AMD Radeon 6990+6970 CrossFireX / "TriFire" Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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AMD Radeon 6990+6970 CrossFireX / "TriFire" Review - What happens when you take an AMD Radeon HD 6990 and add a Radeon HD 6970 to it for 3-way GPU CrossFireX performance? We compare this configuration directly to GeForce GTX 580 SLI a multi-monitor setup at high resolutions. TriFire in all its Eyefinity glory! Along with one new DX11 game.
 
Is shit like "take a knee again, Nvidia" really necessary? Geez.
 
But nvidia has the fastest video card in the whole world. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Is shit like "take a knee again, Nvidia" really necessary? Geez.
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When they attempt to run the industry by making others take a knee to them, I'd say so. It's also another wake up call that the pricing is very much not inline with the performance given.
 
A very nice article for what one could do IF they had $1000 to spend on GPU's :( I find it amazing how not only can you get 3 GPU's for the price of 2, but power consumption is also virtually the same so long as you leave the bios switch in the default position.

Out of curiosity, I noticed that this was the first time that Civ 5 hasn't been included since it came out and you guys started using it in the testing suite. Does this mean that Civ 5 is no longer going to be used, or was it just dropped due to time constraints this time?

Since it is the only decently system intensive RTS game out there, I was kind of hoping to see how this tri-fire setup would do on it.
 
I am shocked...I really did expect more when flipping the switch to OC mode.

You are right, buy a 6990 and leave the thing stock....those increases really dont do anything.

Great article....Power Usage is mind boggling
 
amdgamer said:
A very nice article for what one could do IF they had $1000 to spend on GPU's :( I find it amazing how not only can you get 3 GPU's for the price of 2, but power consumption is also virtually the same so long as you leave the bios switch in the default position.

Out of curiosity, I noticed that this was the first time that Civ 5 hasn't been included since it came out and you guys started using it in the testing suite. Does this mean that Civ 5 is no longer going to be used, or was it just dropped due to time constraints this time?

Since it is the only decently system intensive RTS game out there, I was kind of hoping to see how this tri-fire setup would do on it.
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I dropped it in this evaluation to make room for Dragon Age 2 and to use games that mattered more with 3-GPUs. I wanted to cover games that benefited more from cranking up in-game settings and AA. Civ 5 is the kind of game where some lower FPS are acceptable, given its turn based nature, and Civ 5 can already be run at maxed out game settings on any of these cards. AA doesn't do as much for that game as it does for some others here we used. I wanted to focus on shader heavy games where image quality matters. If you are spending $1,000 to play Civ 5 you are probably putting your money and effort into the wrong thing IMO. Civ 5 will remain in our regular single GPU video card evaluations weekly, for now, and we are adding Dragon Age 2.
 
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I am so getting another 6950 for unlocked trifire.


Awesome article, these cards where made for eyefinity resolutions, it's a shame most reviewers don't use those res's.
 
Great article. Just to be clear, it is also possible to run 6990 + 6950 (modded to 6970 bios) in triFireX correct?
 
Brent_Justice said:
I dropped it in this evaluation to make room for Dragon Age 2 and to use games that mattered more with 3-GPUs. I wanted to cover games that benefited more from cranking up in-game settings and AA. Civ 5 is the kind of game where some lower FPS are acceptable, given its RTS nature, and Civ 5 can already be run at maxed out game settings on any of these cards. AA doesn't do as much for that game as it does for some others here we used. I wanted to focus on shader heavy games where image quality matters. If you are spending $1,000 to play Civ 5 you are probably putting your money and effort into the wrong thing IMO. Civ 5 will remain in our regular single GPU video card evaluations weekly, for now, and we are adding Dragon Age 2.
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Ahh, thanks for the explanation as you are definately right. I guess that never occurred to me, but it makes sense considering that even my 5850 BE's are already pretty much maxing out Civ 5 anyway. I suppose while a gamer with such a configuation might also play Civ 5, you won't be going out and building a system like this just for Civ 5 in the way many enthusiasts went out and built high end systems just to play Crysis or Crysis Warhead back then.
 
Saturday i bought my first ATI card ever, and it was a 6950 that i was able to unlock to a 6970, i am very very impressed by this card, and i might just buy a 6990 and give the 6950/6970 to the wife :D
 
Wow, just wow. Great review, and I'm simply floored at the performance you're able to get at those resolutions. And here I thought that 24xAA stuff was just a marketing gimmick...it must have looked absolutely incredible in game.

And I would love to see DA2 paused at 5760 res during some of the battles I've had...blood, dirt and bodies flying through the air. It has to be epic.

Hmm. Job interview on Friday with a decent pay bump. Hope I get it, but must resist squandering raise on a 6990 and new monitors....
 
Did I just read that right? CPU limited with an overclocked i7 @ Eyefinity resolutions, scary :eek:. Looks like these cards will need the push of a Bulldozer to get em moving. :D
As always, great review. Thanks.
 
