1 6990 or 2 6970?

If there's any reason why you can't realistically crossfire two 6970s (e.g. case not big enough for the airflow, motherboard doesn't have right slot spacing, not enough PSU connectors), go 6990. Otherwise, get two 6970s. It's a bit cheaper, it's slightly faster, and it's normally quieter.

The HD6990 is designed for two purposes:
1. To offer crossfire in situations where it is normally impossible (e.g. your case or motherboard will only fit one card)
2. To allow tri or quad-crossfire when only using two cards.
 
samuelmorris said:
If there's any reason why you can't realistically crossfire two 6970s (e.g. case not big enough for the airflow, motherboard doesn't have right slot spacing, not enough PSU connectors), go 6990. Otherwise, get two 6970s. It's a bit cheaper, it's slightly faster, and it's normally quieter.

The HD6990 is designed for two purposes:
1. To offer crossfire in situations where it is normally impossible (e.g. your case or motherboard will only fit one card)
2. To allow tri or quad-crossfire when only using two cards.
Click to expand...

Oh.
Thanks for the informative post!

I am going to crossfire 2 HIS 6970s, still teetering the idea of going down to the 6950s though.

Probs going to get 2 of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161382

Teetering the idea of saving a few bucks and getting two of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161372
 
Angelz3 said:
I agree with you, it is just that a 6950 running o'ced to max can equal the STOCK 6970. It seems you could get much more out of 2 6970s than you could with 2 6950s.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

This is not true at all. In some cases the 6950's overclock better than the 6970's I am running my card at stock 6970 speeds and have alot more room to breath the temps did not increase at all. If you want to spend an extra 120 or so dollars then by all means do it. I unlocked 2 MSI twin frozr III PE/OC R6950's and have a ton of room to go on the oc.

Think about it like this. The 6950 is a downclocked 6970 with less shaders. I have had success with 2 of the cards mentioned above. 1 of which was a new stock of the cards at newegg. I.E. I bought 1 and then rma'd it sent it back and new egg went out of stock then a week later they got new stock and i got a card and unlocked it as well.
 
If you were considering getting a 6990 for 700, you can get 3 6950s for 750, which is going to be the winner.
 
Stanfiem said:
This is not true at all. In some cases the 6950's overclock better than the 6970's I am running my card at stock 6970 speeds and have alot more room to breath the temps did not increase at all. If you want to spend an extra 120 or so dollars then by all means do it. I unlocked 2 MSI twin frozr III PE/OC R6950's and have a ton of room to go on the oc.

Think about it like this. The 6950 is a downclocked 6970 with less shaders. I have had success with 2 of the cards mentioned above. 1 of which was a new stock of the cards at newegg. I.E. I bought 1 and then rma'd it sent it back and new egg went out of stock then a week later they got new stock and i got a card and unlocked it as well.
Click to expand...

The price difference is not 120 dollars, and while some 6950s will indeed clock further than 6970s, this is not always the case.
 
From my own experience, I'd say anything other than Sapphire and Asus, which seem to be the two least reliable brands. I personally use XFX and have had good success with them.
 
As the owner of a 4870x2 I will say that I will never again buy a single dual core card. When it's an option go for 2 single core cards.
 
samuelmorris said:
Why's this?
Click to expand...

There has been great reviews about this product and also my card now is an msi gtx 460 which runs cool and quiet.

First, the overclock software from msi is exceptional and easy to use.
Second, two 6950s will be only slightly less powerful than two 6970s and they are much less in price.
Lastly, I chose the newest version of MSI's cooling system called the Twin Frozr III so the card will run cool n' quiet and last a long time.

If anyone has anything to add, please do.
 
I was responding to xxEIEIOxx's post about dual GPU cards supposedly being bad. I had two 4870X2s and apart from being very noisy, they were excellent.
 
Indeed, it's more likely to be a spaceheater with WC as the heat will be dissipated more effectively into the room...
 
samuelmorris said:
Why's this?
Click to expand...

Because for 2009 and 2010 about half of the drivers were seriously broken. The second core would either always run at 3D clocks or it never would. It is a solid piece of hardware but the drivers ruined it for me. This isn't a crap on ATi drivers, I've been running them for 13 years and they blew it with this card. At this point it mostly runs like it should have then, but now it is an old outdated card that sucks a lot of power. :(
 
Cypress likes to write vec4s whereas Slimer really hates it, with the tables being reversed if one writes a scalar 32-bit value. This is one of the easier-to-spot gotchas, of course, but there are many more waiting in the shadows, seeking to nom the daring developer that wants to take up GPU compute.
Two architectures. One hates one method where the other card loves it. Theres no way to write to both. Unfortunately Amd have to pull the short end of the stick everytime
 
xxEIEIOxx said:
Because for 2009 and 2010 about half of the drivers were seriously broken. The second core would either always run at 3D clocks or it never would. It is a solid piece of hardware but the drivers ruined it for me. This isn't a crap on ATi drivers, I've been running them for 13 years and they blew it with this card. At this point it mostly runs like it should have then, but now it is an old outdated card that sucks a lot of power. :(
Click to expand...

There was a pretty easy workaround for that...
 
Idk if I should post or not... this thread has suddenly gone way out of my league.
I'll just leave the developer/coding talk for those who actually understand it.

Anyway, I have made my purchase from newegg.
Here it is:

2nn18m.png


My complete computer has costed me in total ~$1800 USD.
Here are the specs not in the purchase above:
i7 2600k (~$280), PCP&C 950W power supply (~$150), Crucial 64gb SSD M4 (~$115), Acer 23" LED monitor (~$150), Crucial 8gb 1600 ram (~$53), Gigabyte 1155 z68 motherboard (was ~$160, got it discounted down to ~$90 huge savings!), and CoolerMaster V8 CPU Cooler (~$55).

I know most of you don't care, but I put up my purchases for those who were curious.
 
samuelmorris said:
There was a pretty easy workaround for that...
Click to expand...

Maybe you're more forgiving than me but for $500 there shouldn't have to be a workaround for it. It should have been fixed in the next driver after it was reported. But enough about that. Still trying to decide what its eventual replacement will be.
 
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