Print
When AMD launched the Radeon 6800 series back in October, we suggested that some people might be confused by the naming scheme. The Radeon HD 6870 & 6850, code-named Barts, were actually midrange GPUs, and not replacements for AMD’s high end Radeon HD 5870.
Now AMD is releasing its high end GPU, code-named Cayman, in two versions. The high end, which AMD calling its “enthusiast” GPU is the Radeon HD 6970, while the Radeon HD 6950 slots into a space between the 6870 and the 6970. What’s more, the HD 6870 doesn’t replace the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970. If all that seems once again confusing, it probably is. It’s probably best just to consider AMD’s current naming scheme as unrelated to its old one, despite similarities.
Cayman is based on the same general architecture as Barts, but is an entirely different chip, with features and tweaks all its own. Let’s take a look at some of the key features of the new GPU.
Twin graphics engines essentially double throughput over the 6870.
The Cayman core has been streamlined into a VLIW4 engine, which simplifies scheduling and improves space usage on the chip.
GPU compute improvements should make Cayman a better general purpose processor.
Given the additional rendering horsepower, AMD is implementing new anti-aliasing modes into their Catalyst Control Center. These AA modes work with all 6000 series cards.
Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing
The first is something AMD is calling “Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing” or EQAA. This is similar in concept to Nvidia’s Coverage Sample Anti-Aliasing (CSAA). The new EQAA modes use up to 16 coverage samples per pixel, with the number of colors and samples independently controllable. The net result is better quality within the same memory envelope. EQAA is compatible with other forms of AA supported by AMD.
AMD’s EQAA supports customizable color and coverage samples within a pixel.
EQAA can be enabled within the Catalyst Control Panel to increase image quality with whatever existing AA mode that’s set.
Enabling EQAA within Catalyst Control Panel.
Using EQAA results in a relatively minimal performance hit; our experience in quick testing resulted in less than a 5% difference with 4xAA enabled, and 4xAA plus EQAA.
Morpohological Anti-Aliasing
This is a different beast altogether. MAA is a postprocessing technique which DirectCompute to deliver full-scene anti-aliasing. It’s similar to edge AA in concept, but can detect all edges and works with DX9 through DX11. It even works with games that normally don’t support AA.
The cool thing about MAA is that it works even with transparency.
Currently, morphological AA is enabled in the Catalyst Control Center. Future games may support it. If you enable MAA, you’ll see a performance hit of about 10-20% if you’re using it simultaneously with 4x anti-aliasing. But you’ll see image quality on par with supersampling AA, with better performance than supersampling.
Morphological AA delivers image quality similar to supersampling, but without the performance hit of supersampling.
One of the issues that GPU companies wrestle with is power usage at full throttle. The problem is that some GPU loads, like Furmark, can hammer a graphics card, and the card needs to be designed to deliver the power and cooling levels needed for such loads. But Furmark, Perlin Noise and other artificial benchmarks can impose a greater load on a GPU than most games.
Even within a game, there are only brief periods when the GPU throttles up to maximum performance; most of the time, it’s running at less than full throttle. What that means is that cards are generally overengineered to manage thermal and power loads that really occur for brief intervals.
To manage those loads, AMD is building in a feature called PowerTune – something that AMD’s David Baumann calls “inverse Turbo.” The GPU constrains power usage to a set maximum level, not allowing the chip to run at higher power levels. That means that momentary peak performance levels may be constrained slightly. However, that also means the graphics card can be shipped supporting higher normal clock speeds.
AMD will also allow users to control the amount of power draw (up to plus or minus 20%) in order to either minimize power and noise or maximize performance. These controls will be built into the AMD Overdrive section of the Catalyst Control Center. Users can then set the balance between maximum thermal power and performance.
AMD will be shipping in two versions, the AMD Radeon HD 6970 and the HD 6950. We’re including the feature set for the Radeon HD 6870 as a base reference point.
| Features | Radeon HD 6870 | Radeon HD 6950 | Radeon HD 6970 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Clock | 900MHz | 800MHz | 880MHz |
| GDDR5 Memory Clock | 1050MHz | 1250MHz | 1375MHz |
| Stream Processors | 1120 | 1408 | 1536 |
| Texture Units | 56 | 88 | 96 |
| GDDR5 Frame Buffer | 1GB | 2GB | 2GB |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| Maximum Power | 151W | 200W | 250W |
| Idle Power | 19W | 20W | 20W |
| Approx. Price | $250 | $319 | $369 |
The Radeon HD 6970 is aimed at the same market segment as the recently released Nvidia GTX 570, while the Radeon HD 6950 occupies the price point currently held by the GTX 470, but the GTX 470 is being phased out.
Keep reading for the good stuff: All the benchmarks you can take.
