MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition
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We have collected 5 reviews of the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition. Experts rate MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition 8.5/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition and MSI Graphics cards.
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MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Reviews
MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III 1GD5 Power Edition/OC
When AMD launched the HD 6000 series graphic cards, they left a gap in its lineup. The Barts GPU core that gave us the HD 6850 and HD 6870 occupies the $150-$200 price range while the Cayman gave us the HD 6950 and HD 6970, occupying the $300-$350 range. Up till recently, AMD had no card at the $250 price range. However, NVIDIA revamped the Fermi architecture with the GeForce 500 series, and launched the GTX 560 Ti to fill that slot. To compete against NVIDIA at this price point, AMD sliced the memory on the HD 6950 in half and launched the 1GB HD 6950, keeping the rest of the architecture the same. As a result, the 1GB version of the HD 6950 is virtually identical to the 2GB version, with the exception of the amount of memory. The card still carries the 1480 shader units, 88 texture units, and 32 ROPs. In fact, the reference 1GB card is also clocked at exactly the same speed as the 2GB card. So the question in everyone's mind is, does the extra 1GB of memory matter? Or would the extra clockspeed on the card have more impact on the performance? We want to find out as well, so let's dig in. We received the MSI's latest R6950 Twin Frozr III, a custom designed HD 6950 1GB card that features MSI's own Twin Frozr III cooler.
MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Review
The Radeon HD 6950 often gets overlooked, because it falls into an in-between netherworld of pricing. Typical cards cost anywhere from $240-$300, but most seem to hover around the $270 mark. This MSI overclocked card, built using the company's Twin Frozr III dual-fan cooler, sits at around $280. So high-end buyers overlook this price category and budget buyers feel like it's a little too much. In doing so, they're overlooking a speedy card. MSI took the Radeon HD 6950 GPU from the relatively staid 800MHz and pushed it to 850MHz. It also added 50MHz to the GDDR5 clock, running the frame buffer at 1,300MHz (versus the 1,250MHz reference). The card's new cooling system offers a switch-based fan profile, which lets you set it to quiet or cooler mode. We ran the card in its quiet mode. The cooler is built using a pair of high-blade-count fans, which seem to be the "in" thing in GPU cooling systems these days. MSI also supplies its Afterburner software, which lets you overclock the card to even higher speesureds if you're inclined. We've always maintained that increasing only the GPU core clock nets you minimal gains.
MSI R6950 Twin Frozer III Power Edition Review
Making a choice of which video card to buy is becoming more difficult with all the specialized models that feature better cooling solutions, improved build quality, and increased clock speeds — all to draw the buyer in. There are plenty of catchphrases used to entice the buyer to a certain product. This is more prevalent in big box retail shops, where the packaging is front and center, while in the e-tail world, the product is usually shown before the packaging. With all the flashy illustrations and wording, what really sells is the product and knowing how it will perform against the base model. What good is that awesome looking cooling solution if it's not functional or what about the higher clock speeds that show no appreciable change in performance. There has to be a benefit for the higher end product to be worth the investment. Well, when it comes to benefits, the MSI R6950 Twin Frozer III Power Edition (quite a mouthful) video card comes jam-packed with all the goodies in MSI's tool chest. First off, there is the Twin Frozer III cooling solution that uses MSI's new Propeller Blade technology to push 20% more air through the heat sink fin array. You get higher clock speeds to satisfy that requirement, along with improved build quality that includes MSI's Military Class technology, which uses Tantalum core Hi-C caps, Super Ferrite chokes, and solid aluminum capacitors, as well as a 6+2 Phase VRM circuit.
MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr III Review
It's been about six months since AMD launched both the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950, and at its given price-point, not much has changed since then. As it seems, the market is not going to be changing too much until later this year, either, when AMD plans to launch its Southern Island GPUs. One thing that has changed since the HD 6900 series launch is pricing. While the HD 6950 at launch retailed for $299, today many can be found for as low as $240, and with a mail-in rebate, that price could be dropped even further. MSI's Twin Frozr III edition retains that original $299 pricing, however, so our goal here is to see if its premium is justified. The full product name is 'Twin Frozr III Power Edition', which represents a couple of things. First, it utilizes a robust cooler that sets out to be as efficient as it is quiet. Yes, those claims are touted about pretty much every non-reference card, but as our testing has proved, we can see this card means it. "Power Edition" refers to the fact that the entire power circuitry has been taken into consideration for the ultimate in efficiency. It features voltage control, a 6+2 power phase design and improved stability. Great for the clocks given, and effective at handling your overclocks.
MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Review
Over the last couple of years, MSI has made a concerted effort to bolster their reputation as a premiere brand in the PC enthusiast space. MSI's motherboards, graphics cards, notebooks, and virtually every other high-profile product family in their repertoire has been revamped and updated in some way to differentiate them from the competition. Whether or not MSI's efforts have paid off across the board is a matter of debate, but there's little doubt that the company's \"Twin Frozr” line of graphics cards stand out from plain-vanilla reference cards. The product we'll be looking at today is the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III. As its name suggests, the R6950 Twin Frozr III is powered by AMD's Radeon HD 6950 GPU and the card sports MSI's third-generation Twin Frozr cooler. MSI did more with the R6950 Twin Frozr III than swap the reference cooler with one of their own design, however. The R6950 Twin Frozr III is outfitted with a custom PCB and has a couple of other interesting additions as well. Check out the specs below and then we'll move on to some of the more juicy details, benchmarks, and some overclocking action.
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MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition : (8.5/10)
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