Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Dirt 3 Edition Video Card Review

With the release of Dirt3, Sapphire brings out a revamped version of the loved HD 6950.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Sapphire
16 minutes & 18 seconds read time

Introduction and Package


Introduction

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Like the previous Dirt game, Dirt 2, the latest iteration from Codemasters, Dirt 3, is another big release for AMD. While maybe not quite as big as the second one which saw the implementation of DirectX 11, one would argue that this one could be even bigger because of the rave reviews the game has received, making it not only a game that looks good, but also a game that's good to play.

So with the release of another high profile game for AMD, we've seen their partners begin to bundle the game in the form of keys with their video cards. While most companies have just added the bundle to the package, Sapphire has instead chosen to create a "Dirt 3" Edition of the card to coincide with the release.

At first I thought the "Dirt 3" Edition was just going to be the same HD 6950 we've seen from Sapphire before, but with the inclusion of Dirt 3. Instead, though, we've got a new cooler on hand that looks like it will hit the spot.

Before we take a closer look at the card, though, let's first get into the package to see what exactly Sapphire is offering; then we'll look at the card, specifications and of course get into the benchmark side of things to see how the card performs.


Package

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Looking at the box, there's nothing too out of the ordinary. The main thing we notice is the inclusion of the Dirt 3 labeling. Inside the box we've got the normal extras like Sapphire Select Club, Quick Install Guide, Driver CD, DVI to VGA connector, CrossFire Bridge and two Molex to 6-Pin PCI-E power connectors.

Along with all this, we've of course got a copy of Dirt 3 in the form of a key that you add to Steam. The other stand out extra would be the HDMI cable that's included in the bundle which is always an appreciated addition.

Card & Specifications


Card Pictures

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Looking at the card, we've got a pretty mean looking setup going on. We've got a dual fan setup and looking below that you can see a total of five copper heat pipes coming out the bottom of the card.

It's a pretty good looking cooler and it will be interesting to see how it performs. We've tested a lot of HD 6950s and seen a wide range of coolers from companies. What exactly the dual fan option Sapphire has opted for can do will indeed be found out today.

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Taking a quick look around the card, we've got two 6-Pin PCI-E power connectors at the back of the card. Staying across the top but moving to the front, you can see we've got a single CrossFire connector. The inclusion of just a single Crossfire connector is a little unusual as we've always seen two present on the HD 6950. With a single connector you still of course get support for two cards in CrossFire, which is of course the biggest setup outside of one card.

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On the connectivity side of things, we've got a DisplayPort connector, HDMI and two DVI; one's Single-Link while the other is Dual-Link. This is a fairly standard setup when it comes to connectivity.

Before we move on to the specifications, I just want to quickly bring up a feature that Sapphire have implemented. Like the original batch of HD 6950s, the Sapphire Dirt 3 Edition carries with it a Dual BIOS setup. This isn't anything new, but we've seen recently that companies have chosen to remove the option on recent versions of the card.

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The problem is it's really hard to find the switch and if you read the Sapphire website it almost sounds like you switch the BIOS via their own OC software, TRIXX. You can see in the above picture where the switch is; the problem is we couldn't even get our finger in to change it. Instead you'd have to opt for something like a pen.

It's a funky little addition and nice to see that Sapphire have chosen to implement it on the latest HD 6950; it just seems they don't really want anyone to use it with the placement and to be honest, most people probably won't use it. None the less, it's there.


Specifications

With no OC labeling on the card, it comes as no surprise that out of the box we're just dealing with the reference clock speeds. That means our core comes in at 840MHz while our 2GB of GDDR5 comes in at 5000MHz QDR.

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We thought we'd give it a little bump in clock speeds. Using just the inbuilt Overdrive function seen in the Catalyst driver suite, we pushed the core up to 840MHz and the memory to 5300MHz QDR. This is the maximum OC offered in Overdrive, so it's pretty cool that you can just throw the sliders right to the end and be on your way.

Test System Setup and 3DMark 11


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We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASRock, Kingston, Mittoni, Noctua and Corsair.

We've got a few cards with us today including the MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr II OC, Sapphire HD 6970, MSI GTX 560 Ti OC and MSI GTX 570. Nothing else has really changed, so we won't delay and instead we'll just get stuck straight into it.

Let's get started!


