It's not the performance king, that's for sure. A quick glance show IMO that the price is right, the performance is right, and the featureset is right.

Hopefully new drivers will fix all the apparent goofy benchmarketeering. That and that new Power management feature is being abused so no one can be trusted.

Some sites used 10.10's (horrible), some used 10.11's (better), if sites used 10.12 or newer I'm sure the numbers would be a lot better overall.

Smurfing the wibbly wobbly web shows the price is about equal to a 570, hopefully it will drop once the insanity has ended.

Waiting to see what the MB price will be...

Now for reviews (have not read any yet):
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3734/sapphire_radeon_hd_6950_2gb_video_card/index.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/12/14/amd_radeon_hd_6970_6950_video_card_review
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/38899-amd-radeon-hd-6970-hd-6950-review-13.html
http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=1051

Goofy powerplay as mentioned above...

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ew-28.html

meh

maybe I'll find a second 5850, they at least fit in my case.

pricing is odd, MSRP is $369, I'm seeing them up over $500

I really only care if eyefinity with the 2GB VRAM works better. lol @ sites that show 1680x1050 scores and treat them seriously.

So I guess I should order a 6970 instead of 6870.. The DX11 performance of these cards isn't that impressive compared to NVidia's offerings but man they smoke the 68xx's pretty good.

So if you already have a 5870 is it worth upgrading to a 6970?

The 6970 fails against the Nvidia 580. And this is suppose to be the flagship card for AMD...FAIL

Nope. Keep what ya got man.

Not sure how it's a fail... beats the 580 in some games, gets beat in others.... but it's $150 cheaper... seems like a win to me. I'd say they are going to sell craploads.

Never was meant to compete with the 580. The 5970 is still the flagship card until the 6990 comes out.

Agreed. On par with performance and $150 cheaper is definitely not a fail.

I aint upgrading video until I play a game that my card stuggles with - savin coin for an ssd me thinks!

my opinion is that it's not worth it to upgrade unless you need to or there's some great change (features, not just a little performance) that is really cool. and that applies to everything.
that said, when i'm done college and get a decent job i'll be building some kind of ridiculous computer that i really don't need.

Unless there is a drop in prices, I think I'll go with a 6950, and then another for crossfire since it seems to actually work properly with the newer cards.

Hmmm, I guess it's time, wonder what I can get for my 5850. I'd like at least $250 for it since it's still under warranty and I have all the parts that came with it.

Or should I wait and save for a 6990?

I just don't know. What I do know is that I want the latest and greatest amd card.

EDIT: I figure Steve-O, Hali-Newf and I have probably paid off one of ATI/AMD's technicians salaries over the last few years, maybe they should send us a free 69xx card?? Just a thought lol.

I'm seeing used 5870's go for only $200 Brand new 5850's are under $250 now if you look.