HIS AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB Review

AMD Cayman is finally here in the shape of the AMD HD Radeon 6950 from HIS. But will it be much of a match for NVIDIA’s recent offerings? Let’s find out!

Product on Review: HIS Radeon HD6950 2048MB
Manufacturer and Sponsor: HIS
MSRP: £223
Street Price: £219.98 @ Overclockers UK Price at time of review

The release of AMD’s new line-up of graphics cards has to be one of the most hyped up technological release this year, especially amongst gamers and enthusiasts alike. And there is good reason for this, the HD58XX series proved to be a success right from its release over a year ago. Inevitably, our expectations have grown. Can AMD deliver round of high performance graphics card at competitive prices? Two months ago, we were greeted with AMD’s Barts architecture. Naming scheme aside, the HD6850 and HD6870 proved to be excellent mid range graphics cards, performing nearly on par with the previous flagship HD5870 and yet being priced much lower. The release prompted a series of event that cascaded down to benefit consumers the most. On the one hand, we had AMD producing highly efficient, low power GPUs with tremendous overclocking headroom to satisfy enthusiasts and on the other hand we saw Nvidia responding with reduced pricing on the high end GF100 based GTX470 and mid range GF104 based GTX460. If that wasn’t enough, Nvidia promptly took released more efficient GF110 based GPUs derived from the power hungry GF100 cores in the form of the GTX570 and GTX580. Inherently, the high end market has now become saturated with choice but for the consumers it has translated to cheaper high end solutions.

AMD are taking their revised architecture further with the release of the HD6970 and HD6950. The former will be their flagship single GPU solution and targets Nvidia’s GTX570 whilst the HD6950 is priced in a class of its own. The Cayman architecture brings a number of benefits in the form of more efficient graphics through their refined VLIW4 architecture, 96 texture units and upgraded render back for improved anti-aliasing performance. What it also means is that the two cards will provide improvements in performance per die size. It should therefore come as no surprise that the HD6970 and HD6950 will sport 1536 and 1408 stream processors respectively to maintain increased performance in a smaller package. Much higher memory bandwidth is also promised, exceeding clock speeds offered previously on the Cypress based GPUs. Many of the features first introduced on the Barts architecture will also be carried forward such as Morphological AA and enhanced tessellation performance. AMD’s HD6950, which we will be looking at today, promises to be a good card worthy of replacing the old stallion that was the HD5870.

The card we have received from HIS is the less expensive of the two Cayman based graphics card, the HD6950. The HD6950 boasts 1408 stream processors, 128 less than its bigger brother, clock speeds of 800/5000MHz and 88 texture units, all within a 200W TDP. HIS’s offering follows the reference AMD design but as history will tell us, the AMD reference designs are usually the most sought after options.

A bit about HIS Digital
HIS – Hightech Information System Limited is an internationally acclaimed graphics cards company. Time and time again, HIS were compared and tested by hundreds of worldly renowned critics. The results are phenomena, HIS have proven to offer far superior, cooler, quieter, and faster graphic cards than any other leading rivals. Up to the fourth quarter of 2008, HIS has won over 700 awards with ATI graphic solution from major media worldwide. HIS is being recognized by providing performance leading and award-wining products.

HIS was established in 1987 with the mission to produce the highest quality PC products in the industry. Besides strong devotion to excellent products and services, HIS has been conducting business with the aim to “Glorifying God”. Honesty and integrity are the two key principals of how HIS are conducted. Ethical business practice has been an everyday commitment to our clients, vendors, and investors.

HIS is proud to be ATI’s Authorized 1st Tier AIB Partner, Certified Partner and Launching Partner. Long term and favorable relationship with ATI, enable HIS to work closely with ATI to promote the HIS ATI Graphics Board; and to strive for best value on the marketing and sales of HIS ATI Product Line.

Let’s see what more AMD has in store for us…

Specifications

Cayman is the rightful heir to the successful Cypress core. For the most part, the architecture is much the same with some tweaks to increase efficiency and performance per die size. The GPU comes in two variants, Cayman Pro and Cayman XT, the former found on board the HD6950 and the latter on the HD6970. Originally, the Cayman core was poised to be manufactured on the 32nm manufacturing process which would have brought along many new features and possibly better performance in the same package. However, TSMC cancelled the process so Cayman had to resort to the more mature 40nm process, sacrificing many of the new features promised.

The biggest change to the architecture is the use of the VLIW4 design instead of the VLIW5 design used since DX9 graphics cards were first introduced. The main reason was to increase efficiency in newer DX10/11 titles and to put more emphasis on GPGPU computing. The VLIW4 architecture introduces a narrower Stream Processing Unit, in which the 5th stream processor named the “t-unit” has been removed leaving just 4. Despite the Unit only being able to process 4 operations instead of 5, the advantage is that the space saved allows the core to have more SIMD clusters. The end result is that Cayman can have up to 24 SIMD clusters (24 on the HD6970 and 22 on the HD6950) whereas Cypress only had up to 20 SIMDs (20 on the HD5870 and 18 on the HD5850), giving Cayman a 10% improvement per mm squared compared to previous VLIW5 architecture (as used on Barts also). The architecture is now more catered towards GPU Compute than before and the higher SIMD count also gives additional texturing performance. Each SIMD from both architectures contains 4 texture units so Cayman now benefits from up to 96 units rather than the 80 available on Cypress.

Cayman: VLIW4, 24 SIMD clusters, 96 texture units
Cypress: VLIW5, 20 SIMD clusters, 80 texture units

Another benefit of the new core is its improved dual 8th generation tessellator that bring up to 3 times the tessellation performance of the HD5870.

As mentioned, Cayman comes in two variants as found on the HD6950 and HD6970. The key difference is that the HD6950 has 22 SIMD clusters instead of 24 on the HD6970, leading to fewer texture units (88 vs. 96) and fewer stream processors (1408 vs. 1536). The GPU boasts an impressive 2.64 billion transistors on a die size 389mm squared. For reference, the mainstream Barts core sports 1.7 billion transistors on a 255mm squared package. A 256-bit GDDR5 memory bus is still supported but this time 2GB of VRAM is provided to compete with Nvidia’s offerings.