Wow... The thing that really got me was the CPU LIMITED ON A FREAKING 3.6 GHZ i7 with EYEFINITY RESOLUTION!!! Now THAT is something shocking. I guess its getting to be close to time to upgrade that test bench CPU? Absolutely stunning performance. I knew the 69xx tri-fire would be faster before I even started reading the article, but I am totally floored by the magnitude of difference between the setups, and at basically the SAME POWER LEVELS. That right there was pure DOMINATION.
 
Since nVidia gimped PhysX to not run well on CPUs, I guess I'll be staying with AMD for another generation and look at this solution instead of 580s (running a 4870 now).
 
As usual, a very good article from the [H] team. I was surprised that stock tri-fire 6990+6970 has almost the same power consumption as the 580GTX SLI. Although I probably will never own a system like this, it is interesting to see how things scale at the high end of things.
 
Eisenblut said:
Since nVidia gimped PhysX to not run well on CPUs, I guess I'll be staying with AMD for another generation and look at this solution instead of 580s (running a 4870 now).
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Actually, with this tri-fire solution you can still add a 3rd card for dedicated physx and you get the best of both worlds. The only caveat is having a mobo with 3 properly spaced out PCI-e slots.
 
The one thing the article didn't touch on is the main reason I moved from 6000 series Radeon cards back to Nvidia. and that is compatibility. Sure in mainstream titles, it has an edge (and a large one at that), but if you're regularly playing smaller budget titles, betas, etc, Xfire would often breakdown. I think xfire is great for a mainstream gamer. But for enthusiasts, I still recommend going with the green team.
 
Nice article, 3 gpu's has been considered the "sweet spot" for quite some time now, be interesting to see how much extra oomph a pair of 6990's would give over trifire.
 
RED TEAM RED TEAM RED TEAM WOHOOOOO!!!!

now if they would just get the folding code up to speed...sigh
 
Are there any more video features forthcoming? Hasn't been one in a while and i thought they added a lot to the site :(
 
I can't help but wonder what this would have looked like if 3GB versions of the 580 were tested... Hopefully EVGA will come out with their in force pretty soon.

The GTX580 is without doubt the single most powerful GPU, but held back at these resolutions due to its relatively small amount of memory.

I would love to see what the equation looks like with 3GB cards...
 
Incredible to be limited by an OC'd i7. Not much further you can take it. It seems like the next thing holding back gaming will be resolution. We seriously need some 4k monitors to make an appearance.

Great review, AMD is really ruling in performance per dollar and per watt.
 
Zarathustra[H];1037101937 said:
I can't help but wonder what this would have looked like if 3GB versions of the 580 were tested... Hopefully EVGA will come out with their in force pretty soon.

The GTX580 is without doubt the single most powerful GPU, but held back at these resolutions due to its relatively small amount of memory.

I would love to see what the equation looks like with 3GB cards...
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Note our apples to apples tests were not memory capacity constrained, that is why I chose the settings I did for the ap2ap testing, they are low enough that memory capacity is not holding either back on those graphs, so what you are seeing is raw GPU performance vs. raw GPU performance in all the ap2ap graphs.
 
Man I can't wait to just have 2 6970s lol Really want a 6990 but not sure if the 8x pci e would hold it back on my new sandy bridge build with tri fire. Not that I really need it only running 2560x1600.
 
Nice performance for $1000. Xfire scaling is definitely improved over my 5850s

Since it is the only decently system intensive RTS game out there, I was kind of hoping to see how this tri-fire setup would do on it.
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Not an RTS, it's turn based. It would be interesting to see performance on Civ 5, but I think it is more cpu cycle bound.
 
If you're playing smaller budget titles, older games, etc, I doubt you need $1000 worth of GPU. Pretty much only mainstream AAA titles will need this type of horsepower.

But if you really want to have 8000XAA on Oregon Trail, more power too you. ;)
 
anyone know if you can trifire a 6990 + 6950 (modded to 6970 bios)? Cuz that, imho, is the killer deal!
 
sleeper52 said:
anyone know if you can trifire a 6990 + 6950 (modded to 6970 bios)? Cuz that, imho, is the killer deal!
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Yes you can. Don't even need to mod the BIOS. Stock 6950 would work.

I think what this tells us is that 4x6950 unlocked would be the true KING of the $1000 bracket.
 
TwistedAegis said:
If you're playing smaller budget titles, older games, etc, I doubt you need $1000 worth of GPU. Pretty much only mainstream AAA titles will need this type of horsepower.

But if you really want to have 8000XAA on Oregon Trail, more power too you. ;)
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That actually sounds pretty awesome, Oregon Trail on eyefinity 6 ;)
 
I was saying the same thing in here a couple of weeks ago and was flamed soooo badly. But I was right all along.

Great article. For 1000$ against 1000$, 2 cards against 2 cards, 6990+6970 is better then 580 SLI. Simple.

Let's see all who flamed me come here say the same things to Brent. :)
 
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