AMD Radeon HD 6950 & 6970 CrossFire Video Card Reviews

By Nathan Kirsch December 14, 2010

Test Setup

All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with all the latest updates installed. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running. The Kingston HyperX T1 DDR3 memory modules were run in triple-channel mode at 1866MHz with 8-8-8-24 1T timings. The ATI Radeon HD 5000 series cards were all tested using CATALYST 10.10 drivers, the NVIDIA GeForce cards all used Forceware 260.89 WHQL drivers (263.09 WHQL were used on the GTX480 and GTX580) and the ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard was run using BIOS 0303 with the processor running stock settings and Turbo enabled.

Windows 7 Drivers Used:
Intel Chipset Inf Update Program V9.1.1.1025
Realtek Audio Driver V6.0.1.6037 for Windows 64bit Windows 7.(WHQL)
Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Driver V11.10.5.3 for 32/64bit Windows 7.(WHQL)
Marvell 9128 SATA 6Gbps Controller Driver V1.0.0.1036 for 32/64bit Windows 7.

The Video Card Test System

Here is the Intel LGA 1366 Test platform:

Intel Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor	Intel Core i7-970	Click Here
Motherboard	ASUS P6X58D-E	Click Here
Memory	6GB Kingston DDR3 1866MHz	Click Here
Video Card	See Below	Click Here
Hard Drive	Crucial C300 256GB SSD	Click Here
Cooling	Titan Finrar	Click Here
Power Supply	Corsair HX850W	Click Here
Chassis	None (Open Bench)	Click Here
Operating System	Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit	Click Here

Video Cards Tested:

ASUS GeForce GTX 580 – 782MHz Core/1564MHz Shader/1002MHz Memory
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 – 772MHz Core/1544MHz Shader/1002MHz Memory
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 – 732MHz/1464MHz Shader/950MHz Memory
Galaxy GeForce GTX 480 – 700MHz Core/1401MHz Shader/924MHz Memory
ASUS ENGTX470 GeForce GTX 470 – 608MHz Core/1215MHz Shader/837MHz Memory
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1GB FTW – 850MHz Core/1700MHz Shader/1000MHz Memory
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB SuperClocked – 763MHz Core/1526MHz Shader/950MHz Memory
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 1GB – 783MHz Core/1566MHz Shader/902MHz Memory
EVGA GeForce GTS 450 1GB FTW – 920MHz Core/1840MHz Shader/1026MHz Memory
ASUS GeForce GTS 430 1GBDDR3 – 700MHz Core/1400MHz Shader/800MHz Memory
AMD Radeon HD 6970 – 880MHz Core / 1375Hz
AMD Radeon HD 6950 – 880MHz Core /1250MHz
AMD Radeon HD 6870 – 900Mhz Core / 1050MHz Memory
Diamond Radeon HD 6870 – 940Mhz Core / 1100MHz Memory
AMD Radeon HD 6850 – 775Mhz Core / 1000MHz Memory
XFX Radeon HD 6850 – 775Mhz Core / 1000MHz Memory
ATI Radeon HD 5970 – 735Mhz Core / 1010MHz Memory
ATI Radeon HD 5870 – 850Mhz Core / 1200MHz Memory
ATI Radeon HD 5850 – 725Mhz Core / 1000MHz Memory
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 – 850Mhz Core / 1200MHz Memory
HIS Radeon HD 5570 512MB GDDR5 – 650MHz Core / 1000MHz Memory