Cayman is a step ahead of Cypress and Nvidia when it comes to texturing performance but the stream processor deficit means that the pixel fill rate and shader operation can’t quite match up to the HD5870. The question is whether the more efficient design can give better performance in real gaming situations. One downside of the Cayman core is its maximum power consumption but that is always the risk with packing more transistors into ever larger cores. AMD have PowerTune to regulate the TDP so we don’t expect the power draw to exceed 250W. More will be revealed about PowerTune later on.

Product Specifications

Product Code: HIS 6950 Fan 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI/2xDVI/2xDP
GPU: HD6950
Core Clock: 800MHz
Memory Clock: 5000Mhz
Memory Size: 2048MB
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Interface: PCI Express x16 (PCI Express 2.1)
Max Resolution: 2560×1600 (Single Display)
DVI Output: 2 (Upper Single-Link DVI & bottom Dual-Link DVI)
HDMI: 1 (HDMI 1.4a w/audio (8 channel LPCM & bitstream))
DisplayPort: 2 mini DPs 1.2 (1 DP-to-mini DP adapter supplied)
VGA: Supported using DVI-to-VGA adapter
Crossfire Support: Yes
Power Supply Requirement: 500W

Features

Get Immersed with AMD Eyefinity Technology
•Enable ultra-high resolution multi-monitor gaming with 2GB of high speed GDDR5 memory.
•Expand your favourite games across up to 4 displays with AMD Eyefinity technology for an expansive field of view.
•See more of the battle than ever before with up to 4 simultaneous displays.
•Get the freedom and flexibility to upgrade. This modular solution enables you to add additional displays.
•Put your productivity into overdrive and let up to 4 displays put all the information you need right before your eyes.
•Don’t choose between play and work. Let up to 4 displays help you enjoy games, movies and the web at the same time.

Get Amazing EyeDefinition Graphics with DirectX 11 Technology
•New and advanced architecture featuring full DirectX® 11 support and scalable geometry processing.
•Featuring a new and advanced architecture with scalable geometry processing, the AMD Radeon HD™ 6900 Series is purpose-built to dominate your games.
•Maximum efficiency & performance. AMD PowerTune technology puts exceptionally intelligent power management under your control.
•Raise the bar for beautifully smooth image quality with Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing (EQAA).
•Dual advanced programmable tessellation engines for twice the geometry processing performance of previous generations.
•Play your favorite games in full stereo 3D, and get incredibly rich and interactive gameplay with AMD HD3D technology.

Speed Up Applications and Enjoy Brilliant Video with AMD EyeSpeed Technology
•Unleash the most demanding applications with AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology.
•Supports double precision floating point arithmetic to handle computationally intense workloads.
•Smooth visual quality with AMD EyeSpeed visual acceleration technology.
•Experience Blu-ray 3D as it was intended with AMD HD3D technology.
•Take advantage of AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series graphics’ Dolby TrueHD and 3D HDTV support.

Put out Stunning Visual and Unrivalled Audio Experience with HD3D Technology
•Stereo 3D display/glasses support
•Stereo 3D gaming
•Blu-ray™ 3D support
•3rd Party stereo 3D middleware software support
•Launching with AMD Radeon™ 6900 Series GPUs

Microsoft DirectX 11
Get intense gaming performance and unrivalled image quality with stunning 3D visual effects, realistic lighting and lifelike imagery, driven by a new and advanced DirectX® 11-capable architecture with scalable geometry processing.

AMD Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology
Enjoy the ultimate immersive gaming experience with AMD’s Eyefinity multi-display capabilities

AMD Advanced Parallel Processing Technology
Accelerate the most demanding applications for improved performance

Advanced GDDR5 Memory Technology
Delivers more speed and higher bandwidth

AMD CrossFireX™ Technology
Increase your gaming performance with AMD CrossFireX™ Technology

3rd Generation TeraScale Engine
Provides increased processing power for the latest games and accelerated applications

40nm Process Technology
Provides enhanced processor performance while using less power and better transistor efficiency than previous generation technology

Display Flexibility
More flexibility with maximum connectivity for the latest display technologies

HDMI 1.4
Helps ensure you get the full Blu-ray and PVR experience from your PC

Dolly®TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Support
Get a fully immersive high-definition audio experience with the latest Blu-ray movies

AMD PowerPlay™ Technology
Power draw scales according to activity so when GPU activity is low, the power draw is minimal

Enhanced Unified Video Decoder (UVD) 3
Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies, online video and other HD content beyond 1080p with low power and low noise with GPU acceleration and enhanced Unified Video Decoder (UVD) 3 features

Packaging & Bundle

The HIS HD6950 box

HIS have gone with their traditional upright packaging to house their latest high end HD6950. The box is vivid with colour and the depiction of the sword is reminiscent of their Excalibur theme. Their Excalibur branding has always been recognised amongst enthusiasts and represent their seal of high performance. Amidst the beautifully patterned background, HIS have provided several features and benefits of their graphics card. At the top, their logo is displayed with the “Faster, Cooler, Quieter” tagline symbolising their key philosophies. At the bottom, illustrations show a few of the features the card supports including the actual name of the card, the HD6950. We also note that the card sports a 2GB GDDR5 framebuffer, double the amount available on previous AMD single GPU cards. HIS boasts premium support through their online customer support service.

The back of the box and specifications

The patterned theme carries on throughout the box. Turning to the back, the box is rich in information concerning the features of the card. At the top, HIS highlights AMD’s Eyefinity and related visuals technologies such as support for DX11 and 3D gaming, dubbed EyeDefinition and EyeSpeed. A table displays all the rest of the key features and their respective benefits to users. Closer to the bottom are small illustrations indicating compliance to HDMI 1.4, OpenGL 3.2, PCIe 2.1, 7.1 audio and several others. The features are clear and easy to read with a gaming feel to appeal to consumers.

A closer look at the back

Looking closer, we see that the new card can support up to 4 monitors using the on-board connectors alone. The card is a reference design and thus all the features and specifications follow AMD’s guidelines. Unfortunately, HIS themselves have not bundled anything extra to differentiate their cards from others on the market.

The interior box

Upon opening the main box, we are greeted with another grey box within which the rest of the bundle and graphics card can be found.

Opening the box and the bundle

The top compartment is reserved to the accessories and installation guide. Included are:

– 2 Dual MOLEX-to-6-pin PCIe power cables
– 1 Crossfire Bridge
– 1 x DVI-to-VGA adaptor
– 1 x Multi-lingual quick-installation guide
– Driver disc

The bundle is fairly mundane and despite 2 mini DisplayPort connectors on the card, no adapters have been provided to ensure compatibility with regular DisplayPort cables.