Comments are closed on this article
drcrazyrich
December 17, 2010 at 7:54am
I like the fact compition brings out improvements !! wow did Nvidia come out swinging :) not the new ATI cards are bad but there lack of performance could make one think they shoulda waited til they had something that kicks ass accordngly !! SEEMS LIKE A WAIST OF DEVELOPMENT :(
Ceadderman
December 22, 2010 at 2:35am
The 500 series of cards are updated versions of the 400 series. That means that what didn't work on the 400 series, NVidia went back at and fixed. They are now what they were supposed to be when those cards were launched. Of course it looks like AMD didn't achieve better results. Kinda hard to compete against a card that has been reworked to get their intended results and have similar results with new tech based on the old format. Unless your old format was not what it was supposed to be. The fact that AMD came out with this series and still give NVidia a workout says a lot. Let's see what NVidia does now, that Intel has pulled their contract.
I'm not being a jerk, just saying that AMD did better in this instance. Though their series map could use a redesign to have a linear ranking. The fact that the series is all over the map, that's something I don't like. If I don't know which GPU to purchase from their lineup is the Enthusiast unit, that would directly influence where I spend my dollars. Like many of you I'd imagine. If you are looking through a parts catalog and trying to decipher which model is the one you're looking for that can get pretty tedious for the A.D.D. crowd.
Axel011
December 15, 2010 at 6:39pm
Hey ATI....why don't you focus on drivers and driver support for a change? Than after that you can work on your customer support.....this alone would bring you a very long way to surpassing Nvidia. ATI's shotty drivers and all the issues I've had with them alone are enough to make me never buy their cards. In fact I can't stand ATI cards.....the know how to put hardware on a board...but that's where there ability stops.
Ceadderman
December 22, 2010 at 2:48am
Since you cannot stand ATI, then you missed these two facts...
Fact 1) ATi no longer exists. AMD purchased that company and decided that AMD has better street cred than ATi. The company rebranded under AMD.
Fact 2)AMD updated the drivers and included a driver for multi thread CPUs'. So your GPU gets a boost from your CPU. Which really makes a difference. How much? Well lets' just say my brother averaged a 30% score increase from Unigine Heaven because of it. This is on an Asus Motherboard with onboard Video and Sound with zero peripheral cards to aid in the boost. Stock everything.
Now I won't say this fixed everything but the increase was definitely noticeable.
You're right that ATi drivers sucked. But AMD has addressed this across the board.
I have the 5770 Juniper XT on a Crosshair IV with 955 BE C3, and I cannot wait until I am back up and able to update my drivers to see what I post. I'd hazard to guess that I see at least similar increases from my system as a result.
sweetjeebus
December 15, 2010 at 3:32pm
The performance gain of the new 6970 is pretty pathetic for a new architecture. This is the kind of performance gain we saw when going from a 4870 to a 4890 a while back. Maybe they should rename it the 5890...lol. I will be sticking with my 5870 for now. This is bad news for AMD. I wish they could compete in the true highend market, but it looks like their best effort is only worthy of a upper mid-range nod. At least they weren't dumb enough to price it too high. Still, they should have matched the price of the 570, which is its true competition. If I didn't have my 5870, I would probably have went Nvidia if I needed a card right now.
Keith E. Whisman
December 16, 2010 at 7:16am
The Nvidia 570 is an awesome card that even kills off the highend AMD dual gpu cards in some benchmarks. The Geforce 570GTX is the card to have right now for SLI work.
Ceadderman
December 22, 2010 at 2:59am
So we're clear on this, SLI is strictly NVidia. So what you're saying is that the GTX570 is the card to have right now for NVidia work. Right? lol
Not being a fanboi here. Just pointing out the obvious gaff in your statement.
Thing is however, AMD kicks NVidia hienie all day where multi monitors are concerned.
NVidia has PhysX but there aren't a lot of PhysX intensive games and apps that require an NVidia card.
Now I'm not saying to run out and get an AMD card. In fact if you're already an ATi owner I wouldn't rush out to buy the new series unless you have to replace what is already working. Cause quite honestly you don't need one since the 5*** series cards are not much different than the 6*** series cards. If you want a better increase, purchase another 5*** series card that you can XFire with and pair the two. Viola better performance for less money and no need to purchase 3D equipment.
Obviously this last bit is not directed toward you since you obviously have the NVidia bug. lol
THE_REAL_MAVERICK
December 15, 2010 at 2:52pm
AMD is smart. They are producing really good cards at cheap prices. Especially considering the performance that these cards are getting for the watts they put out. Great price/performance on their behalf. I have AMD now, and wont go back to Nvidia untill they bring prices and their power consumption down. Gotta say its good to have AMD back when they were producing horrid cards a few years ago. Since the 4xxx series they are making some headway. Competition is good!~
Keith E. Whisman
December 15, 2010 at 2:20pm
AMD just smiles and suggests that you just ignore the similarities between the new parts names and the previous generation high end parts names. I don't here anyone screaming foul, but if it were Intel, man the world would be coming to an end. You would here people making legal fraud cases against Intel. You would see people starting class action lawsuits against Intel. You would see prosecutors bring unethical and fraudulent business, marketing, and advertising charges against Intel if it were Intel. So why isn't anyone screaming at AMD?
