I apologize if I sound rude, or arrogant, but I would like to start by saying I have an upcoming project and I would like help figuring out my best option(s). I'm going for raw power, and money is not an issue. Thanks ahead for any and all help. I'm going with a water cooled system and considering OC'ing. So far, I haven't been too successful in finding any good enough data on everything I'd like, so let me list you all what I'm considering. Here is a raw list of what I'm considering: ($909) 5970 4gb [512 (256x2 bit); GDDR5; EMem. 1200MHz; 3200(1600x2) SPU's; Core 805MHZ] ($600) 5970 2gb [512 (256x2 bit); GDDR5; EMem. 1000MHz; 3200(1600x2) SPU's; Core 805MHZ] ($209) ---CF ($420) 5850 1gb [256bit; GDDR5; EMem. 1000MHz; 1440 SPU's; Core 725MHz] ($279) --- CF ($560) 5870 2gb [256bit; GDDR5; EMem. 1200MHz; 1600 SPU's; Core 850MHZ] ($379) --- CF ($760) 6970 2gb [256bit; GDDR5; EMem. 1375MHz; 1536 SPU's; Core 880MHz] ($214) --- CF ($428) 6870 1gb [256bit; GDDR5; EMem. 1150MHz; 1120 SPU's;Core 940MHz] As you can see, I have "CF" designating which cards I would crossfire. I know I included the prices, and although I've already stated that money is no issue, I'd still like to be (if at all possible, for the sake of sensibility) frugal when and where I can. My questions: 1) Crossfire or no crossfire? Why? 2) which would be the best "solution" in terms of raw "gaming power": either CF two cards or a single card, dual gpu solution? 3) If I were to go CF, which of these options are most scalable when OC'ing? How far could they be OC'd? 4)From what I can tell, it appears to be that putting two 5870's in CF would be a better course of action than considering the 5970 2gb or even the 4gb. Am I wrong? Why exactly? I know this is all so vague and incredibly broad; and I'm doing what I can to find out everything I need to know for the best available option, but I would really appreciate it if I could get some good input, any input, and information I can. Again, thanks for any and all help. Thanks for taking the time to read this at all, too.
2 x 6970 should do fine. Overclock if needed more performance. However not all games support crossfire, so it might be better idea to get 1 very strong video card. Like upcoming 6990 or 590. If there no pressure on time scale, I'd say sit tight and wait for 6990. Read some reviews and feedback from community on it. If it something that you want, get it. If I am not wrong 6990 is faster than 2x6950 and slower than 2x6970. But would it stop you to do 6990 crossfire (if it possible)? That way, you'll get monster machine and I guess CPU would be bottleneck for ya. If you going for such high-end video cards, I'd suggest to get good CPU also.
The HD 6990 is a dual GPU card, it's just two 6970's on one PCB so it's still Crossfire. Same with the GTX 590 it's running internal SLi. @SeCALPHA1: Get an HD 6970 then see if it's enough for your games, if not get another..
I'm waiting to see what the Bulldozer can offer, but I have my eye on, for now, the i7 2600k. I'm going to push it to 4.7/5GHz OC. 6990 in crossfire.. I don't even know what to say to that, lol. [EDIT] I'm all for performance and power. I want a setup that can push beyond perfect frames without any drawback to the video settings, regardless the game. Everything maxed, 60+FPS. Beast, beast, beast!
The HD 6990 is not 2x 6970's, its closer to two 6950's. Still going to be great though, I have my heart set on this or a GTX590
I'd say go for a single card solution - nVidia though. It'll sound as an advertisement, but if gaming is what you are going to do with the card- go for nVidia. What I like about single card solution is: less noise, less heat, less power consumption (at the end of the month bills come you know ) For now you can buy up to GTX580, but if money is no issue for you, wait for gtx 585/590.
6970 in CFX sounds good ! i have no issues what so ever with my setting and all my games scales good ! One thing ,i had to overclock my cpu to +4ghz to kick off the cpu limitation in crysis and crysis warhead:biggun:
Some games don't support xfire and some have issues with scaling, single gpu is advisable. I would suggest getting one 6970, run some gaming benchmarks, if you want more gpu power, get another 6970.
sorry off topic, so 6990 is crossfire? (I know it's 2 gpus on single card). So if game doesn't support crossfire, it won't support 6990?
I have 5870 as my main and 5970 on the other bus and the reason is simple: My micro x58 mobo, if I install a sound card, the 5870 hdmi b.s. is in the way, no go, cant do it, howeveer on the 5970, I had to use nose pliers to get rid of thoses vent metal pieces so the sound card jacks can go through the vent holes, otherwise its a no go. If I had another mobo, different story but I aint switchin for awhile, if I do, I do 5850 and xfire all of thoses at once. My project is finished for now, but later on, going to quad fire: 5970+5870+5850, this is going to be awesome.
Quad fire kinda of falls flat, doesn't scale very well at all. I've seen some benchmarks that show a lose in fps with quad-fire vs tri-fire.
I have a simple question to help figure out if you should go for dual GPUs. Do you plan on using high levels of anti-aliasing ( such as super sampling ), or plan to play at high resolutions ( such as Eyefinity )? If no, get a single card.
well, theres always the option of 6990+6970 trifire. a bit overkill though. uhh, 5ghz is fine with water. heck, 5ghz is fine on air. the i7 2600k cpus dont heat up very much. mine runs at 4.4ghz and doesnt even go anywhere near 60C, and with only 1.265V as well. this is with an ambient temp of 35C too. there are a few people on these forums that have hit 5.4ghz on watercooling pretty easily, especially with companies like asrock offering bios' that allow for up to 1.7V on the cpu. and last time i checked, LN2 wont work on sandybridge. supposedly theres a cold bug of sorts, although the asus board supposedly has a way to bypass it.