The new Radeon 6970 and 6950 get a dollar value, while we ponder where exactly they fit into the grander scheme of AMD's and NVIDIA's VGA efforts.
Once upon a time, video card pricing and even performance was pretty simple. Essentially, the higher the number, the greater the grunt, and the more expensive the silicon. However, AMD's latest Radeon releases turn conventional graphics card wisdom on its head.
So, the pricing. The new 6970 and 6950, launched today, will have an RRP of $419 and $339 respectively. That's in Aussie dollars, by the way. Incidentally, US pricing for the 6970 sits at $US369. Just so you know.
However, it's worth noting that the 6970 is not AMD's best performer. That crown still sits firmly on the head of the previous generation's 5970 - which is a dual-core monster that'll cost you around $200 more than the 6970.
That's the trick here - the 6970 sits at a much more attractive price-performance ratio than any other AMD card. It's not the top dog, but it's probably the better enthusiast choice. Our testing, which is still in progress, backs that up - be sure to check out issue 121 for the full details. As a teaser, it does double the tesselation performance over previous cards.
In terms of NVIDIA cards, this release still leaves the GTX 580 as the single fastest card on the market, but again, it's a level of performance that you'll pay through the nose for - and will be unlikely take full advantage of. And, to be honest, it's not that much faster than the 6970.
Though we only got the card yesterday... but so far, it's a sweet bit of kit.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012