AMD HD 6970 Cayman

[LeeGibling 0]

Now, as of Dec. 15, the new AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6970 (Cayman) is officially out.Does anyone know, how it fares at FSX, especially when compared to the GTX 480/570/580 ?guru3d.com: AMD Radeon HD 6950/6970fudzilla.com: XFX AMD Radeon HD 6950/6970 testedcomputerbase.de: AMD Radeon HD 6950/6970pcgameshardware.de: AMD Radeon HD 6950/6970

[chapstick 2,757]

ATi cards have always been worse for FSX than Nvidia cards. I'm really just hoping this will force 580/570 prices to drop.

[Tabs 2,790]

Just read the HardOCP review - sounds like a killer card for normal gaming... Same performance as the 570 and 580, but a lot less money. AMD's driver probably still does some weird things in FSX though and I don't think they've added anything similar to Nvidia's combined AA mode.

[SpiritFlyer 987]

AMD had been expected to knock rival Nvidia down a few notches as it was their turn in the historic see-saw competition between the two giants, with billions of dollars in sales at stake. It has not happened this time to the dismay of AMD fans. Nvidia remains in solid first place with their new 580 GTX and 570 GTX models. It isn't even close.Here is how guru3d politely summed it up:"Both the Radeon HD 6950 and 6970 are products worthy of being called high-end, really they are positioned there well. However for whatever reason performance is not what we all had hoped for. Personally I think that AMD initially targeted the two products tested today against the GeForce GTX 480 and never realized that NVIDIA had a trump card with the two new (GTX 570/580) additions.That said, the Radeon HD 6950 and 6970 are stone-cold, raw and nice performing cards in the high-end arena. But you are as good as long as you are faster then your competition and from that point of view, the Radeon HD 6900 series seems to be missing a little bit of an aggressive bite. Expectations especially for the R6970 have been high, at least at the expectancy level of the GeForce GTX 580. The reality is that the GTX 580 stays on top of the charts everywhere and that the R6970 is competing mostly with the 350 EUR GeForce GTX 570. Positioning the R6950 is even more difficult as that card is a hovering at many performance levels. That's exactly the essence of today's two tested product, one game is very fast while the other is below expected performance." http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/1Here is what Benchmark Reviews said:"This takes us to the conclusion: what becomes of AMD graphics after two fruitless attempts at winning over the top-end market? The AMD Radeon HD 6870 failed to reach top-level performance that many expected, and was relegated to fighting off an army of factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 460's that sell at a better price point. Now the Radeon HD 6970 proves that AMD doesn't have a single-GPU answer to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580. The DX11 discrete graphics market is already saturated with AMD Radeon HD 5000 series, diced into portions so thin that a mere $10 separates some products, leaving little room for additional growth. With the convincing likelihood that AMD's Radeon HD 6900-series will miss the fast-approaching holiday season and the sales opportunities it brings, could AMD be forced into once again competing everywhere but the top?"Benchmark Reviews WebsiteEven when the 5970 is heavily overclocked to 950 MHz, performance can not equal the 772 MHz default clocked 580 GTX, being barely able to match the 570 GTX, and then only in a few applications. The big story here is not about the AMD video cards whatsoever, but about how greatly superior Nvidia's 580 GTX and 570 GTX really are. To repeat, it's not even close!Kind regards,

[Epikk 62]

I recently went from a HD5970 to a 580 GTX... And I'm NOT looking back. Amazing GPU it is. VERY happy of my purchase !!!

[thunderbolt294 0]

I'm curious about the cloud performance with the redesign in Core Architecture.

[abandoned account 171]

The 5970 is already known to not be a great card for FSX. The 6970 is a different card and it would be nice to hear of someone who has actually tried it with FSX.Reviews that focus on framerates in modern DX11 games doesn't really say anything about the performance in FSX.

[Chocorua 112]

The 5970 is already known to not be a great card for FSX. The 6970 is a different card and it would be nice to hear of someone who has actually tried it with FSX.Reviews that focus on framerates in modern DX11 games doesn't really say anything about the performance in FSX.

Exactly. Additionally, let us not forget the value these cards are offering. My take is these were not intended to take over the high-end crown anyway. Suggest keeping things in perspective, looking at all aspects of a product before coming out with judgments such as "not even close". I too would like tests comparing the new AMD cards against an NVidia in the the same price range IN FSX, not that other 'stuff' everyone does. Heck, I might do it myself for the fun of it. Meanwhile back to my amazing little 460! cheers,Greg G

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Exactly the reasons I went with an AMD 6970 (have the XFX version sitting right here). The fastest speed had little concern for me as we know these are CPU bound games at the moment. The overall value of price/performance/features won me over. 2GB RAM on board combined with Eyefinity and three high end 28" displays should make for quite an experience. I also went with the 6000 series to see how the new AA features among other things handle flight simming.But I am just beginning to put this new "cockpit" together so I have no feedback on how it performs with FSX. I have not really flown FSX. Actually the build is really more for FS9 now and MS Flight later. But I am sure I will be tempted to load up FSX and see what all the talk is about, Clutch

[MattSC1 4]

Not a 6970, but I upgraded from a Gigabyte 1GB 460 GTX to an MSI 6870 Twin Frozr II and can't be happier, the image quality is much better than the 460gtx and performs very well, though I run at only 1280 x 1024 with a 19" Monitor not sure how it would fare at higher resolutions though.

[Arklight1 140]

Some here seem to be comparing the 6970 to the GTX 580 performace wise without taking anything else into account, and that is a mistake..

[thunderbolt294 0]

Some here seem to be comparing the 6970 to the GTX 580 performace wise without taking anything else into account, and that is a mistake..

+1 Agreed.

[Beener 0]

I'm curious about the cloud performance with the redesign in Core Architecture.

I'm also curious to hear the performance in heavy clouds compared to the 5870 before i upgrade.Norm.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

From my limited (and unscientific), use of my new AMD XFX 6970 I am seeing no frame rate hit in clouds. By that I mean nothing like I have read about where simmers drop down to single digits. In FS2004 I may drop from 130FPS down to 110 or 120. I sure it shaves off some in FSX as well. Normally in 30-50sFPS and drops a few as I mingle around in them. But no stutters and big drops. This is all still default setup.My issue is the shimmering or moire effect with buildings and autogen, trees. So I am reading up to see what others are doing. Seems like this is apparent whether it is an AMD or an Nvidia card? Still investigating...

[querido 0]

Thank you Clutch Cargo.Everyone has probably seen this great review of the 580: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/320755-480-gtx-vs-580-gtx/ . Near the end he gives some frame rates at some specific favorite locations.I'm hoping to see some numbers like that for the 6970 in the coming weeks.I've never run FSX. I'm building a computer for it now. It's for my wife. That is a true statement, but I'm guessing she'll let me play with it too. :-)