Getting to the graphics card

Inside the somewhat uninspiring grey box is the much more attractive graphics card, the blue a visually striking design that will no doubt appeal to users. This is secured in a plastic under cover and protected by foam cut out beneath the card.

Closer Look

The HD6950 2GB

The card itself follows on the same design as the reference HD6870 we saw a few months back, as can be seen from the rectangular “ribbed” shroud and the standard blower blower type cooler. HIS have customised the card with their own sticker, continuing on the theme of Excalibur with the sword. The patterned sticker is the same as found on the box and makes for an appealing and sleek finish. The Radeon logo signifies the company’s full integration of the ATI branding into the AMD umbrella, hence the AMD logo on the edge of the PCB near the PCIe insert. The card is 27.4cm in length.

The back of the card

The back of the card reveals the use of a metal backplate. The purpose is for additional cooling as well as support for this beast of a card. The heatsink on top is secured by by the X shaped bracket and 4 spring loaded screws. To remove the shroud and cooler, it is simply necessary to undo the 10 screws at the back and two more from the I/O plate. This is not covered under the warranty so be careful when removing them.

The fan

The fan uses a finned blower design to push air towards the rear of the card and hence out of the case. The HIS logo has been conveniently place on the central rotor. The fan supports PWM functionality and can thus be controlled by users or automatically based on temperatures.

The Crossfire connectors supporting CrossFireX

Unlike the HD6870, the HD6950 sports two CrossFire connectors on the side for up to 4 graphics card to be used in CrossFireX. The side profile of the shroud is dominated by the ribbed design akin to the HD6870. There are also vents above the CrossFire connectors where heat can be partially extracted from

The on-board BIOS switch

A new addition to AMD’s graphics card is the BIOS switch shown above. The ‘1’ & ‘2’ labels indicate that users can switch between two BIOS for safer end user update. Since the launch of the HD5870, it has been quite common to see users flash their graphics card to support voltage tweaking or to simply update the BIOS. AMD are ensuring that this process is safer by implementing a protected factory default setting, ‘2’, and an unprotected BIOS, ‘1’, which users can update. The switch is connected directly to the PCB, next to the CrossFire connectors.

The two 6-pin power connectors

At the other end, the graphics card has 2 75W 6-pin PCIe connectors. These are conveniently situated on the side rather than at the end to ensure that the cables do not get in the way of HDD cages or other components. Two dual Molex-to-6 pin adapters are bundled for good measure so even older power supplies will be compatible although HIS recommend a 500W power supply.

The I/O Panel

The rear I/O panel has a wide selection of connectors, more so than on previous reference cards. On the right are two traditional Dual Link DVI-I connectors and for those still using VGA outputs, an adapter is provided. Furthermore, a single HDMI 1.4a port is built in and two mini DisplayPorts supporting the latest 1.2 standard. The ports are an example of AMD’s evolution on their display and video decoding features over the HD5XXX series. The main advantage of the new DisplayPort standard is the double bandwidth over the previous 1.1 ports, taking it from 10.8Gbps to 21.6Gbps. In real world applications, it means that a single port can support up to 2 2560×1600 monitors and 4 1920×1200 monitors through daisy chaining or by using an MST hub. The hub means that the card itself no longer has to sport up to 6 individual ports as was found on the Eyefinity6 special edition cards. As such, the two provided ports can easily drive 6 monitors at 1920×1200. If a hub isn’t available and daisy chaining not feasible, the 5 ports can still support up to 4 displays in Eyefinity as illustrated at the back of the box. The higher bandwidth of the DP is also relied on for AMD’s new 3D stereoscopy initiative. Unfortunately HIS do not provide adapters for the mini DisplayPorts. Small vents are also present from which heat is exhausted from.

Closer Look (Continued)

The cooler and shroud

When we remove the cooler and shroud, we can see that they are very hefty. The shroud is a combination of plastic on the outer case and metal on the under side to cool the memory chips. The thermal pads are indicative of the 8 memory modules on the PCB itself. The fan is attached to the metal bracing, which pushes air through the heatsink. The heatsink no longer uses a heat pipe design but instead employs a vapour chamber to ensure better cooling and consequently quieter operation. Its construction is a combination of aluminium fins and a copper base.

The bare PCB

The bare PCB reveals the layout of the individual components. Unlike the HD6870, the power circuitry has gone back to its traditional placement towards the power connectors. The GPU area is set in the middle and surrounded by 8 memory modules.

The Cayman GPU

The Cayman core seen here has a die size of 389 mm squared, significantly larger than the 255mm squared Barts core and the 334mm squared Cypress core. This is the largest AMD core since the notorious R600 core design which came at 420 mm squared. The fabrication is still on the 40nm process due to the lack of readily available 32nm or 28nm manufacturing.

The 8 Hynix memory modules

The memory modules are once again GDDR5 chips sourced from Hynix rather than Samsung. The H5GQ 2H24MFR T2C 039A chips operate at 1.5V. The T2 denotes that the memory is rated at 5GHz but as we will see later on, this is a very conservative clock speed. Unlike the HD6870, the memory controller is more robust and can benefit from the full potential of the Hynix module. Each module are 256MB to give a total of 2GB of VRAM.

The VRM circuitry

The CLA1108-4 chokes are unique additions to the card for a robust VRM power circuitry. The card appears to use a 6 phase PWM design.

The Volterra VT1556MF voltage controller

The Volterra VT1556MF voltage controller sees its first use on the HD6900 series. Currently, no third party software provides support for voltage tweaking but this will no doubt change soon.

Size comparison

The HD6950 is 27.4cm in length, 2.9cm longer than the HD6870 which comes at 24.5cm, and 0.6cm longer than the XFX custom HD5870. Fortunately, the power connectors have been conveniently placed on the side to allow installation in smaller cases without cables interfering with HDD bays.

