Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The Radeon HD 6950 may lose out in the DirectX 10 benchmarks, but the card's performance at DirectX 11, especially at 2560x1600, is thoroughly impressive.
The fact it is so close to its big brother, the Radeon HD 6970, in performance and architectural terms means that there's little reason to go for the more expensive Cayman card.
We'll check out the overclocking performance soon too, but I would expect that gap to be very quickly closed down.
DirectX 11 Tessellation performance
Heaven: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 19.5
HD 6970 – 21.7
GTX 570 – 22
DirectX 11 Gaming performance
Metro 2033: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 12
HD 6970 – 13
GTX 570 – 3
DiRT 2: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 51
HD 6970 – 55
GTX 570 – 64
Lost Planet 2: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 23
HD 6970 – 25
GTX 570 – 32
Aliens v. Predator: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 22
HD 6970 – 25
GTX 570 – 22
DirectX 10 gaming performance
Just Cause 2: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 27
HD 6970 – 30
GTX 570 - 30
Crysis Warhead: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 18
HD 6970 – 20
GTX 570 – 25
Far Cry 2: FPS – higher is better
HD 6950 – 60
HD 6970 – 65
GTX 570 – 66