3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/
Buy It Here




3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

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You can see with the extra few MHz we throw through the card we're able to get a nice little boost in performance. In the P preset we can see performance is similar to that of the reference HD 6970.

3DMark Vantage




Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/
Buy It Here




3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

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Looking at Vantage, we see a nice little boost in performance and you can see we're again looking at numbers that are similar to that of the more expensive HD 6970 in the performance preset.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark




Version and / or Patch Used: 2
Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com
Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//



New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

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Getting into something a bit heavier, we can see that we've got some nice performance from the card here and we've got no problems dealing with the MSI GTX 560 Ti. Considering NVIDIA tend to be stronger in tessellation tests, it's always nice to see an AMD card put up a good fight.

Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5


Resident Evil 5

Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark
Developer Homepage: www.residentevil.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.residentevil.com/




Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on September 18. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

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We've got some strong performance across the board when we fire up Resident Evil 5 and you can see we've got playable FPS at all resolutions with in game detail maxed out.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2


Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx
Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/




Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., released in 2009.

The game begins with Colonel David Crenshaw participating in a routine patrol mission in the Middle East. After halting an insurgent attack, a volley of missiles is fired at the Air Force base that Crenshaw was stationed at, with one of the missiles disabling Crenshaw's aircraft, resulting Crenshaw being in enemy captivity. A joint strike force composed of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and a Ghost Recon squad executes an operation to rescue Crenshaw. In Scotland, Royal Navy Pilot Colin Munro encounters an unidentified passenger aircraft that explodes from an on-board bomb when undergoing training exercise. In Russia, an air force squadron led by Colonel Denisov and Captain Dmitri Sokov engages separatist aircraft but is ordered to retreat from the region after numerous Russian military installations have been attacked.

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We can see across the board some great numbers from the HD 6950 under HAWX 2 with playable FPS at all resolutions. In some instances we do see performance a little behind the MSI HD 6950, but this isn't uncommon as quite often we can see overclocked cards perform a little worse under HAWX 2 for some reason.

Benchmarks - Mafia II


Mafia II

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.2kczech.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.mafia2game.com/
Buy It Here




Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State"), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game features a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There are around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

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We can see some strong performance under Mafia II, but we unfortunately fall just a little under that 60 FPS average we aim for at the highest resolution. Fortunately, we know there's still room for overclocking with Sapphire TRIXX and the voltage adjustment ability.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2


Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/




Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

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Lost Planet 2 sees some good performance, but we're below that 60 FPS average we like to achieve. We're close and just a small detail drop and some more MHz would get it, but just this second we're missing out.

Benchmarks - Aliens vs. Predator


Aliens vs. Predator

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/
Product Homepage: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/




Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1999 original PC game, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race/faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that, while separate in terms of individual plot and gameplay, form one overarching storyline.

Following the storyline of the campaign modes comes the multiplayer aspect of the game. In this Multiplayer section of the game, players face off in various different gametypes in various different ways.

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Looking at AvP performance you can see under this intensive game we've got some strong FPS at both 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050. You can see while the overclock we did isn't huge, it's enough to push that average up 4 FPS at 1920 x 1200 to get us to 60 FPS.

Benchmarks - Street Fighter IV


Street Fighter IV

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.streetfighter.com/




While Street Fighter IV features models and backgrounds rendered in 3D, the gameplay remains on a traditional 2D plane, with the camera having freedom to move in 3D at certain times during fights, for dramatic effect. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II. A new system called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attack" for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.

All the characters and environments in Street Fighter IV are rendered as 3D models with polygons, similar to the Street Fighter EX sub-series Capcom produced with Arika. However, there are a couple of key differences. Art director and character designer Daigo Ikeno, who previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, opted for non-photorealistic rendering to give them a hand-drawn look, with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays during the fights.

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Strong FPS across the board under SF IV which comes as no surprise. Always good to see just how these kind of cards go on older less intensive games; it gives us a good idea of how games like Counter Strike would run.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
Buy It Here




The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

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You can see under Far Cry 2 we've got some great FPS and gaming at any resolution here just wouldn't be a problem at all.

Benchmarks - Batman Arkham Asylum


Batman Arkham Asylum

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/





Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum - Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.

Using a wide range of Batman's gadgets and abilities, players will become the invisible predator and attempt to foil The Joker's demented scheme.
Batman: Arkham Asylum features an original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author and five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini, whose credits include Lost season one and Batman: The Animated Series.

