AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB Review

Written by Harry Butler

February 11, 2011 | 11:48

Tags: #6950 #black-ops #cod #speed #temp #temperature #thermal

Companies: #amd

AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB Specifications

As its name might suggest, the Radeon HD 6950 1GB is the exact same card as its more heavily endowed Radeon HD 6950 2GB. The only difference is that the 1GB card uses eight half-density 128MB GDDR5 memory chips rather than the eight 256MB modules found on the 2GB variant.

As the only change is the density of the memory modules, the memory speed and the card’s total memory bandwidth remains the same: the 5GHz (effective) GDDR5 memory still provides 160GB/sec of memory bandwidth via the 256-bit interface. The remaining specifications are also the same, with the Caymen GPU running at 800MHz. The GPU also packs the same 22 stream processor clusters (SIMD Engines in AMDese) giving the HD 6950 1GB a total of 1,408 stream processors.

Remember that the Caymen GPU of the HD 6900-series uses a VLIW4 structure, where stream processors are arranged in banks of four, resulting in 64 stream processors per SIMD Engine rather than the 80 per SIMD Engine of the HD 6800-series and the entire HD 5000-series. The stream processors of the Caymen GPU are more capable than those of previous designs, so this design does deliver more performance.

*AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB Review AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB Specifications
Click to enlarge

Popping the card’s cooler off reveals the lower density memory modules really are the only difference: the PCB of our review sample is identical to that of a standard HD 6950 2GB card, except for the colour. This means that the card still measures in at a hefty 10.5in long, but with the two PCI-E 6-pin power connectors positioned on the side of the card so that it should fit in most cases.

The reference cooler is the same dual slot, black box design, with a large radial fan to blow air through the card’s aluminium heatsink and out the back of the card. A contact plate built into the cooler provides cooling for both the memory and the 4+1-phase power circuitry. However, we understand that most HD 6950 1GB cards will use custom coolers so the cooling and noise will vary.

 ATI Radeon HD 6950 1GBATI Radeon HD 6950 2GBATI Radeon HD 6970 2GBNvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GBNvidia GeForce GTX 570 1.5GB
GPU
CodenameCayman ProCayman ProCayman XTGF114GF110
Frequency800MHz800MHz880MHz820MHz732MHz
Stream Processors1,408 (800MHz)1,408 (800MHz)1,536 (880MHz)384 (1,640MHz)480 (1,464MHz)
Layout22 SIMD Engines22 SIMD Engines24 SIMD Engines8 SMs, 2GPCs15 SMs, 4 GPCs
Rasterisers22224
Tesselation Units222815
Texture Units8888966460
ROPs3232323240
Transistors2.6bn2.6bn3.6bn1.95bn3bn
SizeUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown
Process40nm40nm40nm40nm40nm
Memory
Amount1GB GDDR52GB GDDR52GB GDDR51GB GDDR51,280MB GDDR5
Frequency1.25GHz (5GHz effective)1.25GHz (5GHz effective)1.375GHz (5.5GHz effective)1GHz (4GHz effective)950MHz (3.8GHz effective)
Interface256-bit256-bit256-bit256-bit320-bit
Bandwidth160GB/sec160GB/sec176GB/sec128GB/sec152GB/sec
Card Specifications
Power Connectors2 x 6-pin PCI-E2 x 6-pin PCI-E1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin2 x 6-pin PCI-E2 x 6-pin PCI-E
Maximum Power Draw225W225W250W180219W
Idle Power DrawUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknown
Recommended PSUUnknownUnknownUnknown500W550W
Typical Street Price£210£240£310£199£300

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