GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs Radeon HD 6950 Graphic card
Introduction
The graphics card ranging between 200 and 250 euros, there are no shortage of choice, recommendations are Radeon HD 6950 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti. With the arrival of the overclocked versions of the GTX 560 and the 6950 version with only 1 GB, more competition is raging. There are plenty of choice between a GTX 560 Ti base, an overclocked GTX, Radeon HD 6950 2GB and a Radeon HD 6950 1GB. The mid-range graphics cards has greatly facilitated in recent months. After experiencing difficult times in 2010 with its Fermi was well caught by Nvidia GeForce 5xx out that although only the GeForce 4xx revised nevertheless finally live up to expectations. While consumption remains high but is now supported by cooling systems able to contain this high wattage dissipation supported. After a GeForce GTX 580 that crushes everything in its path and a GTX 570 with an excellent level of performance for a lower price, Nvidia felt pushed into the wings emerging from its archives Ti suffix for Titanium, which had more with the brand name for a GeForce 4200 GeForce Ti. Thus, the GTX 560 Ti came to hurt AMD in a very bearer of the card whose price ranges between 200 and 250 euros.
Because AMD's Radeon series 5000 was painful and somewhat confused. The Radeon 6850 and 6870 were surprised by a trade name which suggested higher performance than the 5800 but it was not the case. This role was dedicated to the Radeon 6950 and 6970 which certainly got a higher level than the 5800 but not dramatically. In addition, being equipped with 2 GB of memory, the sale price is impacted and yet few games that can take advantage of such a quantity of GDDR5. This has pushed AMD released a Radeon HD 6950 with a gigabyte of memory, the aim being to lower the price facing a fierce GeForce GTX 560 Ti ... At the exit of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, AMD had been able to provide a overclocked version of 6870. The Radeon HD 6950 with 1024 memory is indeed arrive until two days after the launch date of the card firm to the chameleon. Having since received a heavily overclocked GeForce Ti 560 from Zotac, we thought it would be interesting to contrast them to a duel. Between 6950 and 1GB Zotac GeForce GTX 560 AMP Edition Ti, what to choose? Response in our graphics test comparing 19 cards, all compatible with DirectX 11.
The card Radeon HD 6950 1GB we received is a reference model that AMD is in all respects identical to the version shipping 2 GB. They are also difficult to differentiate at first, and only a glance back the map reveals the absence of memory chips on this side of the PCB. Note that the Radeon 6950 on the cheap is not widespread yet, Sapphire is the only one to offer a commercially competitive price of 210 euros. The GeForce GTX 560 AMP Edition Ti Zotac for its part is very different from the reference GeForce. As is the case for the GTX 460, GTX 560 is the card that will undergo the greatest changes in terms of overclocking and cooling systems. The Zotac combines for its part with its two aspects of a share of frequencies up and secondly a specific sink. Side of the GPU, its frequency from 822 MHz for the standard model at 950 MHz, which is a nice 15% overclock. The memory of its side works at 1100 MHz to 1002 MHz against the reference map. Overclocking about 10% then, which is somewhat more modest. The 384 shader cores for their part, operate at a frequency of 1900 MHz 1644 MHz cons of origin for the GPU, there is also an increase of around 15%. The amount of memory remains unchanged with 1024 MB of GDDR5 via a 256-bit bus. The video outputs are also no surprises: two DVI ports and port-L mini HDMI.
The map is far from being discrete, resuming Zotac colors are black and tan orange. The cooling system consists of a radiator through which the heat pipes of a good size, all broken by a model of 92 mm. The whole is rather quiet in idle and somewhat audible support. It remains far nevertheless turbine ... For an overclocked model, it is very convenient.
Re: GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs Radeon HD 6950 Graphic card
Test Setup
- Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 (Intel X58)
- Intel Core i7 975 3.33 GHz (Hyper-Treading disabled)
- 3x2 GB Transcend DDR3-1600
- Seasonic 850 watt power supply MD12
- Heatsink Zalman CNPS 9900 LED
- Hard Drive Seagate 150 GB
- Seagate 500 GB HDD
- Samsung DVD Player
- Dell UltraSharp U3011 LCD 30-inch
- ATI Catalyst 1.11 drivers
- Nvidia drivers 266.56 and 266.58
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Note that the Hyper-Threading and Turbo mode were disabled because some games are not disrupted these artificial cores. As we test graphics cards, not CPUs in this test, it seemed more appropriate to use the Core i7 as a quad-core classic.