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Like Far Cry 2 we can see top to bottom performance is strong and you're not going to have any problems gaming at any resolution here with the HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition from Sapphire.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF


High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.

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Performance is a little all over the place when we turn AA on. We can see under older games like SF IV and Far Cry 2 performance is strong. Moving to Mafia II we're close to that 60 FPS average, but not quite there; we'd love those couple of extra FPS. Under something really intensive like Aliens vs Predator we're a good chunk behind where we want to be.

Temperature Test


Temperature Tests



The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

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Looking at the heat, you can see the card performs extremely strong. Even with our little overclock it's the coolest running HD 6950 coming in at 56c under load.

Sound Test


Sound Tests



Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

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The good news is that the heat isn't coming at the cost of extra noise; at just over 56dB the Sapphire HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition card is extremely quiet.

Power Consumption Tests






Using our new PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

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At a bit over 300 watt, power draw lines up exactly where you'd expect it to, coming in at around similar levels to other HD 6950 cards we've looked at.

Total Performance Rating (TPR)


Total Performance Rating

The TPR graph is a combination of all our benchmarks in which NVIDIA and AMD are on an even playing field.

The TPR number is a combination of:

3DMark 11, Heaven Benchmark V2, Resident Evil 5, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2, Mafia 2 (PhysX Off), Lost Planet 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Street Fighter IV, Far Cry 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum (PhysX Off) and our four High Quality tests which include Mafia 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Street Fighter IV and Far Cry 2.

All of the benchmark results achieved are then combined into a single number. As this graph will grow over time and cards won't be re-tested, next to each model you'll find the driver version that was used when the card was benchmarked.

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Performance on a whole is good and performs as you'd expect with the slight overclock we gave the card using the AMD Overdrive feature.

Total Value Rating (TVR)


Total Value Rating

The TVR graph is the TPR score divided by the price of the video card. The price of the video card is based on the list price of the model on Newegg.com. In the event the card isn't listed, it will be based on the U.S. $ MSRP given to us by the manufacturer.

In the event we can't source a price from either, the product will not receive a TVR rating. As with our TPR graph, the amount of video cards on the list will grow over time and the price of the model won't change from what it was when first reviewed. For this reason the U.S. $ price that the card is based off will be included next to the name of the model.

In the event you want to find the TVR rating yourself based on the current price, all you have to do is simply divide the TPR number by the list price.

TVR numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number; 100.3 will be 100; 100.8 will be 101 and 100.5 will be rounded down to 100.

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Overall value on the Sapphire HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition is strong. Priced at $269 US, it's good from a performance stand point. When you throw in the HDMI cable and Dirt 3, though, it's even more attractive.

Final Thoughts




I find myself pleasantly surprised with what Sapphire is offering here today. For starters, when I got the card I didn't even think I'd be reviewing it because it was going to be nothing more than a HD 6950 we've tested with Dirt 3 included. Checking out the Sapphire website, though, it was nice to see that the model had something different going on outside of just the extra bundle. Instead Sapphire had opted to install a new cooler on the card.

It would've been nice to see Sapphire overclock the card a little out of the box just to make it a bit more interesting, but more so because of the quality of the cooler. Not only does the card run extremely cool, but it runs extremely quiet, and that's with our slight little overclock. For that reason it would've been nice to see Sapphire bump the clocks up a little.

Outside of the cooler, Sapphire has managed to put a good bundle together with the inclusion of Dirt 3 via a voucher along with a full size HDMI cable. Throw in the quality of the cooler and you've got a really nice HD 6950.

While the HD 6950 has been around for a while now, we're seeing the card more and more here with companies to really begin to mix it up. While it would've been nice to see Sapphire do something with the clock speeds, overclocking yourself is extremely easy and you've of course got the option to use their own Overclocking software, TRIXX.

The only thing we don't really like is the way Sapphire have implemented the Dual BIOS switch. This isn't something new, but it's something we've seen companies pull away from with recent versions of their cards. Sapphire in this case has chosen to keep the option here, but the button is in a really awkward position and actually quite hard to find.

In the end, though, if you're on the lookout for a HD 6950, the Sapphire Dirt 3 Edition at $269.99 US is a good buy. You've got a strong cooler and a nice bundle that includes a really good game. Overclock a little yourself and you've got a really good HD 6950 on your hands. As usual, Sapphire does a good job of not disappointing.

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Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

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