AMD Radeon HD 6950 & HD 6970 2GB

Although we generally shun automated gaming benchmarks, we do like to run at least one to see how our GPUs scale when used in a ‘timedemo’-type scenario. Futuremark’s 3DMark 11 is without question the best such test on the market, and it’s a joy to use, and watch. The folks at Futuremark are experts in what they do, and they really know how to push that hardware of yours to its limit.

Similar to a real game, 3DMark 11 offers many configuration options, although many (including us) prefer to stick to the profiles which include Performance, and Extreme. Depending on which one you choose, the graphic options are tweaked accordingly, as well as the resolution. As you’d expect, the better the profile, the more intensive the test. The benchmark doesn’t natively support 2560×1600, so to benchmark with that, we choose the Extreme profile and simply change the resolution.

Although the GTX 580 and GTX 570 either out-performed or matched the performance of the HD 6970 in our tests, 3DMark 11 shows that the HD 6970 performs almost just as well as the GTX 580. This is quite interesting, since it could prove that AMD’s cards are capable of much more. The potential problem? Drivers that aren’t quite refined enough, perhaps.