Test Setup

CPU – Intel Core i7 920
RAM – 6GB (3x2GB) OCZ platinum DDR3 1333mhz
Motherboard – ASUS Rampage III Extreme
Power Supply – Enermax Revolution 85+ 850W
Hard Drive – OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Samsung F1 320GB
Cooler – Noctua NH-C14

Graphics Cards:

HIS HD6950 2048MB – ATI Catalyst 10.11 (8.790.6.0, 8.790.6.2 & 8.800)*

Nvidia GTX480 1536MB – Forceware 260.99
ASUS GTX580 1536MB – Forceware 262.99
MSI R6870 2PM2D1GD5 1024MB – ATI Catalyst 10.10
XFX HD5870 1024MB – ATI Catalyst 10.10

Note – Three sets of drivers currently support the HD69XX series and all three produced the same results. The results in this review are mostly from the 8.970.6.2 set. The drivers bundled with the card were the 8.790.6.0 set

Benchmark Suite
MSI Afterburner & Kombustor
Sapphire TriXX
GPU-z
Crysis Warhead using the FRAMEBUFFER Crysis benchmark tool
Far Cry 2
Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter IV
Unreal Tournament 3 using the HOC Bench tool
Colin McRae DIRT 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Mafia II Demo
Colin McRae DIRT 2
Alien VS Predator
H.A.W.X 2
3DMark 11
3DMark Vantage
Unigine V2.1 DX 11 Benchmark

Software Bundle

The bundled disc is fairly standard and doesn’t come with many applications or software which we have grown accustomed to. This is not necessarily a bad thing as most tend to be available on the internet anyway. The first tab allows users to install the Catalyst 10.11 drivers (8.790.6.0). Although they provide support for the HD6950, there are newer sets now available to download on the AMD site.

In terms of utilities, HIS bundle a multi-monitor management software known as Hydra-vision. These are already implemented in the Catalyst Control Centre so there is no need to install the utility separately.

The latest drivers currently still bundle the old Catalyst Control Centre but we can expect a new interface to be made available very soon. Meanwhile, there are some new features implemented in the Overdrive section. Firstly, Overdrive gives uses the ability to overclock their graphics card and monitor temperatures and fan speed. Whilst not as thorough as MSI Afterburner, it is still a very useful tool. The only problem is the low upper limit set on the core speed. The new feature, shown above as Power Control Settings, is AMD PowerTune.

AMD PowerTune

Overclocking is nothing without stability and for most enthusiasts; applications such as Furmark, OCCT or MSI Kombustor have been the stress test of choice to truly load graphics cards. However, both AMD and Nvidia have voiced their concerns against the use of such applications due to the number of cards killed as a result of high temperatures and unforgiving load. They believe that stress tests are not representative of gaming loads and should therefore not be used as an indicator for stability.

This is where PowerTune comes in. The basic concept is that it locks the GPU’s thermal design power (TDP) to a pre-determined value such that when it is exceeded, the GPU will try to lower power usage. This is achieved by simply lowering the clock speed when the pre-determined TDP is attained under load. On the HD6950, the PowerTune Maximum Power is set to 200W whilst on the HD6970, it is set to 250W. AMD claim that typical gaming loads would draw 140W using the HD6950 and up to 200W using the HD6970, meaning that in typical scenarios, gamers shouldn’t worry about their cards reaching the maximum TDP and throttling. The main situation where it PowerTune would kick in is under heavy loads from programs such as the stress test applications mentioned above.

Overclocking presents another scenario where throttling might occur. Not surprisingly, overclocking will increase the power draw both in game and in stress tests closer to 200W/250W. This means that the card will be more susceptible to throttling as they exceed the PowerTune maximum TDP. AMD realise that PowerTune may not appeal overclockers but rather than giving them the option to disable the feature, they provide power control settings in Overdrive. Raising the limit to 20% sets the new maximum TDP to 240W on the HD6950 and 300W on the HD6970, still within ATX specifications. This gives overclockers additional headroom before throttling occurs. It also means that at stock clocks, the chance of getting reduced performance is much less. Conversely, to increase power efficiency, the power control settings can be reduced by 20%, making it ideal in situations where higher clock speeds are not needed.

In some ways, the system is akin to Turbo mode on both AMD and Intel CPUs. In the latter case, if power draw is within the TDP, the CPUs will have their speed boosted. Therefore, under light load, the CPUs will operate faster and simply clock to default speeds when the TDP is reached. In the HD69XX’s case, the core works at its default clocks and throttles when the TDP is reached. Nvidia have employed a similar feature on their GTX580/570 for the same reasons as AMD.

Throughout the benchmarks, the PowerTune limit was set at 20% to ensure overclocking headroom. However, at stock speeds, there was no noticeable performance difference between the 0 and 20% settings.

Temperature & Overclocking

Previous AMD cards have been stellar when it comes to overclocking, often giving enough of a boost to reach performance offered by the SKU above. As such, we expect the HIS HD6950 to offer similar headroom in this department. Compared to other HDXX50 cards, the HD6950 is clocked higher at 800MHz, suggesting a higher upper limit when overclocking. At stock speed, the HD6950 is clocked at 800/5000Mhz, operating at 1.0V at idle and 1.1V under loads. At idle, the core clocks down to 450/5000Mhz.

Stock

To overclock, AMD Catalyst Overdrive, MSI Afterburner and Sapphire TriXX were used. However, the former two locked the upper core speed limit to 840MHz whereas TriXX had near limitless headroom. In the end, a final speed of 865/5500Mhz was achieved, representing an 8.125%/10% overclock on the core/memory respectively. Despite using the same Cayman core as the HD6970, it was unable to surpass its stock speeds, implying that the two cards were speed binned. It remains to be seen if voltage tweaking can improve the headroom in the near future. When overclocked, it has to be noted that the core clock speed reduces to 500MHz at idle.

Overclocked

The 8.125% boost in clock speed is mirrored by the same increase in Pixel/texture fill rate and shader operations and similarly the 500MHz increase in memory speed is reflected by a 10% increase in memory bandwidth. These are not enough to match the HD6970’s stock speeds but free performance is nothing to scoff at.

Remarkably the overclock translates into a near linear 8-9% increase in games performance as well. This will become clearer in the following benchmarks.

Temperature

The reference cooler on the HD6950 did a good job cooling the GPU. At idle, the fan operated at 28% and remained very quiet both at stock and overclocked speeds. Under load, the temperature delta was 66C, comparable to the HD6870. Despite appearing hotter than the GTX580, the fan was operating at a mere 37% due to the automated fan profile. Again, the noise level was too low to be heard, yet alone be intrusive. Similarly, the delta when overclocked was only 1C higher with the fan operating at 40%. The limiting factor when overclocking isn’t the temperature but the core itself. AMD have done an excellent job with the implementation of the vapour chamber cooling method.

