MSI 6959 power-edition or MSI 560 HAWK

[gifted1]

I`m looking for A new videocard and i`ved noticed the 6950 poweredition from msi, a really nice card if you ask me!!
But my buddy says get a 560 ti HAWK instead because it`l perfom better and will have a higher overclock, i still fancy the 6950, but with the games i play, crysis2 and bbc2, NV has better performance and then i even didn`t mention BF3....most of the time i play on 1080p.

what should i do?

my specs are:

asrock 870extreme3
4Gb ddr3 1600 corsair dominator C8
phenom II x6 1100t@3,7
2xsamsung 1 terrabyte
corsair TX650 powersupply
Haf 922

thanks for the advice..

GRTZZ Don

[crazyeyesreaper]

depends is the 6950 a 2gb or 1gb version

if its 2gb id take the 6950 as more and more DX11 titles come out 1gb vram dosent seem to be enough. so whatever but if its 1gb 6950 vs 1gb 560ti id take the 560

[RejZoR]

Tough one. In most games HD6950 is indeed faster and with some luck you can unlock it into HD6970. But 560Ti is faster in certain games that are favored by NVIDIA. I suggest you check out 6950 TPU review and see which are those games. It's a tough choice indeed. I was also thinking between these two but then decided for AMD again as i just somehow prefer it. Partly because of MLAA i guess and the way how drivers look, work and are updated.

[gifted1]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

depends is the 6950 a 2gb or 1gb version

if its 2gb id take the 6950 as more and more DX11 titles come out 1gb vram dosent seem to be enough. so whatever but if its 1gb 6950 vs 1gb 560ti id take the 560

its the 2gb version alright....but with games i play are almost all twimtbp...but i still fancy the 6950 poweredition somehow

someone the releasing reason to buy the 6950 poweredtion? maybe the 2 gb are more futureproof..

[RejZoR]

I'm getting MSI 6950 2GB TwinFrozr III sometime next week (probably around wednesday).

As for the games, at least for Crysis 2 i can tell you that it doesn't really matter. I was running it on HD5850 and it was running super smooth with everything maxed out. I do have slightly smaller res monitor but that probably wouldn't change much as Crysis 2 just isn't demanding at all.

[gifted1]

no crysis isn`t, but maybe it will be after the dx11 patch? you never know
where i`m most afraid of is BF3...

[RejZoR]

Nah. You shouldn't worry really. Both are high end cards and to make it easier for you to understand, HD6870 is twice as fast as your current HD5770. HD6950 is even faster than HD6870.
So i wouldn't really worry about it.

Because if that's your concern you really have to look at dual GPU or CrossfireX solutions which are, well, twice as expensive in most cases.

[gifted1]

Alrighty then the hd6950 poweredition it`s going to be!! but was the 6870 not the answer from amd to the GTX460 or 560 non-ti? i mean the 6870 isnt as fast as the 6950 or the 560 ti so its not really to compare..

[gifted1]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Nah. You shouldn't worry really. Both are high end cards and to make it easier for you to understand, HD6870 is twice as fast as your current HD5770. HD6950 is even faster than HD6870.
So i wouldn't really worry about it.

Because if that's your concern you really have to look at dual GPU or CrossfireX solutions which are, well, twice as expensive in most cases.

Yeah thats true but crossfire or dual gpu`s are not always working very well. so iv`e read in a few reviews.

[RejZoR]

That's the same reason why i prefer buying higher end single chip graphic card than buying 2x low end cards and crossfire them. They don't always work too well, there are often graphic anomalies, they produce more heat and they consume more power. I never had any problems with my single chip Radeon cards. Crossfire imo really makes sense when you get to a point when single chip solutions just aren't fast enough for your needs.

[gifted1]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

That's the same reason why i prefer buying higher end single chip graphic card than buying 2x low end cards and crossfire them. They don't always work too well, there are often graphic anomalies, they produce more heat and they consume more power. I never had any problems with my single chip Radeon cards. Crossfire imo really makes sense when you get to a point when single chip solutions just aren't fast enough for your needs.

Thats exactly the reason i`m not so fund of crossfire or dual gpu`s

[gifted1]

How do 2x5770 scale? like one 5870?

(off-topic) I`ve just heard that i`ve become uncle!! my sister got a baeutifull baby-girl
my day can not be ruined any more

[RejZoR]

More like one HD5850...

