Radeon HD 6970

Captain_Generic

So I'm looking to upgrade to a Radeon 6970, but I have absolutely no idea which one to go for. There seems to be 20 different variations and about €70-80 difference in prices from cheapest to most expensive. Anyone have any recommendations?

ShadowHearth

Captain_Generic wrote: »

So I'm looking to upgrade to a Radeon 6970, but I have absolutely no idea which one to go for. There seems to be 20 different variations and about €70-80 difference in prices from cheapest to most expensive. Anyone have any recommendations?

the only difference between them:

COOLER - some coolers are better, some worse, some louder, some are made to be as silent as possible
Overclocked or Stock versions - some manufacturers put theyr own overclocking out of the box.
Voltage restrictions - some manufacturers remove voltage restrictions, so you could play more with OCing.
SLI/CS 2-way, 3-way etc. - some manufacturers give different options.
accessories- so some manufacturers will add more cables or extras ( minor ), which is handy, but not worth extra thought.

there are no big difference between them and no point to go for most expensive one.

Captain_Generic

Yeah I've heard the stock cooler is pretty noisy so think I'll avoid that, thanks for the help!

Serephucus

Bear in mind though that 95% of the third-party coolers will dump that heat into your case. You'll need decent airflow to get rid of it, and even then, things are probably going to run a bit hotter. Not a big issue if you're not heavily OCing things, but just something to keep in mind.

Tea_Bag

if you think you'll be interested in water cooling in the future, you're looking for a reference PCB. this is very important.

another feature to look out for that wasn't mentioned already is a dual BIOS switch. great when you're into overclocking.

Serephucus

Tea_Bag wrote: »

if you think you'll be interested in water cooling in the future, you're looking for a reference PCB. this is very important.

Excellent point. Reference designs are often better fits for third-party air coolers as well. Less common these days, but some people still use them.

Tea_Bag

unfortunately im in the hindsite boat. well, kinda. I bought what I thought was reference 6950s, but HWVS shipped custom designed ones instead. it does state clearly in their terms that the image displayed, and the actual product may differ so not a leg to stand on. I looked seriously into water cooling them cause i now can't tolerate noise, but its pretty futile.

a small company in the USA seems to be the only ones to do parts for them. it gets worse cause theyre different revisions. one its a few mm longer than the other, and has more voltage regulators. not sure how that affects things much...

fwiw, theyre actually great coolers. loads of copper pipes and dual ('noisy') fan design means they only get to 69C under furmark on the hottest card, and that's in a warm room, tested on several days and with CPU under a burn test.

you can actually hear the case creaking under thermal expansion as it heats up to a small oven in there