[Tested and Burned] SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Review

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Review Index

• 1 – Meet with SAPPHIRE’s Radeon HD 6970
• 2 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Features
• 3 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 OpenGL performances
• 4 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Direct3D performances
• 5 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Gaming performances
• 6 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 DirectCompute performances
• 7 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Power consumption and overclocking
• 8 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970: Conclusion and Misc Links

5 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Game Performances

This review adds a new part: gaming performance. Synthetic benchmark are cool (from a developer point of view) but many readers are not developers and then wish to see benchmarks based on real video games. I mainly used benchmarks included in game demos and then, dear readers, if you know other game demos that include a benchmark, just let me know.

5.1 Crysis (DirectX 10)

I used the integrated GPU benchmark (64-bit) option provided with Crysis demo.

Settings: default.

Results: Average FPS for the TimeDemo Run 0.

74.46 FPS – Sapphire HD 6970

73.60 FPS – Sapphire HD 6870

73.55 FPS – Radeon HD 5870

69.37 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SC

69.34 FPS – GeForce GTX 480

65.20 FPS – MSI N460GTX Cyclone

5.2 DiRT 2 (DirectX 11)

I used the benchmarking option provided with DiRT2 demo.

Settings: 1920×1080, 4X MSAA.

151.4 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SC

121.6 FPS – GeForce GTX 480

94.26 FPS – Sapphire HD 6970

88.74 FPS – MSI N460GTX Cyclone

88.14 FPS – Radeon HD 5870

85.54 FPS – Sapphire HD 6870

5.3 Resident Evil 5 (DirectX 10)

I used the benchmarking option (DX10 version) provided with Resident Evil 5 demo.

Settings: 1920×1080. 4XMSAA

118.0 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SC

116.6 FPS – GeForce GTX 480

115.6 FPS – Sapphire HD 6970

104.5 FPS – Radeon HD 5870

99.9 FPS – Sapphire HD 6870

86.4 FPS – MSI N460GTX Cyclone

5.4 Aliens vs Predator (AvP) Benchmark (DirectX 11)

Aliens vs Predator or AvP is a Direct3D 11 benchmark with a touch of tessellation. See here for more details:
AvP DX11 Tessellation Battle: GTX 480 vs GTX 470 vs HD 5870 vs HD 5770.

Settings: Resolution: 1920 x 1080, Texture Quality: 2, Shadow Quality: 3, Anisotropic Filtering: 16, SSAO: ON, Vertical Sync: OFF
DX11 Tessellation: ON, DX11 Advanced Shadows: ON, DX11 MSAA Samples: 1.

71.6 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SC

64.3 FPS – Sapphire HD 6970

58.3 FPS – GeForce GTX 480

58.2 FPS – Radeon HD 5870

47.4 FPS – Sapphire HD 6870

37 FPS – MSI N460GTX Cyclone

5.5 Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11)

Lost Planet 2 has been used for the test.

Settings: 1920×1080 fullscreen, test A.

79.9 FPS – ASUS ENGTX580

75.7 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SC

60.2 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 480

48.8 FPS – MSI GeForce GTX 470

47.8 FPS – Sapphire Radeon HD 6970

42.3 FPS – Sapphire Radeon HD 6870

39 FPS – ASUS EAH6870

38 FPS – MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC

37.3 FPS – ATI Radeon HD 5870

23 FPS – MSI R5770 Hawk

5.6 Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 (DirectX 11)

HAWX2 is a Direct3D 11 benchmark, promoted by NVIDIA, with tessellation.

Settings: 1920×1080, tessellation ON, AA: 4X

Avg FPS: 185 – EVGA GTX 580 SC

Avg FPS: 185 – ASUS ENGTX580

Avg FPS: 181 – EVGA GTX 480

Avg FPS: 137 – Sapphire Radeon HD 6970

Avg FPS: 137 – ASUS EAH6870

Avg FPS: 136 – ATI Radeon HD 5870

Avg FPS: 132 – Sapphire Radeon HD 6870

Avg FPS: 108 – MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 OC

Avg FPS: 98 – MSI R5770 Hawk

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Review Index

• 1 – Meet with SAPPHIRE’s Radeon HD 6970
• 2 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Features
• 3 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 OpenGL performances
• 4 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Direct3D performances
• 5 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Gaming performances
• 6 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 DirectCompute performances
• 7 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970 Power consumption and overclocking
• 8 – SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6970: Conclusion and Misc Links