Crysis Warhead

AMD’s new Cayman based HD6950 gets off to an interesting start here. Despite its lower shader count and core clock speed compared to the Cypress based HD5870, it is clear that the new architecture is more efficient. The HD6950 performs 2-3% better than the HD5870 at stock speed without AA applied and makes some furthers gains when it is applied. With both cards overclocked, both cards perform very similarly with the HD6950 still leading with Anti-aliasing applied.

Compared to the Barts based HD6870, the HD6950 leads by approximately 14%. The difference is only 12% when both are overclocked thanks to the HD6870’s relatively higher overclocking headroom

Unfortunately AMD are still no match for Nvidia, losing out to the GTX480 by around 4% at stock speed and 10% when both are overclocked. However we see that at 1920×1200, the HD6950 claims a victory with 4xAA.

Far Cry 2

One of the most hyped games of 2008, Far Cry 2 had some big shoes to fill. It was built to be the next best thing since well… Far Cry I suppose. Combining an open-world game play with highly detailed graphics, physics and AI, what more could we possibly want? The game puts us in the body of a malaria inflicted mercenary hunting down the “Jackal” in the heart of Africa, in a bid to stop an ongoing conflict between two rival factions. The storyline can be hard to follow sometimes but I’m no game reviewer, so let’s concentrate on the graphics and performance. After all, we all need to know if our hardware will be able to handle the scorching savannah burning at the hands of our flamethrowers.

The Cayman core proves to be much better running Far Cry 2 than the Cypress core, mirroring what we saw with the HD6870 as well. The HD6950 leads the HD5870 from 6-25% at stock speed, anti-aliasing favoring the former when applied. Overclocked the performance gap reduces to around 6%.

Between the HD6950 and HD6870, the results favour the HD6950 yet again by about 12% both at stock speed and overclocked.

Again, Nvidia show their dominance in Far Cry 2, leading the HD6950 by 20-30% at stock and overclocked speeds.

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5 is the sequel to the Resident Evil series, exploring the life of main protagonist, Chris Redfield. You play as either Chris Redfield or Sheva Alomar in an African desert area in Kijuju. In true Resident Evil fashion, your main objective is to investigate a terrorist bio-organic weapon threat whilst killing infected “Majinis” on your way.

Here, the HD6950 beats its predecessor, the HD5870, by around 5% at all settings and at both stock and overclocked speeds.

The difference increases to 11% when comparing the HD6950 to the Barts HD6870.

Conversely, Nvidia GTX480 claims another win by leading the HD6950 by 7-15%. At both stock and overclocked speeds, the GTX480 demonstrates a bigger margin without anti-aliasing applied but the HD6950’s raw performance is unable to match Nvidia’s high end offerings.

Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter is back in its 4th iteration and its bigger and better than ever. Combining fluid, fast based sparring with stunning artistic visuals, the game delivers tremendous game play. Be reacquainted with some of the most popular characters in video game history while you battle your way to the top, be it with Ryu or the mighty Bison. The game might be frustratingly hard in some cases but there’s nothing like the satisfaction of K.O’ing your opponent with a well stringed death bringing combo.

In Street Fighter IV, there isn’t much difference between the older HD5870 and the new HD6950. Both perform within 1% of each other favouring the Cayman core throughout the range of settings and under both stock and overclocked results.

The margin between the HD6870 and the HD6950 is a mere 9% at stock speed and 7% at overclocked speeds, highlighting the value of Barts based card.

As we have seen countless times in previous reviews, Nvidia dominates the Street Fighter IV results with the GTX480 leading by an immense 40-50%. However, the HD6950 manages to close the gap to 30% at the highest in game settings at both stock and overclocked speeds.

Unreal Tournament 3 & Batman Arkham Asylum

Unreal Tournament 3

Built around the unreal 3 engine, Unreal Tournament is all about mindless fast paced shooting, decapitation with a plethora of game modes to so in. Not much else can be said really except that it promises hours of enjoyment on multiplier whether it be against bots, your friends at a LAN or online. It was one of the more popular games out there to adopt PhysX in the form of partially destructible maps, tornadoes and hail.

In Unreal Tournament 3, the HD6950 performs 7-10% better than the HD5870 with both at stock speeds although the gap narrows to 5-9% with both overclocked. We can see that the HD6950 pulls away at the higher resolution, no doubt thanks to its 2GB of onboard graphics memory.

The performance gap between the HD6950 and HD6870 is slightly more than in the case above but again, the HD6950 benefits from more memory at higher resolutions.

The GTX480 still outperforms the HD6950 by around 12%. Unfortunately, the 1.5GB of memory on the GTX480 doesn’t allow the HD6950 to catch up at high resolutions.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

The Dark Knight takes on his greatest challenge yet when he becomes trapped with all of his most dangerous villains inside the insane asylum of Gotham City – Arkham Asylum. The game exposes you to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes you to the depths of Arkham Asylum, Gotham’s psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.

The results here reflect those shown in Unreal Tournament 3. However this time, the difference between the HD6950 and the HD5870 is a mere 3% at stock clocks and 4% overclocked.

The performance lead of the HD6950 over the HD6870 remains unchanged at around 12%.

The GTX480 still outperforms the HD6950 but the gap has closed compared to the Unreal Tournament results.

Colin McRae DIRT 2

DIRT is back and it’s bigger than ever. With an onslaught of famous X-Games competitors such as Ken Block and Dave Mirra, extreme is being brought back to rally. The game not only delivers outstanding gameplay in lush environments but also stunning visuals in the form of Direct X 11 implementation. If you want some fast paced, arcade style racing, then look no further than Colin McRae DIRT 2.

Interestingly in DIRT 2, the HD5870 manages to outperform the HD6950 at 1680 x 1050 when the two are overclocked. In other situations, there is little between them although the Cayman core is predominantly ahead. The HD6950 appears to prefer the higher resolution settings.

The HD6950 leads its HD6870 sibling by approximately 10% when we look at their stock speeds. Under overclocked conditions, the margin remains largely unchanged.

