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6970 CF or SSD?

Soulmetzger

Soulmetzger

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 10, 2004
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So last month I invested into buying a second 6970 for crossfinity. I've been really trying to evaluate whether it was worth it since most games don't take advantage of crossfire. In fact alot of games i've been playing get lower frame rate when i have it enabled. I've tried using RadeonPro and updated ATI profiles with little success.

I guess without blabbing on, my question is would it be better to just sell off my second 6970 and get a decent SSD?
 
Dude you broke it. I've had little issue seeing increased framerates with my second HD6950 2GB.
 
ya if your not seeing better performance with our crossfire you got something wrong with drivers or somthing. crossfire works pretty well in most games from the reviews H has done anyways.

SSD is over rated imo

I will grab one when I can get one at $1 a GB or less with a capacity of atleast 160GB.

maybe time for a fresh install with your cards?
 
Maybe I'll try swapping the card slots and see if anything changes. I've uninstalled the drivers and even used a driver cleaner afterwards to make sure all the junk was removed. It shouldn't matter from the research i've done but the second card i bought was the XFX v1.1 reference card that has the newer changes. It doesn't have the bios switch and from what someone else posted a couple other changes.

Maybe something is wrong with one of the cards. I haven't tried each one independently.
 
SSD will give you a very noticeable speed increase in windows, I'd get an ssd first before worrying a 6950 not keeping up with your games by itself.
 
If you are running Eyefinity, I'd try to fix the 6970 problem rather than worry about an SSD. The SSD will have much less impact on gaming performance than a second 6970 at those resolutions.
 
Forceman said:
If you are running Eyefinity, I'd try to fix the 6970 problem rather than worry about an SSD. The SSD will have much less impact on gaming performance than a second 6970 at those resolutions.
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+1. Running Eyefinity, that 2nd 6970 will definitely make a real difference in gaming performance. Now if you're just looking for simpler computing, that is another issue...crossfire and eyefinity unfortunately make you work for that sweet, sweet goodness sometimes.
 
Sounds like i need to be a little more patient with my setup and give it some love.
 
what games your playing? i just got my cf 6950 a few weeks ago and at first i was very unimpressed, then i started messing around whit it and after installing new drivers and using radon pro i grown to like them a lot. the only thing that get me is that any thing under 40ish fps just feels really slow in most games wheres at 40fps on 1 card it felt smooth but over all il rather have cf then just 1 card it may not help whit the fps in some games but in most games it allows you to crank up the settings
 
I love that all the people that are saying SSD's are overrated are the people that don't have one.

Moving from mechanical to solid state was a huge performance jump for me. If you just want higher framerates, go crossfire. If you want better general performance, SSD.
 
TheGamerZ said:
I love that all the people that are saying SSD's are overrated are the people that don't have one.

Moving from mechanical to solid state was a huge performance jump for me. If you just want higher framerates, go crossfire. If you want better general performance, SSD.
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It's limited in scope though. Booting up faster is fantastic, I love it. Opening games somewhat faster (varies) is good. So is faster load times between scenes/maps.

But if you're in a game with few load times, is the $200+ worth it to have the game launch 5 seconds faster? I think so, TBH, but not if it was at the cost of losing a 2nd video card.
 
i cant imagine not having my ssd.

sub 30 second boot ups to desktop with my ssd is amazing. (1+ year old installation of windows)
 
TheGamerZ said:
I love that all the people that are saying SSD's are overrated are the people that don't have one.

Moving from mechanical to solid state was a huge performance jump for me. If you just want higher framerates, go crossfire. If you want better general performance, SSD.
Click to expand...

No, I have one and I agree they are over rated for a gaming rig. A couple fo F3 spinpoints is more than fast enough for a gaming rig. A ssd makes no difference in the vast majority of games.

They are nice but I wouldn't call a ssd a priority in a gaming rig. That said if you can afford 6970 crossfire there is no good reason not to pick up a reasonably priced 64GB ssd.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
No, I have one and I agree they are over rated for a gaming rig. A couple fo F3 spinpoints is more than fast enough for a gaming rig. A ssd makes no difference in the vast majority of games.

