• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

5870 CF to 6970 CF

O

obliv

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 1, 2009
Messages
383
I have a 5970 OC'd to 5870 clocks 850/1200. On my current setup 24" 1920 x 1200 it performs flawlessly and has no problems playing any game.. Including Crysis.

I am about to screw up this performance though because i will soon be purchasing 3 HP ZR24w's for eyefinity.

What are your thoughts on upgrading to 6970 crossfire? Do you think it is justified? I am thinking about selling my 5970 which would hopefully subsudize the cost of one of those 6970's however i have not been able to find any 5870 crossfire vs 6970 crossfire eyefinity reviews to determine if the upgrade is justifiable.

I have pulled together some review data on those cards at 2560 x 1600 and the performance difference seems to be about 25 - 30 % improvement. Will the extra memory make that a 40 or 50 % improvement when running eyefinity resolutions or not?

Any insight you guys could provide would be very helpful.

Thanks,
 
Just a note, Cypress CF scaling with two cards was closer to 40%, while Cayman is around 80%++

So single card performance improvements are further augmented by Cayman crossfire scaling. Well, rather, how abnormally horrible Cypress scaled in CF compared to past and current AMD Radon cards..
 
jeremyshaw said:
Just a note, Cypress CF scaling with two cards was closer to 40%, while Cayman is around 80%++
Click to expand...

Bull, it's more like 75% versus 95%.

The HD6970 setup will be a fair bit faster, not enormously so, but you'll need the extra video memory for three displays, especially in Crysis.
 
I made the exact upgrade, from 5870CF to 6970CF and I think it was worth every penny. The extra vram alone really improved things but add the additional horsepower of the 6970 and its great. On my 5870s for example, I had to run Bad Company 2 on medium settings HBAO, AA, AF off (resolution 5760x1200). With the 6970s I can run everything high, HBAO on and sit at around 30 FPS, turn off HBAO and the most intense explosions and whatnot dips it into mid-40s. I actually play with all on high, AF 16, AA and HBAO off. I don't know if its me or the game but I notice a little bit of input lag using AA or HBAO though i could run AA x8 and AF x8 and still get reasonable frames.

Bottom line...if you have the money, do it.
 
samuelmorris said:
Bull, it's more like 75% versus 95%.

The HD6970 setup will be a fair bit faster, not enormously so, but you'll need the extra video memory for three displays, especially in Crysis.
Click to expand...

Seriously? My HD5870s in CF (2 way) scaled about... 0% in SC2, and probably less than 40% in Metro2033 and Just Cause 2. Admittedly, I am only at 1080p... However, if you only look at old games and 3dmark, it could be around 75%.
 
USMC, Thanks for the input that's really what i was looking for. Is there any other games that you noticed improvements in?

If i can sell my 5970 to cover most of the cost of one of the cards i really think its a good decision. I am just having trouble justifying 750$ on top of the cost of 3 ZR24w's.
 
jeremyshaw said:
Seriously? My HD5870s in CF (2 way) scaled about... 0% in SC2, and probably less than 40% in Metro2033 and Just Cause 2. Admittedly, I am only at 1080p... However, if you only look at old games and 3dmark, it could be around 75%.
Click to expand...

JC2 has plenty good scaling. SC2 doesn't scale with xfire or sli period regardless of cayman or cypress. I don't recall Metro's scaling, but it certainly wasn't 40%. Just look up some benches online.
 
USMCGrunt said:
I made the exact upgrade, from 5870CF to 6970CF and I think it was worth every penny. The extra vram alone really improved things but add the additional horsepower of the 6970 and its great. On my 5870s for example, I had to run Bad Company 2 on medium settings HBAO, AA, AF off (resolution 5760x1200). With the 6970s I can run everything high, HBAO on and sit at around 30 FPS, turn off HBAO and the most intense explosions and whatnot dips it into mid-40s. I actually play with all on high, AF 16, AA and HBAO off. I don't know if its me or the game but I notice a little bit of input lag using AA or HBAO though i could run AA x8 and AF x8 and still get reasonable frames.

Bottom line...if you have the money, do it.
Click to expand...
I'm doing it in stages. I got one MSI 6970 and will add a second in the spring when I do my next build. I'll list my two 5870s in the FS/FT area in a few days. If I can get enough to at least cover the cost of my first 6970 I'll be pleased.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
I'm doing it in stages. I got one MSI 6970 and will add a second in the spring when I do my next build. I'll list my two 5870s in the FS/FT area in a few days. If I can get enough to at least cover the cost of my first 6970 I'll be pleased.
Click to expand...

Ill buy 1 in less than 9 day's (waiting on taxs lol)
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
JC2 has plenty good scaling. SC2 doesn't scale with xfire or sli period regardless of cayman or cypress. I don't recall Metro's scaling, but it certainly wasn't 40%. Just look up some benches online.
Click to expand...

Ach, I ditched my HD5870 CF on OCN after the 10.8 drivers. Just got sick of it (mostly the noise, partly the drivers, but that's just me).
 
obliv said:
USMC, Thanks for the input that's really what i was looking for. Is there any other games that you noticed improvements in?

If i can sell my 5970 to cover most of the cost of one of the cards i really think its a good decision. I am just having trouble justifying 750$ on top of the cost of 3 ZR24w's.
Click to expand...

Well to be honest, I only play Bad Company 2, a bit of Medal of Honor and Eve Online. Eve takes up just about ALL my game time and its not taxing at all so can't really use that as a comparison and MOH runs at max settings already on the 5870s if i recall...without AA that is. Also have input lag when enabling AA on MOH. I should load up Civ5 and see how it does. I remember it was a bit sluggish all maxed out when i zoomed out real far with my 5870s. If I get a chance ill take a look at that tonight and repost to let you know how it goes. Any games in particular that your wanting to know about?
 
obliv said:
What are your thoughts on upgrading to 6970 crossfire? Do you think it is justified?
Click to expand...
I would definitely do it since you are going eyefinity. 6970's are the best card at high resolutions and 2gb will help.
 
I mainly play FPS games like BC, COD, MOH, CS, TF2, L4D2... ect. However i also play Flight SIMS quite a bit. I.e LOMAC, IL-2, Wings of Prey... Soon to be Cliffs of Dover. And also play RPGs and RTS games occasionally. I have over 100 games in steam so i am sure whatever you would like to provide input on i either have, or play something similar too. :)

Do you play in portrait or landscape?

Thanks again for the input guys.
 
Why do you say wait for the 6990? I am expecting the 6990 to have lower clock speeds like the 5970. which usually means a lower max overclock.
 
The 6990 isn't going to be worth it, ignore it. You'll be better off with 6970 CF as it'll be a lot faster than the HD6990 will be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top