Jims45wow
January 17, 2011 at 3:24pm
Only if they lie about the specs or price. Did you see any suits against GM for calling the same basic car by 2 different names, either within or without the Chevy brand? I expect there's a lot more distinction between the 5xxx and 6xxx than between Firebird and Camaro, or Nova and Chevelle (, if you think the brand name matters).
JohnP
December 15, 2010 at 12:09pm
I went at 1st with a ATI 5870 when it first came out and then a GTX 580 when it appeared. I have to mod my CoolerMaster Storm scout case's drive bay (pop a couple of rivets off) to get the cards to fit. I have been using a CoolerMaster 750 watt power supply for both and it powers everything fine. Somehow I managed to get a good card (at full price mind) in both cases. The GTX 580 really is a good card, little noise (it's there but just more of a rattle than a whine) and needed with my 27 inch high end Dell monitor.My sons computers have a smaller monitor so the AMD card works fine.
ATI/AMD just cnnot get a break. They are usually behind the curve in benchmarks for both their CPUs and graphics cards so they have to price their expensive stuff a lot lower to compete. Of course, 99% of the business is with inexpensive laptops and desktops so perhaps they are right to continue this strategy.
AETAaAS
December 15, 2010 at 11:56am
Im feeling quite disappointed in these new cards. I guess warning bells should have been ringing in my head when the 6870 failed to push beyond its 5870 namesake.
But I held a little hope that the 6970 would have been something amazing.
JohnP
December 15, 2010 at 12:11pm
This explains the delay AMD had with releasing their card. They were tweaking their drivers to get as much oomph out of benchmarks so they would not be so far behind NVivia's 580...
Baer
December 15, 2010 at 11:47am
This is about more than benchmarks. Let's say that you want to run three monitors and you also do not want to go larger than a 1000 Wt PSU. If, as I am assuming, the AMD cards still let you connect three monitors without having to install two cards in X-fire that is a big advantage. If the upcomming dual GPU card adds to the horsepower allowing good performance with three monitors that adds to this specific advantage. I have always tended to favor NVIDIA, I am still running GTX 285's but having to use two cards in SLI in order to connect three monitors is a disadvantage IMHO, not only for the cost and space issue but mainly due to the iffy overhead left on a 1000 Wt PSU.
PSU's can not contunue to keep getting much bigger unless we decide to go to 20 AMP wall outlets instead of the typical 15 AMP.
Am I missing something? I intend to talk to both AMD and NVIDIA about this issue at CES.
CENTURION_L77
December 15, 2010 at 1:43am
How do you reconcile these two statements:
"AMD tries to play catch-up to Nvidia on performance, but STICKS to its EFFICIENCY mantra with the new Radeon 6900 series GPUs"
and
"AMD’s approach of simply “doubling everything” scores some significant performance gains over the HD 6800 series, but seems like an uncharacteristically BRUTE-FORCE approach for a company that’s been priding itself on its focus on EFFICIENCY"
???
Both statements are from your article. Both statements make reference to the efficiency of the HD 6900. Yet they contradict each other. I think MaximumPC clearly shows its bias here. Both statements are used to bash AMD, yet what's pathetic is that you can't do so with consistency and without contradicting yourself. I've seen this many times on here now. Anything "Nvidia" you guys get on your knees. Anything "AMD" you get out your clipboard and red pencil and start trying to find faults. Personally, I think this card isn't all that. But I wouldn't go up to someone and make the above statements pretending I wasn't being biased.
This BS is one of the reasons I've stopped visiting your site. Because I saw an e-mail from XFX in my inbox I decided to see what else I could find about these cards and came to your website amongst others. You want to learn how to review a product? Read the review of the 6970 on Benchmarkreviews.com and try to learn something. Maybe you can go back to what you were a long time ago, MaximumPC.
loyd
December 15, 2010 at 10:32am
I don't have a problem with saying that.
AMD is trying to pursue two contradictory goals: efficiency and raw performance. On the one hand, they double up on shader engines, which is a brute force architectural technique. On the other hand, they implement their PowerTune technology, which improves efficiency. And the VLIW4 architecture allowed them to improve performance per millimeter squared, which allows them to build the chip on fewer transistors and a smaller die size.
filip007
December 16, 2010 at 3:25am
Intel is doing the same to CPU, so the best combo is still Intel and Radeon as low power point of view.
chronium
December 15, 2010 at 6:49am
Did you bother reading the reviews on Benchmarkreviews? They say pretty much the exact same thing.
Kethsar
December 14, 2010 at 11:55pm
As expected of the GTX 580. At least, you would hope it to have power for its energy draw. Even so, I was expecting a closer call on the performance of the HD 6970 to the GTX 580. Either way, still quite amazing. I cant wait to see the next Nvidia chipset, assuming they do a chipset at all.