Yet again, the GTX480 produces a clear leap in performance over the AMD card. Overclocking does nothing to help reduce the gap in favour of the HD6950.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the new rendition of the widely successful Battlefield series of game. Having more in common with the console release of Bad Company, the sequel hopes to inject the DNA of the timeless Battlefield 2 online experience with the witty action packed single player shooting adventure of the original. As Private Preston Marlowe, your goal as a member of Bad Company is to once again save the world by securing a scalar weapon device.

In the highly popular Battlefield Bad Company 2 game, the HD6950 doesn’t bring anything over the previous generation Cypress based HD5870. The difference the latter and the HD6950 is unnoticeable when both are at stock clocks or overclocked.

Fortunately, it is still ahead of the HD6870 by a margin of 15% reflecting the specifications difference between the two cards.

In this case, the GTX480 has a smaller lead than before at around 8% with both at stock clocks and 10-15% when both cards are overclocked. It is also clear that at higher resolutions, the 2GB of memory on the HD6950 proves beneficial in reducing the performance gap, but this is not enough for AMD to claim a win.

Mafia II Demo

Following the success of Mafia back in 2002, the third person action adventure game is back with a new grittier and darker world. As Vito Scaletta, an aspiring made man, your job is to work through the twist and turns of Mafia lifestyle. The more blood spilt, the more you get in return but the lifestyle was never meant to be an ideal one. Set in the visually stunning Empire City, the wartime references provide the ever present back drop to a rife period in America’s history, in which potential for exploitation becomes Vito’s key focus.

Mafia II presents another puzzling situation where the HD6950 is unable to match its predecessor at stock speeds. Even when both are overclocked, the HD6950 only leads by 3.5%.

The performance difference between the HD6870 and HD6950 remains unchanged with the latter performing around 13% better. This is no doubt due to their similar architecture.

Mafia II shows the GTX480 to be significantly better than the HD6950 when AA in not applied with a 20% lead. When it is applied, the performance gap reduces to 11% or less demonstrating the HD6950’s greater efficiency at high resolutions and settings.

Alien VS Predator

Spawned from the popular Alien and Predator franchises, Rebellion have collaborated to bring the legendary war to us through the medium of a first-person shooter. The game forces you to hunt, prey and most importantly survive in the swamp colony of Freya’s prospect as either a Predator, Alien or Marine. The stunning visuals add to the sense of dread and terror that we have become so accustomed to seeing with the series.

Alien Vs Predator makes use of tessellation and should thus favour the new revised AMD architecture over the HD5870. We see that even when tessellation is applied, the HD5870 can still outperform the HD6950 by a minimal amount at 0xAA. At 4xAA, the HD6950 flexes its muscle and gains a 16% lead.

The HD6950 is also significantly ahead of its smaller brother, outperforming the HD6870 by 20% at 0xAA and upto 30% at 4xAA, demonstrating the benefits of 2GB memory.

The AMD card is hot on the heels of the GTX480 in this game but the 3-5% performance deficit shows that it still cannot match the GTX480.

H.A.W.X 2

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game from Ubisoft. H.A.W.X.2 is DX11 ready and therefore like other simulators such as DIRT2 has stunning scenery and a truly breathtaking visual experience. Using hardware terrain tessellation, H.A.W.X.2 relies on raw GPU power because a series of detailed triangles are required to be rendered. This surely has to be one of the most taxing benchmarks all our featured games, H.A.W.X.2 presents some of the best tessellation execution in any title to date.

H.A.W.X 2 is a good demonstration how the new AMD core is a step above its predecessor in tessellation performance. With tessellation applied, the HD6950 takes a 30-40% lead over the HD5870 despite losing when tessellation is off.

However, the H.A.W.X demo heavily favours the Nvidia cards.

3DMark 11 & Vantage

3DMark Vantage

This Vantage benchmark suite from Futuremark introduces DX 10 & PhysX support. Despite being on the verge of DX 11 games arriving, Vantage still proves a popular testing ground for enthusiasts.

Although Vantage has now been superceded by 3DMark 11, it is well established amongst enthusiasts because it is still very GPU limited. The HD6950 fares well against the smaller HD6870 leading by around 12% in performance mode and 23% in extreme mode. Against the HD5870, the card it aims to replace, the difference is very marginal at both stock and overclocked speeds.

The test puts the AMD offering 5% behind the more expensive GTX480 but the greater relative overclock achieved on the Nvidia card means that it pulls ahead when looking at overclocked results.

3DMark 11

Finally here is the latest Futuremark benchmark suite, bringing DX11 and tessellation to benchmarkers. Will it bring your computers to their knees?

Under the performance preset, the HD6950 outperforms the HD5870 by 10% and similarly falls behind the GTX480 by the same percentage. The Extreme preset shows the same trend despite the performance margin lowering to around 3% in both cases.

Unigine V2.1 Benchmark

Unigine’s benchmark is to showcase the benefits of DX 11 and the use of tessellation as opposed to normal rendering techniques. The demo has impressive visuals that gives an insight into what we can expect from gaming in the future.

The HD6950 displays very impressive results here, outperforming not only the HD5870 but also the GTX480, a consolation victory amidst the Nvidia dominance throughout.

This is where we see a marked improvement in AMD’s new Cayman’s architecture. Looking at the DX11 tessellation performance, the HD6950 outshines the HD5870 by 45% at stock speed and 50% at overclocked speeds. As such, AMD has become more competitive with Nvidia’s offerings but not quite enough to match the GTX480 which outperforms it by a further 26%/31% at stock and overclocked speeds respectively. It is welcoming to see AMD becoming more competitive in its tessellation performance.

Power Consumption

Power Consumption is AMD’s strong point and saving grace compated to Nvidia’s offerings. The efficiency of the Cayman core is reflected in its low power consumption. Despite still being based on the 40nm manufacturing process and boasting 2.64 Billion transistors (0.94 Billion more than the HD6870 GPU), the HD6950 only uses 337.5W of power under load, a mere 16W more than the HD6870. Even after an 8% overclock, the load power consumption is significantly less than Nvidia’s solutions. The HD6950 with its 200W maximum power consumption proves to be an attractive solution to those wanting high performance/watt ratio.

