discussion AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 Review Comment Thread

[Shozzking]

I have two questions about the review for SKY.
1. There are articles out there that are saying that the 69xx cards were delayed because the 6-pin connector interfered with the HSF so the connector had to be filed down to fit. Can you find out if this was done on either of your review cards?
2.There were pictures of a switch beside the crossfire connectors, what does this do?

 

[SugarJ]

I can't answer number 1, but number 2 is found on page 12 "A closer look" right below the picture with the switch.

"One of the more interesting features of the HD 6900 series lies in the inclusion of a small switch next to the Crossfire connector. This controls the Dual BIOS function which will allow a user to switch between a pre-defined reference BIOS in Bank 1 and a custom BIOS in Bank 2. By default, both BIOSes on the reference cards will be set to default values but it shouldn’t be long until overclockers are releasing hacked BIOS files for increased voltage, fan speeds and other items. This switch can also act as a fail-safe in case a BIOS flash goes wrong since it can be used to load the default bank without having to resort to any extreme measures."

 

[GT7R]

Ummmm, it doesn't work like that. I gaurentte you the PCB's and GPU's were fabbed and finished before the GTX 580 Launched, I'd be willing to bet my entire SR2 rig on it.

GPU Development times span YEARS, not months. Sure, maybe they delayed the card because of the GTX 580, try and get some last minute driver polish on it, build up some better stock. Maybe there was a parts shortage, or maybe they found a last minute bios bug they had to fix and reflash all the card.

Whatever the reason was, the vapor chamber heatsink was finished and designed, the majority of the cards componets choices and costs were finalized, done and built WAYYYY before the GTX580 was even a rumour.

You can't change ANY of that in only a month, only minor changes can be done so late in a produt development right before its to launch.

Of couse the development takes years, but they did tweaked the bios for higher GPU and mem clocks, that's why maybe the cards are slightly loud. It just looks too obvious that couple of days after the GTX580 launch AMD "suddenly announces a delay for the Cayman" (at nov. 13th if I remember right).
And the heatsink while takes time to develop for the first time, isn't hard to copy after someone had done the development.

 

[MacJunky]

And the heatsink while takes time to develop for the first time, isn't hard to copy after someone had done the development.

Yes, but as we were saying, this tech is not new and has been around for years. However, even so getting one copied and produced in a month? No way.

 

[GT7R]

Yes, but as we were saying, this tech is not new and has been around for years. However, even so getting one copied and produced in a month? No way.

So then why just now they have started using it? Just to think how much the faith of the GTX480 could have been different... and what about CPU coolers? Still stuck with those heatpipes...

 

[Guest]

So then why just now they have started using it? Just to think how much the faith of the GTX480 could have been different... and what about CPU coolers? Still stuck with those heatpipes...

Yeah but heatpipes where around long before they made it to mainstream cpu coolers.

Wasn't the first mainstream Vapor tech debuted on the Sapphire 4890?

 

[draemn]

how long will it be before we start seeing custom cooled designs of these cards? I was super impressed with the Gigabyte UD series coolers but I have money burning a hole in my pocket right now......... not sure if I can wait.

How do you put a custom cooler on a vapour chamber without making it a 3 slot card...

How do you beat a vapour chamber with air cooling? I don't think you do...

When will you see custom cooling that performs better? Buy a water-cooling version...

I always would like to see a bit more information put into acoustics and over-clocking. It would be nice if HWC set up a 'reference' quiet case (a case with good cooling properties) to benchmark sound against and put a "this will be louder/quieter than your case fans at idle." For me, I'm pretty big on a quiet case when idle and can live with a bit of noise when gaming. It's really difficult for me to find information such as this when I'm buying. I'm running a NZXT phantom with 7 fans and all default fans at more than about 15% (using the fan control) is too loud at idle for my tastes.

Also, I know that in this particular article, there were some issues with being able to o/c, but it's a shame that o/c is not a bigger section when you have current cards going from ~650 core to 800+ core. The other beef I have with o/c sections is when they o/c the card in review, but don't compare it against how another cards o/c. I get why one might say "you can get the same performance for $50 less," but if you o/c one card why won't you o/c the other?

Oh, one other thing that I've had an issue with for a while is your selection of games. I give you an A++ for not including popular games that are either CPU bound or non-demanding on GPU. But I have to say that it irks me that the list of games has more "heavily favours nVidia" games than "heavily favours ATI" games and makes no good reference to this.

 

[10e]

Of couse the development takes years, but they did tweaked the bios for higher GPU and mem clocks, that's why maybe the cards are slightly loud. It just looks too obvious that couple of days after the GTX580 launch AMD "suddenly announces a delay for the Cayman" (at nov. 13th if I remember right).
And the heatsink while takes time to develop for the first time, isn't hard to copy after someone had done the development.

I don't think anyone can speculate on what the delay was, but it very likely had nothing to do with any final hardware changes, and I guarantee it had nothing to do with coolers.

Maybe there was an issue with drivers, or something small, or simply a production delay. This stuff is made in China and shipped back to North America.

So then why just now they have started using it? Just to think how much the faith of the GTX480 could have been different... and what about CPU coolers? Still stuck with those heatpipes...

I have a new 480 and I don't have any faith in it :biggrin:

Yeah but heatpipes where around long before they made it to mainstream cpu coolers.

Wasn't the first mainstream Vapor tech debuted on the Sapphire 4890?

It was Sapphire, but I vaguely remember having a VP cooler on a 4870 as well.

 

[thorn]

I always would like to see a bit more information put into acoustics and over-clocking. It would be nice if HWC set up a 'reference' quiet case (a case with good cooling properties) to benchmark sound against and put a "this will be louder/quieter than your case fans at idle." For me, I'm pretty big on a quiet case when idle and can live with a bit of noise when gaming. It's really difficult for me to find information such as this when I'm buying. I'm running a NZXT phantom with 7 fans and all default fans at more than about 15% (using the fan control) is too loud at idle for my tastes.

Acoustics are far too subjective. Not everyone has the same case, fan setup, distance from case to person and most importantly 'tolerance' to the noise. What you find loud, someone else might find acceptable/quiet.

 

[SKYMTL]

I have two questions about the review for SKY.
1. There are articles out there that are saying that the 69xx cards were delayed because the 6-pin connector interfered with the HSF so the connector had to be filed down to fit. Can you find out if this was done on either of your review cards?

I highly doubt the launch was delayed to shave some meat off of a power connector housing.

Yeah but heatpipes where around long before they made it to mainstream cpu coolers.

Wasn't the first mainstream Vapor tech debuted on the Sapphire 4890?

There have been vapor chambers used in laptops for the last decade or so. :thumb:

Oh, one other thing that I've had an issue with for a while is your selection of games. I give you an A++ for not including popular games that are either CPU bound or non-demanding on GPU. But I have to say that it irks me that the list of games has more "heavily favours nVidia" games than "heavily favours ATI" games and makes no good reference to this.

That simply isn't true. Even if it was, there is no way I would make mention of it.

I have absolutely no intent on choosing games based on which company they favour. I choose the games based on their ability to benchmark well and their overall graphics load.

If the list tends to favour NVIDIA then so be it. They sink millions into their developer relation program and should NEVER be punished for that.