PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Pros: Unlocked to 6970 and OC'ed to 950Mhz with no issues after over a month of constant gaming. 2GB of RAM is amazing for 2560x1600 resolution! Isn't loud at all either!

Cons: It doesn't come with a twin for crossfire :)

Other Thoughts: Wonderful cards, matches GeForce performance without drawing as much power and having more VRAM for higher resolution. A Must Have.

Pros: I purchased two of these 6950's and they both were able to unlock to 6970's with ease.

ATI's drivers are stable, regardless of their past history.

Card is big, beautiful, and quite. (just how I like my women)

I'm lovin' these PowerColor cards at the moment.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: I may give a more detailed video review later.

Pros: Quiet, Cool (43c idle, 67c full load), Powerful (upgraded from 8800gt) giving 50% increase in FPS on all games over my old card. This version can be flashed to 6970 specs, haven't done so myself.

Cons: Takes increased power, also had to upgrade my PSU from 450w to 800w, so upgrade can get pricy.

Other Thoughts: My system: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and 6GB Ram.

Pros: Fast
Unlocks! HD6970 Performance for HD6950 price.

Excellent card for the money. I unlocked mine to 6970 shaders and run it at 925/1375 (950 is semi-stable, but I refuse to up the voltage) and I can keep the temps to a max of 71c under furmark stress test by using a custom fan profile.

This card is amazing. The performance for the price makes it the best deal at the moment IMO. If I didn't have a revodrive sitting in my second PCI-E slot I'd have bought another for future-proofing.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: Even if the card didn't unlock to full 6970 shaders and clocks it would still be worth the price. Mine OC's like a beast. Also works GREAT with my iZ3D monitor and my TV (HL67A750.. older 3D capable but works!)

Pros: Powerful card, easily unlocked to 6970-level shaders. Got a great deal assuming a no-hassle rebate.

Cons: The fan. My last two gaming-type video cards have been getting progressively quieter so I was disappointed to hear the annoying high-pitched tone coming out of this card at idle. I did not get the impression from reviews that this reference design cooler had an issue, so I'm not sure if this was a poor component selection by Powercolor that is causing the issue.

Pros: Running shader unlock only @ 900/1375. Probably could get higher, but why? $230 w/MIR

Cons: BIG. HUGE CARD. Only about 1/2 inch of room left to fit in an Antec 900.

Other Thoughts: Mine seems to stay around 72c under load. Not any lounder than my 250 GTS in SLI.

Pros: -Plays Bad Company 2 with all settings maxed.
-No artifact that I previously saw with my other card (gTX 285)
-Was easily able to unlock to 6970
-Set up was easy

Cons: -Can run hot (I'll explain this in other thoughts)

Other Thoughts: Overall, I am very satisfied with this purchase.
1) I got the card for $230 from Newegg with Rebate. Can't beat that.
2) I unlocked to 6970 and pushed the power control settings up 10%
3) Can run hot, but EASILY fixable. I noticed that with my settings (6970 bios + increased power control) the card doesn't know how to kick up the fan under high load. Mine never goes above 37%. But there is an easy solution. Under Catalyst Control Center, I manually set the fan at 50%. It makes it kind of loud (not nearly as loud as 100%), but I never go over 70 degrees while playing. I've got the fan down to 45% and still have no problems. When I'm ready to play, I kick the fan up; when I'm done, I turn it on auto.

I'm very satisfied with my price to performance ratio. Sad that Newegg has this item deactivated

Pros: No Problems at all, plug and play
Easily unlocked to a 6970,
Pricing at 260 then 30 dollar rebate
how can you lose with this deal?
Card runs around 70 degrees when gaming even with the bump up to the 6970

Cons: NOT HAVING IT SOONER

Other Thoughts: You can trust powercolor, they are reputable!!

Pros: The price with rebate was great for a card with this level of performance. PowerColor and MSI are the only AMD GPU manufacturers that have honored rebates in the past. I have been stiffed by Sapphire (multiple times), HIS, GeCube, etc., and no longer consider their rebate offers credible.

Cons: LOUD! I think that I may have a defective card. I've tried running this card in 3 different systems, and the result is the same. When the system powers up, the fan builds up speed to what I believe is 100%, and stays there. When the drivers load, the speed does not throttle down. It shows 24% fan speed in CCC, but I don't believe it. I've read many reviews that indicate it should be barely audible at that speed. I've tried to set the speed manually in CCC, and there is no change as well. It sounds like a jet engine, and can be heard clearly from the next room.

Other Thoughts: I'm on the fence whether to RMA it or not. I'm going to stress test it to make sure there aren't any other defects before I make that decision. Sometimes I wonder whether it's worth the savings, whenever you have to RMA something and ship it back. If I paid more and bought locally, I could have easily exchanged it, and be happily gaming by now. I know it was a bargain at the price I paid, but it's a shame that the manufacturers don't have better quality control.

Manufacturer Response:

The card should only boot up to Max fan speed for a second during POST and then throttle back down. The thermostat feature might be defective so i would highly recommend you submit an RMA at www.powercolor.com so that we can replace the card for you under warranty. If you have any other questions feel free to e-mail me at hugo@powercolor.com, thanks.

-Hugo

Pros: Bio flush to 6970 within minutes installed it. Reboot and almost feels guilt like stealing. Support 4 monitors ootb.
Cooler than my old HD4890

Cons: The reference design heat sink has tiny exhaust vent in the back, it gets pretty hot when under load.

Other Thoughts: The 6950 comes with a Mini displayport adapter, but if you want to setup more than 3 monitors, you will need one more. Also bought 2 Accell B101B-003B UltraAV DisplayPort - VGA Adapter. Long story short, hook up to 3 I-Inc 28 inch (1920x1200) and one Acer 24" (1920x1200). All looks flawless. Create One 3x1 group (5760x1200 or less for bezel compensation) play need for speed and bf2 like never before. Here's all I spent for the eyefinity setup:
$259 PowerColor 6950 2Gb.(waiting for $30 rebate which would knock down to 229)
$12.99 B112B-001B
$45.18 2x Accell B101B-003B UltraAV DisplayPort - VGA Adapter
$317.17 Total
I spent hours research for the setup, you DO NOT NEED a usb powered displayport adapter. that Accell B101B-003B is all you need!!!