Unlocking the HD6950

A few weeks after the release of the HD6950, it came to the attention of a few people, namely W1zzard from Techpowerup, that the card could potentially be unlocked to a fully-fledged HD6970. The significance of this is two-fold. Firstly, it means that the much cheaper HD6950 has the potential to compete with card beyond its own league without users having to rely on the somewhat abysmal overclocking headroom of the card. Secondly, it re-introduces an aspect of hardware “modding” that we haven’t seen since the days of the X800 series and the GeForce 6800 series. It became common procedure for manufacturers to laser cut pixel pipelines and shader processors in order to bin cores with slight defects to market them as cheaper alternatives. It begs the question as to why AMD didn’t do so with their HD6950s and it seems almost too convenient that the BIOS switch was placed on the card, facilitating unlocking even for those unwilling to do so or with little previous knowledge of flashing.

The procedure
Unlocking the HD6950 requires the card to be flashed. We noted previously that the BIOS switch on the card can either be set to the factory default, ‘2’, or the unprotected BIOS, ‘1’.

1.Set the BIOS switch to ‘1’ on the card and restart
2.Download the ATI Winflash application from here and place extract it to your desktop (for convenience in the following steps)
3.Download the HD6970 BIOS of your choice from here (Note that all reference card BIOS will support voltage tweaking on the latest version of MSI Afterburner.
4.Run ATI Winflash, and click Save to back up your HD6950 BIOS.
5.Click on Load Image and select the HD6970 BIOS and press Program to start the procedure.
6.Once the flashing is complete, reboot your system and open up GPU-Z to check that if the card has all 1536 stream processors. Depending on the BIOS downloaded, the flashed HD6950 will also boast the 880/5500MHz clock speeds of its bigger brother and operate at 1.175V. I highly recommend setting the Power Control Settings to +20% in AMD CCC to ensure that the card doesn’t throttle beyond its recommended TDP.

If this doesn’t work, there’s a second procedure that can be carried out.

1.Follow step 1-3 from the previous process.
2.Save the HD6970 BIOS in the Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
3.Go to Start, Run, type in CMD and wait for the command prompt window to open up.
4.If the path listed is already C:\Users\”Username”, type cd Desktop\winflash and press enter, otherwise type cd “username”\desktop\winflash
5.Type “atiwinflash -unlockrom 0”
6.Type “atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin”
7.Wait for it to complete and it should prompt a message saying “Verified”

**UPDATE**

Due to some people having problems with the HD6970 BIOS, it is recommended that people flash using an unlocked HD6950 BIOS. The reason is that the two cards use different memory modules at different timings so the HD6970 settings may not be stable with the HD6950. Instead the new method I will detail below uses a proper HD6950 BIOS with all the stream processors unlocked but with all other settings as default including clock speeds and voltages. MSI Afterburner will allow you to overclock the card to HD6970 levels manually with fewer risks.

1.Set the BIOS switch to ‘1’ on the card and restart
2.Open GPU-z and click on the icon next to the BIOS version to back up the original HD6950 BIOS. Save it as original.bin
3.Download the unlock script and extract the folder. Save your original HD6950 BIOS from step 2 into the extracted folder.
4.Run the batch file and it will create a modded.bin file which is the new HD6950 BIOS with fully unlocked shaders.
5.Download the ATI Winflash application from here and extract the folder within. Save the modded.bin file into the extracted folder.
6.Run ATI Winflash, click Load image and select the modded.bin file. Click on program and wait for the process to complete.
7.Restart your computer and open GPU-z to check that all 1536 shaders are unlocked.

Stock

Unlocked

We can now see the fully unlocked card sporting all 1536 shader processes by having two SIMD clusters re-enabled, and the clock speeds being the same as the HD6970. What is remarkable is that despite our sample only overclocking to 865/5500MHz stably, it was fully stabled when unlocked thanks mostly to the higher voltage at which the core operated. It is important that the card is tested for stability after the unlock as the cores were binned for a reason and may not support such high clock speeds even with raised voltages.

I’d like to give full credit to W1zzard at Techpowerup for coming up with the steps to the procedure.

We take no responsibility for cards that may get damaged as a result so do this at your own risk. Should the flashing procedure fail, users can always go back to the default factory BIOS at the flick of a switch.

Unlocked HD6950 Performance: Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

In Crysis, we see the unlocked HD6950 getting an average 11.6% boost at all settings, making it on par with the other HD6970s tested.

Unlocked HD6950 Performance: Far Cry 2

One of the most hyped games of 2008, Far Cry 2 had some big shoes to fill. It was built to be the next best thing since well… Far Cry I suppose. Combining an open-world game play with highly detailed graphics, physics and AI, what more could we possibly want? The game puts us in the body of a malaria inflicted mercenary hunting down the “Jackal” in the heart of Africa, in a bid to stop an on-going conflict between two rival factions. The storyline can be hard to follow sometimes but I’m no game reviewer, so let’s concentrate on the graphics and performance. After all, we all need to know if our hardware will be able to handle the scorching savannah burning at the hands of our flamethrowers.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Far Cry 2, configuring the settings to Ultra and DX10. The small ranch level was chosen and each configuration was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Far Cry 2 shows the HD6950 attaining an overall 11.3% gain when unlocked. And again, the card performs very similarly to the other two native HD6970s

Unlocked HD6950 Performance: Metro 2033

Based on Novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to Very High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

When unlocked, the HD6950 nets a 10.3% increase in performance over its default specifications, once again putting it on par against the HD6970s.

Unlocked HD6950 Performance: 3DMark 11

This Vantage benchmark suite from Futuremark introduces DX 10 & PhysX support. Despite being on the verge of DX 11 games arriving, Vantage still proves a popular testing ground for enthusiasts.

The HD6950 sees a significant 12.5% performance boost when unlocked to the HD6970. It performs no differently to the Gigabyte and ASUS cards.

Unlocked HD6950 Performance: Temperatures & Power Consumption

Temperature

Despite the higher clock speeds and 2 unlocked SIMD clusters, the unlocked HD6950 still maintains the same temperature as before. The main change is that the fan speed increased to maintain the temperature, idling at 29% and ramping up to 51% under load from 37% at default speeds. The unlocked card also operated at 1.175V so it is possible that some overclocking headroom was also unlocked in the process.

Power Consumption

As expected, power consumption also increased as a result of unlocking the card. There is little difference between the HIS and the Gigabyte HD6970 at both idle and under load. Despite the HD6950 only featuring 2 6 pin PCIe power connectors rather than one 8 pin and one 6 pin connectors, it has no problem coping with the load during gaming. It is highly recommended to set the Power Tune slide to +20% in AMD CCC to avoid any issues but conversely, it does increase the TDP.