They are nice but I wouldn't call a ssd a priority in a gaming rig. That said if you can afford 6970 crossfire there is no good reason not to pick up a reasonably priced 64GB ssd.
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Yes and yes. I've found that my Vertex II, while definitely helping in OS tasks, helped less with games. Bigger games will show more of a difference, but it won't help a lick for FPS, which is what matters.

Bad Company 2 saw a large difference in level load times, while Dragon Age 2 was fast enough that I simply didn't care to move it over.
 
Motley said:
Stroke her gently, whisper sweet nothings. She'll respond to you....
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Or just nuke from orbit. Pre-download all drivers to some form of external storage, and get hacking. A clean install is like a shower after a week of camping- it's like getting a whole new computer.
 
I would much rather go back from my 6950 to a 4870 than go from my SSD to a HDD. Trust me, if you do anything with your computer aside from gaming, the SSD is the much better choice. If the ONLY thing you use it for is gaming, go for the extra card.
 
his complaint was with gaming performance not boot time. So in this case he is better off with his 2nd videocard then with a SSD.
 
Man I run 3 6970s and 3 24" Asus IPS displays. Good gosh man it still feels slow. I need to get a 4th card. Wanna sell your 6970s and buy my 3 cards so I can get 2 6990s lol....

realistically almost every game I play that has some sort of ability to crossfire I get over 150fps and that is in the most demanding titles. For instance Crysis 2 I get oh gosh ...... 187'ish fps average on one display at max settings max res. But when I expand it out to eyefinity I get a craptastic 50-65'ish max. Of course I think they didnt get the eyefinity stuff working in crysis 2 right since it is a junk ass console port.

In games like Portal 2 with 3 cards in eyefinity I was getting about 70'ish fps average and 80s peak. So it works quite well actually.

I think you may have a corrupt driver or something in your OS is not allowing the cards to mesh right with whatver it is that you are doing.
 
psyside said:
PURE BS.
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Why? My computer boots up in less than a minute, so if I did reboot my computer I would save about 30 seconds? Then loading up games takes only a couple of seconds, so maybe I would save a second or two there. Any application I use opens up in less than a second, word, excel, photoshop, outlook etc all fly, where would I gain by sepnding so much on an SSD?

Ok, if you are using your computer for heavy disk intensive stuff then an SSD might be worth it, but they are still much too expensive for general desktop use. Buying a 60GB one and having too constantly worry about space, for me, isn't an option.

For instance, my steam folder is nearly 200GB, my windows, programs and user folders come to another 115GB, so I would need an 120GB SSD for my main drive and a 240GB SSD for my steam drive. And neither of those SSDs when I have them installed and all would make one bit of difference to my gaming experience.. Yet getting another 6970, for less than the price of a decently sized SSD, would make a world of difference to my games.

Sure with an SSD things install quicker and for computers that don't have enough ram or cpu power they make general desktop use a little faster too, but, I think most people would be better spending their money on upgrading their CPU/RAM/GPU first rather than going to the expense of an SSD.

I still say the OP is better keeping the 6970 and getting it working.
 
RadeonPro is a great program once you figure out what settings to use per game.
 
crossfire is a hassle. ssd is not. easy decision for me.

witcher 2 working worse on crossfire is not a fluke, that sort of thing has happened before. either that pisses you off or it doesnt. that should help make your decision.
 
dajet24 said:
his complaint was with gaming performance not boot time. So in this case he is better off with his 2nd videocard then with a SSD.
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Love how people saying that they dont need the fast boot! :D

Who cares about the boot? everything is alot faster on SSD, e v e r y t h i n g , the boot is just a bonus.

P55/i5 based platform, with SSD will rape SB/2600K based without one like np, regarding general performance, you just can't imagine how much your HDD hold you down, its like having Ferrari in a Golf shell.
 
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I got my brothers "old" X25-M for cheap and now I'm going to upgrade to two 6950's. Xfire scaling is better than SLI ATM so you should see some nice fPS boost. The SSD is a good choice. Windows loading in 15 seconds or less? Golden.
 
