Upgrading from HD5850

[Zorander]

Hi all,

I am considering a video card upgrade as my recent upgrade to a 30in screen (2560x1600) has seen the HD5850 struggling with the increased resolution. The HD6950 or HD6970 seems to fit my budget.

I have been having trouble finding out how quiet the different models from different manufacturers run, especially at idle (which is when I'm not playing a game and pay more attention to ambient noise). The HD5850 I'm currently using is from Sapphire and is remarkably quiet. I don't remember what cooler it uses but I think it uses the same one as this. I also don't know how other cards with non-reference coolers (e.g. the dual-/triple-fan configs) compare to the Sapphire HD5850.

Is the HD6950 significantly faster or is the HD6970 more worthwhile? Would love to have your input on this.

Thanks.

[kater]

As for oomph comparison I like to go to TechPowerUp - their FPS comparisons seem very practical. I wouldn't really trust their dB measurements, tho. For noise evaulation I'd check Xbit Labs (example linky) - of course, no site comes close to SPCR in terms of noise measurement, but these guys at least give you the RPM, while most sites simply say "the card is quiet in idle and we couldn't hear it over our 5 Deltas @ 12V and the RAID 5 array"

As for recommendations I'd probably go for Gigabyte and their Windforce cards. Again, check Xbit as they've tested lots of GB cards.



Yeah, the Sapphire 5850 Xtreme is really quiet, its fan spins < 1100 in my system in idle, which is below the noise of the HDD. Good enough for me. Still, I'll be slappin AC S1 on it, just for the hell of it

[Zorander]

Thanks for the response. I did read the Xbit review a while back and nearly jumped for the MSI, but since most of the games I anticipated on (Skyrim, HoMMVI, ME3, etc) are not out yet, I decided to wait. It seems its price remains relatively high but, worse, I cannot find it anymore on Australian shelves.

Based on my searches on staticice.com.au, I have rounded up the following candidates:

HD6950:
Sapphire HD6950 (this and this one look promising)
MSI HD6950 (the TwinFrozr series)
Gigabyte HD6950 (the Windforce series, though I have reservations about having 3 fans on a GPU)
ASUS HD6950 (DirectCU series - no one barely mentions them. Why?)

HD6970:
Similar to the HD6950 list above, sans the Sapphire and MSI (which seem to have disappeared off the shelves!)

I don't know if I should buy now or wait for the HD7000 series. I have previously resorted to playing at a decreased resolution (1920x1200) and thankfully my monitor seems to deal with non-native resolutions very well.

[grandmasterfuz]

from some of the reviews i've seen, the Asus DirectCu aftermarket coolers seem to work quite well in terms of cooling and volume

at lest, it did for the 6870.

[Zorander]

Hi,

I ended up going with the MSI R6970 Lightning a few weeks ago. It's been a great and quiet performer (thankfully).

I'm having a bit of a heat problem in my P180 case atm though (see related thread) as its greater dimension and heat output clearly dwarfs the HD5850 it's replacing. I still haven't got the time to sit down and work out an effective and quiet cooling solution but, beside that, I'm enjoying the increased gaming performance. Crysis 2 never looked so good!

Cheers!