhh, price. The all important factor for the gamer on a budget. I paid way too much for this video card at my local electronics retailer and even though I paid about 30.00USD over the MSRP, the convenience of being able to bring this card back within the 30 day return period must be weighed against the expense and patience involved in returning a high priced item to an internet based retailer like Amazon or Newegg.
My final impressions of this card are mostly positive when compared to my HD5850. That being said, I do feel that I paid a premium for technology that was disappointing, especially when you factor in it's inability to outperform Nvidia's GTX 570, which is about 20.00-30.00USD cheaper.
However, I felt that AMD's product was a better fit for me because it's software is so tightly woven into my current install of Windows and because of my extreme reluctance to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my operating system in the event of a catastrophic system error i.e. the dreaded BSOD!
The performance of this card, while commendable, definitely comes at a premium if you compare it to Nvidia's product and ultimately price rules. If you're in the market for an AMD product, I would wait until the next iteration of AMD's flagship product, which should be far less power hungry and hot. If you need something right now and you're willing to put in a little extra work (especially if you're coming from an AMD based graphics card), I would recommend the Nvidia's GTX 570.
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