[gifted1]

so buying another 5770 is no option, still going for the MSI 6950 power-edition....

[thunderising]

Originally Posted by gifted1

I`m looking for A new videocard and i`ved noticed the 6950 poweredition from msi, a really nice card if you ask me!!
But my buddy says get a 560 ti HAWK instead because it`l perfom better and will have a higher overclock, i still fancy the 6950, but with the games i play, crysis2 and bbc2, NV has better performance and then i even didn`t mention BF3....most of the time i play on 1080p.

what should i do?

my specs are:

asrock 870extreme3
4Gb ddr3 1600 corsair dominator C8
phenom II x6 1100t@3,7
2xsamsung 1 terrabyte
corsair TX650 powersupply
Haf 922

thanks for the advice..

GRTZZ Don

I would go with the HD6950, AFAIK it's tessalation performance is comparable to the GF110/GF100 series silicones, GTX560 Ti is cut down GF110(lesser tessalation, DX11 performance)

[RejZoR]

Originally Posted by gifted1

so buying another 5770 is no option, still going for the MSI 6950 power-edition....

I always haed SLi/Crossfire capable boards and i had thought of buying the same secondary gfx card but i always decided to just sell it and buy a new single chip gfx card. It just works better for me. Especially later on when you'll have to sell 2 cards which might be a problem sometimes (sometimes it takes ages to even sell 1 card).

[gifted1]

i tought it was the other way around...that the geforce cards where better in tessalation..
or am i wrong here?

[RejZoR]

They have slight edge indeed. But after checking reviews only big one is in Unigine benchmark (couldn't care less) and few specific games. But still after looking at framerates, they were both still doing over 50fps so i'm perfectly fine with that.

[gifted1]

You`re right if you look at the FPS it isn`t that much of a difference, so i`ll stick with the 6950, i`ve noticed that there aren`t much people that reccomend me to buy the 560 HAWK ti
instead..at least not in this topic

[crazyeyesreaper]

the hawk is a good a card it overclocks well but if your gettinga 2gb 6950 theres no reason to recommend a 560ti, the extra vram is neccesary for DX11 titles at 1920x1080 or higher.

[gifted1]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

the hawk is a good a card it overclocks well but if your gettinga 2gb 6950 theres no reason to recommend a 560ti, the extra vram is neccesary for DX11 titles at 1920x1080 or higher.

thats probably true but there`s a 560 ti out there also with 2gb vram only it doesnt have any performance increase, if i read the review`s right that is!

[Syuzeren]

like crazyeye said, 2 gigs of vram is needed for games like BF3 at 1920x1080 and full detail with AA and AF.

[gifted1]

then the 560 ti 2 gig should perform the same as the 6950 on BF3 with that resolution?

[crazyeyesreaper]

they didnt test it on games or with settings that matter

most current games in reviews wont max out the 1gb frame buffer

but..

Oblivion with mods
Fallout 3 with mods
Fallout New Vegas with mods
Metro 2033
Shogun II
Grand Theft Auto 4

all use more then 1gb of vram, and that will become more common as newer games are released so short term no different long term there will be a difference

good example look back at 4870 512mb crossfire vs 4870 1gb crossfire at 1920x1080 its an old example but since its power in DX9 is the same as a 5870 youll see a difference due to vram bottleneck.

as i posted in another thread my settings in Oblivion brought my 5850 xfire setup down to 1fps average but 2x 470s managed 55fps avg due to the extra 200mb of vram headroom was just enough to cover my settings and ini tweaks. its something to keep in mind.

[gifted1]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

they didnt test it on games or with settings that matter

most current games in reviews wont max out the 1gb frame buffer

but..

Oblivion with mods
Fallout 3 with mods
Fallout New Vegas with mods
Metro 2033
Shogun II
Grand Theft Auto 4

all use more then 1gb of vram, and that will become more common as newer games are released so short term no different long term there will be a difference

good example look back at 4870 512mb crossfire vs 4870 1gb crossfire at 1920x1080 its an old example but since its power in DX9 is the same as a 5870 youll see a difference due to vram bottleneck.

as i posted in another thread my settings in Oblivion brought my 5850 xfire setup down to 1fps average but 2x 470s managed 55fps avg due to the extra 200mb of vram headroom was just enough to cover my settings and ini tweaks. its something to keep in mind.

I`ll take that in mind you know what you are talking about i`ll give you that!!