HD6950 1GB or 2GB

[Paxan_1]

Hi All,

 

now i would like to ask you for your opinion :)

I have placed my Skyrim order at Amazon, so i think i need to upgrade my graphic card. At the moment i'm using a good old 4870 with 512MB GDDR5 memory, its good enough for F3 and NV, in combination with the rest.

So i have had a look around and i think the ATI Radeaon HD6950 will be my next card. There are two different ones out there, a 1GB version and a 2GB version. The price difference here in Germany is around 40€, ~180€ for 1GB and 220€ for the 2GB version. Does someone of you know, if the 2GB is worth the price, or would the 1GB work like the 2GB version? I will play it in 1920 to 1080px, oc and i want the best graphic experience that is available ;).

Oh, well i would try to buy a 6950, which would be able to be unlooked to a 6970.

 

The rest of the system will be untouched, it is powerful enough.

A short summery for you:

CPU: Q9450 @ 3.6GHz (8x450) (the one with 12MB cache)

Ram: 6GB Kingston HyperX DDR2

MB: Asus Maximus Formula 2

Monitor: 1920x1080

 

thanks for your opinion,

Sarah

[Fonger]

I have placed my Skyrim order at Amazon, so i think i need to upgrade my graphic card. At the moment i'm using a good old 4870 with 512MB GDDR5 memory, its good enough for F3 and NV, in combination with the rest.

what makes you think you need to upgrade your graphics

 

Skyrim is still a DX9 game and a console port

 

so its beyond likely that the same old hardware will play the game fine

 

until some super duper uber graphics mods hit the nexus.

[Paxan_1]

I have placed my Skyrim order at Amazon, so i think i need to upgrade my graphic card. At the moment i'm using a good old 4870 with 512MB GDDR5 memory, its good enough for F3 and NV, in combination with the rest.

what makes you think you need to upgrade your graphics

 

Skyrim is still a DX9 game and a console port

 

so its beyond likely that the same old hardware will play the game fine

 

until some super duper uber graphics mods hit the nexus.

 

I thought it would need it to play it in the highest level, i'm not sure because they havent published the requirements. If my old 4870 could do it it would be great :), atm the upgrade is only a little "mindgame" ;)

[Fonger]

I thought it would need it to play it in the highest level, i'm not sure because they havent published the requirements. If my old 4870 could do it it would be great :), atm the upgrade is only a little "mindgame" ;)

at any rate

 

the longer you wait to buy any upgrade

 

the cheeeeeper the upgrade will become

[Paxan_1]

I thought it would need it to play it in the highest level, i'm not sure because they havent published the requirements. If my old 4870 could do it it would be great :), atm the upgrade is only a little "mindgame" ;)

at any rate

 

the longer you wait to buy any upgrade

 

the cheeeeeper the upgrade will become

 

Yeah, of course :), but i don't think the prices will be that cheaper, and i wont buy a new card the next monday ;), thats why i ask for your opinion, so i can think about it :)

[hoofhearted4]

as for your questions. 1gig will be fine. multiple gigs are used for multiple monitors. if your using one monitor, youll be fine with the 1gig

[Dark0ne]

You should probably also know that the new 6950's have been lasered up so you can no longer unlock it to become a 6970 unless you've very lucky.

 

Similarly, the new 7xxx range is supposed to be coming out Q1 2012, which will make the 6950s much cheaper. So if you do get one ready for Skyrim (which I would, rather than waiting) then you might want to buy another 6950 at the start of next year and crossfire it. You'll get very good performance then.

 

Currently in the process of upgrading my system and sticking in another 5850 for crossfire. From the benchmarks I've seen 2x5850 benchmark about 10% better than a GTX 580, which costs close to £400 here. So for the price of £125 I can up my performance to better than a card worth £400. Not bad :)

[Paxan_1]

as for your questions. 1gig will be fine. multiple gigs are used for multiple monitors. if your using one monitor, youll be fine with the 1gig

 

Thank you :), i'm using only one 24" monitor, thats enough for me.

 

You should probably also know that the new 6950's have been lasered up so you can no longer unlock it to become a 6970 unless you've very lucky.

 

Similarly, the new 7xxx range is supposed to be coming out Q1 2012, which will make the 6950s much cheaper. So if you do get one ready for Skyrim (which I would, rather than waiting) then you might want to buy another 6950 at the start of next year and crossfire it. You'll get very good performance then.

 

Currently in the process of upgrading my system and sticking in another 5850 for crossfire. From the benchmarks I've seen 2x5850 benchmark about 10% better than a GTX 580, which costs close to £400 here. So for the price of £125 I can up my performance to better than a card worth £400. Not bad :)

 

I'm not up to date with all of this :facepalm: , thanks Dark0ne. Have only read some time ago the 6950 is a real bargain because of the possibility to unlock it. Bad if the new ones are lasered. I will definitely buy one if my Skyrim has arrived, it will be always cheaper with waiting another half year. The idea with crossfire is nice, but i think my psu can't handle two 6950, its "only" 550W, well and i hope one 6950 is enough to play Skyrim ant the highest level :)

[ginnyfizz]

I got a 2Gb ATI 6950.

 

It seems that I was very lucky from what Dark0ne was saying :whistling:

 

But even without the unlock, is a really very good card. Physically it is a monster in size, so I hope you have a full tower case.

[Paxan_1]

Hi Ginny,

 

yeah, i know this card is a monster in comparison to the 4870, but i have enough space down there in my case :)