For this test, we tested all the cards at 1920x1200 with no anti-aliasing, with 4x anti-aliasing and 8x when this option was available in games. Note that the Radeon HD 6870 overclocked XFX is used when testing the GeForce GTX 560.
List of games tested :
- Crysis Warhead
- Far Cry 2
- Mafia II
- Metro 2033 (DirectX 11)
- Dirt 2 (DirectX 11)
- Battleforge (DirectX 11)
Since we only use cards compatible with DirectX 11, we have not tested DX11 games in both DX9 mode, DX10 and DX11. Indeed, we limit performance in DX11.
Consumption
We measured the consumption of the new Radeon with the default settings PowerTune. The tests were performed with the configuration of the previous page, freshly installed due to a disk crash. For their part, the new GeForce 500 have advanced monitoring of consumption of the GPU. This allows pilots to check the current passing through the PCI-Express and PCI-Express motherboard. For now, this system is not activated in games but only stress tests as OCCT or FurMark. These are the tools used by testers to measure the consumption of a GPU, which can distort the results if we do not pay attention. In these applications "power virus", if the pilot detected a very high consumption, the frequency drops by half in the first place and are further divided by two if necessary.
This system should evolve in the future according to Nvidia. The goal is to take into account more risky applications. For now, this is limited to the two aforementioned applications, which obviously can seem strange ... Anyway, we measured the consumption of GTX 500, bypassing this limitation with GPU-Z to disable this control via a specific command. Note that this security is optional on the 560 Ti reference and does not appear elsewhere not active on our test model. For the cons seemed to have Zotac. We measured the consumption of the whole configuration with a power meter in OCCT.
In idle, all the newer cards are real efforts to reduce their consumption. The GTX 560 Ti, for its part offered a very low consumption and the overclocked Zotac has positioned itself very well also. Under load, the GTX 560 remains a Ti swallower watts as a German sedan is a swallower kilometers. Always based on Fermi, she can not deny its origins. However, its consumption is not excessive compared to the Radeon HD 6870 Overclocked ... The Zotac still consumes more watts and is close to the GTX 570. The Radeon on that side are more efficient with the 1 GB version consumes substantially the same as the 2 GB version.
Battleforge
BattleForge is a strategy game in real time since September 2009 is compatible with DirectX 11. This is a massively multiplayer game based on the principle of trading cards. We test the game via the built-in benchmark. Here are the results with and without anti-aliasing at 1920x1200.
Without anti-aliasing, the Radeon is fit but must lower the flag when it comes to select this option. The 560 Ti Zotac offers here an excellent score, bringing it closer to the GTX 570. The 1GB version of 6950 lost only a few feathers in front of the 2GB version and it is not really justified in this game either ...
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Strongly emphasized by AMD, Dirt 2 is one of the first games to really offer DirectX 11 rendering operator. So much so that sometimes it is quite doubtful. If your card is not compatible with the latest API from Microsoft, the game runs in DirectX 9 with the impression that many elements of the set are fuzzy. With DirectX 11, the sharpness is at the rendezvous, as well as the effects of tessellation, particularly at the puddles. But DirectX 11 or not, this game has disappointed us to overemphasize the American atmosphere to Ken Block rather than the real special Dirt first name. Colin Mc Rae must surely be turning in its grave seeing what has become its license ... We test Colin Mc Rae Dirt 2 with all the details at the bottom in a scene well-defined measure fps using software FRAPS.
In this game, ATI cards have always had more difficulty than Nvidia. The GTX 560 Radeon ahead strongly that the tie is not despite the difference in amount of memory. The Zotac AMP ahead interestingly the Ti 560 reference and surpasses even the GTX 480.
Re: GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs Radeon HD 6950 Graphic card
Crysis Warhead
Crysis was the much anticipated end-2007. Developed by Crytek, which is the origin of the famous Far Cry, this is a game extremely greedy and pushed realism. In September 2008, a sequel was given: Crysis Warhead. Nothing revolutionary, however, since the engine is the same and in some ways it is more an extension of Crysis first name than a real new game despite its "seniority" Warhead remains one of the games having most heavy traffic now ... The cards were tested with all the details up. Measurements were performed without anti-aliasing and with anti-aliasing x4 and x8.
In this game with 8X AA, the Radeon HD 6950 2GB is in compliance with the 1 GB version is in this kind of game that heavy 2GB memory make sense. As for GTX 560, overclocked Zotac version makes it easier to follow the 6950 2GB 8X AA as the reference map was pretty far for him. Without AA, the Zotac is cons before even close to the Radeon HD 6970.