I think i'll use this long weekend to do a fresh install of Windows 7 and see what happens. Last night when I was messing around in CCC overdrive it shows my second card's clocks then after a second or two goes blank. I know that the card is working in some instances because using Radeon Pro's on screen monitor i see it running.
 
i use a SSD for my os, adobe stuff (flash/photoshop/etc), and my favorite game or two. the computer just feels faster and responds quicker. with larger game (ie., mmorpgs) you'll really see a difference because of how often these games access the hard drive during gameplay.
 
Honestly if funds are no issue i would keep CF and get an SSD. but if you are on limited funds then try and fix the cards first...

Honestly i kinda wish i Had not bought my SSD... Since i only use it to install my games on... yes the performance is better but it does not compair to having more cards...

The only real advantage i see with a SSD(s) is if you can get like 2-4 and do a RAID 0 then performance is out the ass..
 
2nd 6970 all the way, with SSD you barely get any noticeable improvements, unless you restart your computer 50 times a day then you'll save a few mins of loading time.
 
I don't want people to misconstrue what I was asking. I just wanted peoples opinion about whether I should trade my second 6970 in for an SSD since my xfire performance seemed piss poor. I didn't necessarily mean for gaming for either scenario but an overall worth in hardware. After what many have posted here, I see that my setup isn't running as it should and a reformat is needed.

Maybe in the next couple months I can also swing getting a decent SSD but not at the moment. Remodeling our home is eating most extra cash flow.

After I reformat this weekend I'll post my results with xfire.
 
bAMtan2 said:
crossfire is a hassle. ssd is not. easy decision for me.

witcher 2 working worse on crossfire is not a fluke, that sort of thing has happened before. either that pisses you off or it doesnt. that should help make your decision.
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Really? Out of the three SSDs that I have owned two have had some sort of serious firmware issue. One was the stutter on a C300 and the other was the data corruption on an OCZ Vertex. Let me tell you diagnosing a SSD firmware issue can be a nightmare. In both cases I was blaming other hardware at first.


You are right though crossfire does not work 100% of the time and can be a hassle. That is one of the reasons why I would never do crossfire or sli on a lower end or even midrange card.


I agree that a ssd is one of the lowest priority components for a gaming rig but it can make a difference in games that stream data off of the HDD like wow, Oblivion (modded), etc. I would love to try HL2 with the cinematic mod on a ssd.
 
Soulmetzger said:
I don't want people to misconstrue what I was asking. I just wanted peoples opinion about whether I should trade my second 6970 in for an SSD since my xfire performance seemed piss poor. I didn't necessarily mean for gaming for either scenario but an overall worth in hardware. After what many have posted here, I see that my setup isn't running as it should and a reformat is needed.

Maybe in the next couple months I can also swing getting a decent SSD but not at the moment. Remodeling our home is eating most extra cash flow.

After I reformat this weekend I'll post my results with xfire.
Click to expand...

Ah then its harder to make an decision, but i think if your pure gamer, you should keep the 2nd 6970.

dukerjames said:
2nd 6970 all the way, with SSD you barely get any noticeable improvements, unless you restart your computer 50 times a day then you'll save a few mins of loading time.
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:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
Personally an SSD really made my system snappier.
Boot times were killing me as an overclocker.
 
actually you don't need any of these at this moment, just wait for the price to drop for both 6970 and SSD, then you can get them both :D
 
Evil Penguin said:
Personally an SSD really made my system snappier.
Boot times were killing me as an overclocker.
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How many times do you need to overclock???

Once I was able to declare my 2500K stable at 5.0GHz, I didn't really see the need to reboot to boost it any higher, or otherwise change settings...
 
IdiotInCharge said:
How many times do you need to overclock???

Once I was able to declare my 2500K stable at 5.0GHz, I didn't really see the need to reboot to boost it any higher, or otherwise change settings...
Click to expand...

And what if hes aiming for 5.2GHZ? or even higher?
 
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