Tessellation

DX 10

DX 11 Tessellation off

DX 11 Tessellation off – wireframe mode

DX 11 Tessellation on

DX 11 Tessellation on – wireframe mode

Let’s focus on a few characteristics of tessellation in the first image. Firstly, when we compare the wireframe mode, it is clear that tessellation, triangular in this case, is adding a lot more features and details, which may at first not be recognisable. The surfaces are divided in many more triangles, allowing the objects to replicate more complex structures. The ground for example is one of the features that benefits from it. To make it as efficient as possible, tessellation becomes a function of distance, generating more polygons closer to the viewer.

Now let’s look at the application of this. If we gaze at the rock pillar closest to us, we can immediately notice that with tessellation, they are not just mere square blocks but instead have irregular surfaces, more representative of a natural rock. Now, let’s move on to the stairs, which again is a notable improvement on past rendering methods. Rather than being flat, they have depth, giving the impression of real steps as opposed to a slide. The same applies to the cobbled road although the compressed/downsized pictures make it hard to judge. The last thing I’ll point out are the tiled roofs. With tessellation, the individual tiles form a more complex/realistic shape instead of appearing flat with repeated textures. You’ll have to take my word for it if you don’t notice them or try the demo for yourself!

Conclusion

An email reached my inbox yesterday evening from HIS confirming the revised pricing of the Cayman based graphics card. The HD6970 at £289 and the HD6950 at £223 both including VAT seemed to be in line with what I was expecting considering the performance I was seeing from the latter. But there’s a degree of skepticism that arises when manufacturers start sending out the pricing details so late. Did it mean that performance wasn’t on par with what was expected so prices had to be revised to remain? Or was it genuinely just a matter of AMD revealing prices at the last minute? Whatever the reason was, it was refreshing to see such low prices for AMD’s new series of cards. What about the performance?

This is where the hype gets put to rest. Specification wise, the HD6950 appears to be very close to the HD5870 on paper but we have to remember that AMD have brought several architectural tweaks to increase the efficiency of the HD69XX series. Our results reflects this very well. Overall, the HD6950 was 5% ahead of the Cypress based HD5870 looking at both stock speeds and overclocked results. In that sense, the new card appears to be positioned perfectly as the replacement for the HD5870 in AMD’s line up of card and should definitely be worth considering. But a year on from the release of the HD5870, is this really all we can expect? Personally, I expected a new series of card to bring significant performance gains and yet we’re left wanting more. It is necessary to point out that tessellation performance has greatly improved in Unigine and games such as H.A.W.X 2 and this is always welcoming. Another strong point of the HD6950 is its 2GB memory framebuffer that allows it to pull away from the HD5870 at high resolutions and applied AA settings. The new architectural design features are certainly highlighted in those situations. In the end, the HD6950 is a more refined version of the HD5870 performing slightly better at reduced power consumption. At £223, it is 18% dearer than the cheapest HD5870 on the web but considering the latter to have reached end of life, consumers looking to buy a new graphics card should definitely consider the HD6950. Otherwise, those looking to upgrade from the HD58XX cards should stay put for now.

So how does it compare with the rest of AMD’s 6 series of cards? On the whole, the HD6950 leads the HD6870 by 11-12% at both stock and overclocked speeds. Considering the price of the HD6870 to be around £190-£200 for a reference card, the HD6950 provides similar bang for the buck. What you also get with the HD6950 is 2GB of memory that proves beneficial at higher resolutions and AA settings as mentioned earlier, especially in DIRT 2 and Alien VS Predator. Anyone using a 24inch monitor should definitely opt for the HD6950 over the HD6870.

And finally, how does AMD match up to Nvidia? AMD themselves are classing the HD6950 into a class of its own price wise and this is reflected throughout the retail channel. Nvidia’s mid range GTX460 is priced around £160 whilst their now EOL GTX470 is below £200 and competing with the HD5870. Higher up, Nvidia have the GF110 based GTX570 and the GF100 based GTX480 at prices ranging from £250-£300. Taking a median price of £275, we expect Nvidia’s offering to perform around 20% better. From our results, the GTX480 performs 18-20% better at stock and overclocked speeds respectively. If we ignore the H.A.W.X 2 performance, which is highly biased towards Nvidia, the GTX480 is ahead of the HD6950 by around 15%. There are clear situations where Nvidia simply dominate such as in Far Cry 2, Street Fighter IV, DIRT 2, Mafia 2 and H.A.W.X 2. In the rest of the games, the AMD card performs comparatively well considering its lower price point. In Unigine, Nvidia still generate better tessellation performance whereas AMD manage to grab a victory under the DirectX 10 settings. Overall, the price difference appears to reflect the performance difference between the HD6950 and GTX480 quite well.

HIS themselves have to be applauded for releasing their cards in such quantities at launch. The reference design ran cool and silent, drawing very little power. The bundle was the standard array of adapters and cables but the card is what most people will be interested in. Unfortunately, I was unimpressed by this particular card’s overclocking headroom, a mere 8% on the core but there are reports of much higher clocks being attained (I cannot vouch for stability in those other cases).

*Update with unlocked performance*

Previously, our attempt at overclocking the HD6950 proved to be somewhat lacklustre compared to previous generation AMD graphics card. Nonetheless, it still achieved an 8% performance boost over stock speeds. Unlocking the card to HD6970 specifications contributed to another 4% increase in performance, putting the card in line with other HD6970 performance. The main significance of unlocking the card is the fact that buyers will effectively have a HD6970 for up to £50 less, making the HD6950 tremendous value for money.

It is unknown as to whether future revisions of the HD6950 will still be able to unlock but those looking for a graphics card now will benefit from this unique feature the most.

Pros
+Decent performance
+Improved tessellation and AA performance
+Efficient and low power consumption
+Very cool and quiet operation
+Eyefinity support
+Well packaged
+Aesthetically pleasing
+Good price
+Can be unlocked to HD6970

Cons
-Not a big upgrade from the HD5870
-Weak bundle
-Poor overclocking headroom without voltage tweaking
-Performance does not reflect a true next generation card

In light of our recent findings, the HIS HD6950 deserves the Vortez Silver Award.