Far Cry 2
Sequel to the hit game Far Cry, Far Cry 2 was released in October 2008. It was somewhat disappointed in terms of gameplay and is quite distant from Far Cry's first name. Graphically, it is still very demanding. We have conducted tests without anti-aliasing but also with anti-aliasing x4 and x8.
In this game, too, the GeForce 500 are therefore a leap with new drivers while the gain is much less dramatic with the GeForce 400. This allows the newcomer, the GTX 560 Ti AGP, than the GTX 570. The Radeon is significantly further while we note small differences between versions 1 GB and 2 GB.
Mafia II
Mafia II ensures implementation side, especially as the animations are also above the lot. This echoes the highly demanding developers of 2K. Too bad they have not demonstrated the same intentions in terms of possibilities and do not be more inspired by Rockstar Games to imagine what it would have been possible in their world. Instead, Mafia II is a game that may seem archaic in which we do not shoot while driving and we finally interacts very little with Empire Bay that still gives a good impression of life around us. It is a game that we test with DirectX9 the maximum level of detail. Note that 8X AA is not part of the options for Mafia II.
Without AA, Nvidia win but with AA, the win goes to ATI. By cons still no differences between versions 1 and 2 GB while the GTX 560 from Zotac you back on the Radeon 6950 when the AA is in the game.
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 is a game that places you in ... 2033, when survivors squatting on the Moscow subway after a nuclear cataclysm. You play one of those survivors who will walk through these corridors populated metros mutans and beautiful creatures of all kinds. Extremely heavy graphically, this game allows the user to choose between DX10 and DX11 rendering. We opted for DX11 by testing with and without the option of depth of field, very greedy. :biggrin: We test a scene well defined with all details turned up. Note that this game only supports 4X MSAA and not 8X.
Without depth of field advantage to the Radeon 2 GB for once departs from the Radeon 1 GB gain the GTX AMP Zotac 560i is not unusual here.
The depth of field is fatal to many maps as Metro 2033. In this kind of play, the Radeon HD 6950 makes sense when it has 2 GB of memory. Indeed, the 1 GB version collapses completely. As for GeForce, there is no collapse but it lags behind the Radeon 2 GB.
Re: GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs Radeon HD 6950 Graphic card
Performance Summary
Now is the time to calculate the summary performance of all these cards. An index of 100 was calculated based on the results obtained by the GeForce GTX 560 Ti.
The GTX 560 Ti is more efficient than the 6950 1GB version, while the overclocked Zotac ahead two Radeon, including the 2 GB version gain the GTX 560 AMP Ti is 11% over the baseline version. Note that the 2GB model is useful only when the AA is the game and although in some intensive games, as we have seen above.
Conclusion
The GeForce GTX 560 Ti was already a good card originated at the base and with the overclocked version from Zotac, we gain ten percent for a pretty price of 269 euros. This is the eternal dilemma between buying a basic version that can overclock or factory overclocked version. The advantage of a card like the GeForce GTX 560 AMP Zotac Ti is that the card is certified for overclocking and cooling system is adapted accordingly. A basic version has no guarantee overclocking and sometimes with the cooling system base, the possibilities are limited. This point is just the GeForce GTX 560 Ti as its cooling system of reference is good. This release AMP! certainly is sold 269 euros, which may seem expensive compared to the 210 to 220 euros GeForce GTX 560 Ti reference, but we must not forget that its performance level is higher than the Radeon HD 6950 2GB card sold between 250 and 280 euros. This has led ATI to enable its partners to release a version of the 6950 shipping only 1 GB of memory. For now, these cards are rare and in our price comparison, proposes a single Sapphire, at an attractive price of 209 euros. At that price, it is a place that is cheaper than the 560 Ti, which is normal because its performance level is slightly below the 560 Ti. And as we have seen, only in games like Crysis or very greedy Metro 2033 that the 2 GB are useful. In short, you can get at the moment of the 1 GB version, which is not very Futureproof. But if you regularly change graphics cards, buy the 2 GB version of the 6950 is not advisable, unless you play on a 30 inch screen at 2560x1600.
At decision time, we have a preference for the GTX 560 Ti offers good performance at an attractive price, all with a card more compact than the ATI 6950. Zotac AMP version is very interesting also saw its level of performance but it is paying its overclocking a bit expensive, it is fair game. Note also that Nvidia cards consume more than the ATI. As for the 1 GB version, it is very interesting for those who do not play games very heavy and saves forty euros. Remains to find since it is currently far from widespread.
