Performance tests

Testbed:

• Intel Core i7-975 3340 MHz CPU
• ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on the Intel X58 chipset
• 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
• WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
• Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
• 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
• VSync disabled
• NVIDIA Drivers 270.61, AMD Catalyst 11.4 beta

Benchmarks:

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) — DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0 (HDR), built-in benchmarking utility (the Middle level), maximum settings.
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA) — Cargo, DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
• Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "dirt2.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
• Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
• Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) — DirectX 10.0, Super High settings, run from in game.
• Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
• F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml". Game provided by NVIDIA.
• Tropics Benchmark 1.3 (Unigine) — DirectX 10.0, High settings.
• Heaven Benchmark 2.5 Pro (Unigine) — DirectX 11, High settings.
• 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11, Performance settings.

We'd like to thank Unigine for helping us set up their benchmarks.

Final thoughts

Sapphire HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 is a copy of the reference card, but it comes packed with necessary cables and adapters. As you may remember, HD 6970 itself is generally faster than GeForce GTX 570 but slower (and cheaper) than GeForce GTX 580. Its advantages include 2GB of memory which is already a necessity for a high-end graphics card, improved tessellation for more comfort in DX11 games, acceptable power consumption and low-noise cooler, capability to handle up to six monitors simultaneously.

Sapphire HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 is also a copy of the reference design and it also comes with a nice accessory package. HD 6950 itself is even better than HD 6970, because it lags behind GTX 570 in performance less than it does in price. At that it has a low-noise cooler, a nice set of interfaces and enough memory for future games.

Sapphire FleX HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 has all the advantages of the previous card and also can handle any combination of monitors (not necessarily via DisplayPort).

We express gratitude to Sapphire for the provided graphics cards.

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